User manual

US 8,510,424 B2
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equipped with an output that is connected to cause an inter
rupt signal to the network appliance being controlled. The
network manager is able to test which network appliance is
actually responding before any cycling of the power to the
corresponding appliance is tried.
Certain embodiments may provide a system and method
that can help an operator avoid the mistake of turning on or off
the wrong network appliance in a busy equipment rack at a
remote site.
Certain embodiments may provide a system and method
for power supply status and control.
Certain embodiments may provide a system and method
that can allow a network console operator to investigate the
functionality of the electrical power status when a router or
other network device has been detected as failing.
Certain embodiments may provide a system and method
for reducing the need for enterprise network operators to
dispatch third party maintenance vendors to remote equip
ment rooms and POP locations simply to power-cycle failed
network appliances.
Certain embodiments may provide a system and method
for reducing the time it takes to restore a failed network
appliance and improving service levels.
Certain embodiments may provide a system and method
for reducing organization losses from network downtime.
These and many other objects and advantages of the
present invention will no doubt become apparent to those of
ordinary skill in the art after having read the following
detailed description of the preferred embodiments which are
illustrated in the various drawing ?gures.
IN THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a ?rst power man
ager system embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a second power
manager system embodiment of the present invention; and
FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of a third power
manager system embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED
EMBODIMENTS
FIG. 1 represents a power manager system embodiment of
the present invention, and is referred to herein by the general
reference numeral 100. A network management system
(NMS) 102 is connected by a network 104 to a remote site
106. A power controller 108 forwards operating power
through a sensor 110 and relay-switch 112 to a computer
based appliance 114. Such operating power can be the tradi
tional llOVAC or 220VAC power familiar to consumers, or
direct current (DC) battery power familiar to telephone cen
tral-of?ce “plant” employees. A network interface controller
(NIC) 116 may be used to connect the computer-based appli
ance 114 to the network 104. This would be especially true in
the computer-based appliance 114 were a server, router,
bridge, etc.
The problem to be solved by the power manager system
100 is the maintenance of the operating health of the com
puter-based appliance 114. Such computer-based appliance
114 is prone to freeZing or crashing where it is effectively
dead and unresponsive. It is also in some mission-critical
assignment that suffers during such down time. It is therefore
the role and purpose of the power manager 100 to monitor the
power and environmental operating conditions in which the
computer-based appliance 114 operates, and to afford man
agement personnel the ability to turn the computer-based
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appliance 114 on and off. Such allows a power-on rebooting
of software in the computer-based appliance 114 to be forced
remotely from the NMS 102. The operating conditions and
environment are preferably reported to the NMS 102 on
request and when alarms occur.
The power controller 108 further includes a network inter
face controller (N IC) 118 connected to a security ?rewall 120.
If the network 104 is the Internet, or otherwise insecure, it is
important to provide protection of a network agent 122 from
accidental and/or malicious attacks that could disrupt the
operation or control of the computer-based appliance 114.
The network agent 122 interfaces to a remote power manager
124, and it converts software commands communicated in the
form of TCP/IP datapackets 126 into signals the remote
power manager can use. For example, messages can be sent
from the NMS 102 that will cause the remote power manager
124 to operate the relay-switch 112. In reverse, voltage, cur
rent, and temperature readings collected by the sensor 1 1 0 are
collected by the remote power manager 124 and encoded by
the network agent 122 into appropriate datapackets 126.
Locally, a keyboard 128 can be used to select a variety of
readouts on a display 130, and also to control the relay-switch
112.
The NMS 102 typically comprises a network interface
controller (NIC) 132 connected to a computer platform and
its operating system 134. Such operating system can include
Microsoft WINDOWS-NT, or any other similar commercial
product. This preferably supports or includes a Telnet appli
cation 136, a network browser 138, and/or a SNMP applica
tion 140 with an appropriate MIB 142. A terminal emulation
program or user terminal 144 is provided so a user can man
age the system 100 from a single console.
If the computer-based appliance 114 is a conventional
piece of network equipment, e.g., as supplied by Cisco Sys
tems (San Jose, Calif.), there will usually be a great deal of
pre-existing SNMP management software already installed,
e.g., in NMS 102 and especially in the form of SNMP 140. In
such case it is preferable many times to communicate with the
network agent 122 using SNMP protocols and procedures.
Alternatively, the Telnet application 136 can be used to con
trol the remote site 106.
An ordinary browser application 138 can be implemented
with MSN Explorer, Microsoft Internet Explorer, or Netscape
NAVIGATOR or COMMUNICATOR. The network agent
122 preferably includes the ability to send http-messages to
the NMS 102 in datapackets 126. In essence, the network
agent 122 would include an embedded website that exists at
the IP-address of the remote site 106. An exemplary embodi
ment of a similar technology is represented by the MASTER
SWITCH-PLUS marketed by American Power Conversion
(West Kingston, RI).
FIG. 2 represents another power manager system embodi
ment of the present invention, and is referred to herein by the
general reference numeral 200. A network management sys
tem (NMS) 202 like that in FIG. 1 is connected by a network
204 to an equipment rack 206. For example, such rack is an
industry standard 84" tall 19" wide RETMA rack located at a
modem farm or a telco of?ce. A typical rack 206 houses a
number of network routers, switches, access servers, bridges,
gateways, VPN devices, etc., that all receive their operating
power from the modem farm or telco of?ce. Internet Service
Providers (ISP’ s), telecommunication carriers, and other net
work service providers have installed thousands of such sites
around the world. In one example, the telco operating power
comes from a —48V DC battery supply, and so the use of
uninterruptable power supplies (U PS) that operate on and
supply AC power would make no sense. A major supplier of