The illustrative embodiment of the present invention relates generally to a physical device having virtual elements and more particularly to an embedded management system for managing the physical device and the virtual elements within the physical device.
This approach requires separate network devices 12A, 12B and 12C for each of the logical groups 14A, 14B and 14C. These network devices 12A, 12B and 12C can be quite costly and can present various configuration challenges, especially if they are distinct types of devices.
One possible solution to this problem is virtualization. Virtualization allows a single physical device to be logically partitioned so as to function as if it were multiple devices. Virtualization allows partitioning of a device's resources but also presents management challenges. One such management challenge is to present a management view that is akin to that used for managing an independent physical device. In other words, the challenge is to present to the network management user a management view so that the user experiences each virtual element as if it were a physical device and also present a non-virtualized system view for the administrator/owner of the physical device
The illustrative embodiment of the present invention provides a management facility that facilitates the presentation of either a virtual element view or system view to a network management user depending upon the user's access rights. The user interface presented is modified based on the scope and type of access rights of the network management user. The scope and type of access privileges afforded to the user of the virtualized system is defined by a profile object which indicates the scope and type of user access. A profile object is associated with the user during log-in. Each virtualized element in the physical device is uniquely distinguishable by an identifier. The management information associated with a virtual element is indicated by its virtual element identifier. An environment object is created for each user at login to store the profile object and the virtual element identifier. The virtual element identifier indicates the type and scope of the user access privileges necessary to manage the associated virtual element. Requests by a user to access management information associated with a virtual element are analyzed to determine if the access privileges specified in the user profile enable the user to access the virtual element and if so to perform the type of operation requested.
In one embodiment, a physical device apparatus in a network includes multiple virtual elements configured on the physical device. Each collection of management information is associated with a virtual element. The collection of management information includes an access scope indicating a required user access level needed to access the information. The physical device apparatus also includes at least one environment object associated with a user interfaced with the device. The environment object includes a collection of user profile information and the identifier of the virtual element the user is authorized to access. The physical device apparatus further includes a management facility that controls the access of a user to a collection of management information associated with one of the virtual elements.
In another embodiment in a network, a method of controlling access to a plurality of virtual elements includes the step of providing a physical device with multiple virtual elements configured thereon. Each collection of management information is associated with a virtual element. The collection of management information includes an access scope indicating a required user access level needed to access the information. The method further includes instantiating an environment object associated with a user interfaced with the device. The environment object includes a collection of user profile information associated with the user and the identifier of the virtual switch for which the user is authorized. The method also requests access for a user to a collection of the management information for a virtual element and determines whether to grant the request based on the user profile information and the collection of management information.
The illustrative embodiment of present invention provides a management facility for managing a physical device that is partitioned into multiple virtual elements. Each virtual element represents a logical partition of the resources of the physical device and, in general, operates as if it were a distinct physical device. The management facility provides management of resources on a system-wide basis as well as management on a per virtual element basis. Management information for each virtual element is tagged with an identifier that associates the management information with the virtual element. The management facility provides scoping to appropriately limit the scope of management information that may be accessed by a user. Thus, for example, a user that should only have access to management information for a specific virtual element is only permitted access to the management information for the specified virtual element. In contrast, a user that has system-wide privileges is permitted to access all of the management information, including both management information for the virtual elements and management information for the system. An interface is presented to the user that is scoped based on access rights and retains the look and feel of conventional interfaces to physical devices.
In the illustrated embodiment, the management information is also accessible via SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol). Thus, the management information may be described in Management Information Bases (MIBs). The management information is organized into a group of scalar and table objects. The MIBs may be created automatically, partially or wholly, from the application data and commands that are stored in a predefined configuration file format (as will be described in more detail below). In one embodiment, the application data and commands are stored in an XML (Extensible Markup Language) format that is transformed into MIBs. The application data and commands may also be transformed to generate documentation, such as documentation for Command Line Interface (CLI) commands. Still further, the application data commands may be transformed into a Simple Management Framework (SMF) text file or other proprietary or well-known formats that may be used by management applications.
The illustrative embodiment of the present invention employs a number of profiles that define access privileges (i.e. read-only, read-write, no access privileges, or a combination thereof) for users and the scopes to which users are limited (i.e. limits to a particular virtual element or to the entire system). Each user has an associated profile stored in an environment object. A number of different profiles may be provided by the management facility, and the profiles are dynamic in that they may be modified, added (i.e. new profiles defined), or deleted. The identity of the virtual element that the user wishes to access is also stored in the environment object.
It should be appreciated that the virtual elements may take many forms. For example the virtual elements may be virtual switches that are partitions of a physical switch or a server whose resources are partitioned into multiple virtual servers. In addition, the virtual elements may be virtual routers as opposed to virtual switches. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention is not limited to virtual elements that are either virtual switches or virtual routers; rather the present invention may be practiced with other varieties of virtual elements that constitute logical partitions of the resources of a physical device.
When a user seeks to access management information 52 via one of these interfaces 54, 56 and 58, the management facility 50 must determine whether the user is permitted the requested access. The management facility 50 maintains an environment object 60 (depicted in
As was mentioned above, user profiles identify the type of access that is permitted to the user and the scope of access that is permitted to a user. The following table identifies an example of some of the user profiles and associated access rights and scopes that are associated with the user profile.
It should be appreciated that the user profiles are extensible and modifiable. New user profiles may be created and user profiles may be deleted. In addition, user profiles may be modified as needed. Thus, the user profiles are dynamic.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the use of the environment object is not necessary to practice the present invention. In alternative implementations, the profile information and identity of the virtual elements that the user seeks to access may be stored separately and in different formats. The environment object constitutes only an exemplary implementation.
The management facility 50 also provides some additional help when the user interface 54 or 56 advertises/indicates actions that are consistent with the scope of the granted user access. The management facility 50 only displays options on the UI that are consistent with the type of access and the scope of access for which the user is authorized.
Although the examples contained herein have discussed the use of the management facility in contact with a plurality of virtual elements, it should be understood that the illustrative embodiment of the present invention might also be applied to other forms of virtualization for electronic devices. The illustrated embodiment of the present invention may be extended to include any virtual software entity created on a physical device that needs to be contacted through a management system.
The illustrative embodiment of the present invention provides the capability of taking management data in a specified file format and transforming it to generate MIBS.
The data commands in the file holding the management data may also be transformed to generate an SMF text file (step 108). The SMF text file created in step 108 then may be passed through a code generator to generate source code in C++ or another language (Step 110). This source code fills in data structures for use in the management facility 50. In particular, it fills in values that are used by the CLI, the web interface and the XML interface. This enables the values to be put in a form that can be used by the programmatic and presentation interfaces.
The management data and commands may also be used to generate documentation for the CLI commands and to generally provide online help (Step 112).
Since certain changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings be interpreted as illustrative and not in a literal sense. Practitioners of the art will realize that the system configurations depicted and described herein are examples of multiple possible system configurations that fall within the scope of the current invention. Likewise, the sequences of steps discussed herein are examples and not the exclusive sequence of steps possible within the scope of the present invention.
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