Apparatus for visual navigation of large, complex out-of-band and in-band network management and access entities

Abstract

Organizing collected information about the configuration of a network to present in a graphical form relevant to management of the network. The presenting is with a presentation module configured to set spatial and dynamic attributes of a display of entities of the network based on the organized, collected information and to provide visualization in the display in accordance with the spatial and dynamic attributes.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary block diagram of a data visualization framework used to provide a conceptual separation between the underlying data and the operations that can be performed upon them;

FIG. 2 is an exemplary flow chart of the network management visualization process in accordance with the invention.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary schematic tree representing visualization key elements and uses of a command center database pertaining to a visualization component in a graphical user interface;

FIG. 4 is an exemplary schematic representation of an initial command center client view in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 5 is an exemplary schematic representation of user groups and policy view for visualization of complex relationships between related network entities in an information technology service management architecture of the invention;

FIG. 6 is an exemplary user centric view of a command center database visualization component;

FIG. 7 is an exemplary schematic representation of a topological view user-to- port in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 8 depicts exemplary progressive views showing movement of entities when a cursor focus changes.

Claims

1. An apparatus to display network management and access entities, comprising, a presentation module configured to set spatial attributes of a display of entities, which are associated with retrieved data elements, to set dynamic attributes of the display of entities including their positioned behavior relative to each other based on an amount of data being displayed, and to provide visualization in the display in accordance with the set spatial attributes and set dynamic attributes.

2. An apparatus of claim 1, wherein the presentation module is configured to add or delete appliances, device ports, user and user-groups to or from the display of entities.

3. An apparatus of claim 1, wherein the presentation module is configured to configure the entities in the display to adjust themselves as a cursor focus changes to reveal higher details of the adjusted entities.

4. An apparatus of claim 1, wherein the higher details include information indicative of status, user access, and duration of a user session.

5. A system for visualizing entities interconnected through networks, comprising: a first component for collecting data about the entities;a second component which receives the data from the first component and organizes the data using at least spatial and dynamic attributes; anda third component for rendering visualized data and receiving user input

6. The system of claim 5, wherein spatial attributes include at least color, shape, spatial distance, temporal distance and combinations thereof.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein dynamic attributes include at least one of a positional behavior based on quantity of displayed data, access pathways, user access restrictions, incident relations and combinations thereof.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the second component determines an access pathway amongst specific entities in response to an event.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the event is generated by an incident in the network or amongst the entities.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the entities include at least users, targets, appliances and a network management system.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein users, targets and appliances are grouped in accordance with specified parameters.

12. The system of claim 5, wherein the second component handles at least one of adds or deletes appliances, device ports, user and user-groups to or from the display of entities; requests for different visualizations; and status updates.

13. The system of claim 5, wherein the second component automatically adjusts the data in the display as a cursor focus changes to reveal higher details of the data representing the entities.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the higher details include information indicative of status, user access, and duration of a user session.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein data is collected from at least one of a entities databases, network management system, forensics database, user inputs and combinations thereof.

16. A visual navigating interface for visualizing networked entities, comprising: a database mediator for retrieving data relative to the entities from at least one source;a presentation layer for creating visualized data with respect to spatial and dynamic attributes; anda graphical user interface (GUI) control component to present visualized data and manage user input.

17. The interface of claim 16, wherein the mediator has a client side database and a server side database.

18. The interface of claim 16, wherein the spatial attributes include at least color, shape, spatial distance, temporal distance and combinations thereof; andthe dynamic attributes include at least one of a positional behavior based on quantity of displayed data, access pathways, user access restrictions, incident relations and combinations thereof.

19. The interface of claim 16, wherein the presentation layer determines an access pathway amongst specific entities in response to an event, wherein the event is generated by an incident in the network or amongst the entities or is a user generated event.

20. The interface of claim 18, wherein the entities include at least users, targets, appliances and a network management system and are grouped in accordance with specified parameters.

21. The interface of claim 20, wherein the presentation layer handles user requests from the GUI control component to add entities, delete entities, generate different visualizations, and update visualization status.

22. The interface of claim 18, wherein the presentation layer automatically adjusts the data in the display as a cursor focus changes to reveal higher details of the data representing the entities.

23. The interface of claim 18, wherein data is collected from at least one of a entities databases, network management system, forensics database, user inputs and combinations thereof.

24. A method for visualizing entities interconnected through networks, comprising: retrieving data relative to the entities from at least one source;generating visualized data with respect to spatial and dynamic attributes; andrendering the visualized data.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the step of receiving obtains the data from at least one of a entities databases, network management system, forensics database, user inputs and combinations thereof.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the spatial attributes include at least color, shape, spatial distance, temporal distance and combinations thereof; andthe dynamic attributes include at least one of a positional behavior based on quantity of displayed data, access pathways, user access restrictions, incident relations and combinations thereof.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the step of generating includes the step of determining an access pathway amongst specific entities in response to an event, wherein the event is generated by an incident in the network or amongst the entities or is a user generated event.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the entities include at least users, targets, appliances and a network management system and are grouped in accordance with specified parameters.

28. The method of claim 27 of claim 20, wherein the step of generating includes at least one step of adding entities, deleting entities, generating different visualizations, and updating visualization status.

29. The method of claim 26, further including the step of automatically adjusting the data in the display as a cursor focus changes to reveal higher details of the data representing the entities.