Network configuration predictive analytics engine

Abstract

A mechanism associated with a network management system (NMS) interprets and predicts the impact on a network of a network configuration change proactively. By providing pre-configuration analysis in this manner, a network administrator can determine the potential effect of the proposed configuration change in advance of actually inserting a configuration command in the network that might otherwise have unforeseen and damaging consequences. The technique is implemented using a predictive analytics engine that receives a proposed network command and, using a current network topology, executes the command against one or more NMS algorithms to verify that the command can be implemented safely.

1 . A method of network management, comprising:
 receiving data from one or more network devices in a network being managed;   using the data to generate and store, in a data store, a representation of a topology of at least a portion of the network;   receiving a command, the command having been generated in response to an occurrence in the network; and   analyzing the command against the topology to determine an expected effect of executing the command in the network;   wherein the analyzing step is carried out at least in part in a hardware element.   
     
     
         2 . The method as described in  claim 1  further including repeating the receiving data step so as to maintain current the representation of the topology. 
     
     
         3 . The method as described in  claim 1  wherein the data is received in response to a command line interface query to the one or more network devices. 
     
     
         4 . The method as described in  claim 1  wherein the command is a network configuration command that is generated in response to an alarm in the network. 
     
     
         5 . The method as described in  claim 1  wherein the analyzing step is carried out against an algorithm selected from a set of algorithms associated with network management system (NMS) functions. 
     
     
         6 . The method as described in  claim 1  further including generating an alarm if the expected effect is a subsequent incident. 
     
     
         7 . The method as described in  claim 1  further including passing the command to the network if the expected effect is that the command will execute successfully.