Abstract
Managing a large and complex network is currently tedious and error-prone: administrators log in via lengthy authentication processes; look up and access a diversity of network devices, services, tools and other entities with differing communication protocols; issue relatively obscure, device-specific commands; etc. These problems of network management become especially manifest while troubleshooting critical issues under time constraints. This disclosure describes a fast, simple, and unified approach to network management via a chat interface. At the back end of the chat interface is a bot that is in communication with a variety of network entities in their native protocols. The bot receives aliased, nearly natural-language commands from the administrator via the chat interface, acts on such commands by communicating with relevant network entities, and returns responses via the chat interface. Per the disclosed techniques, the network can be managed over simple, widely available interfaces such as chat over mobile device, and without lengthy or complicated procedures.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
n/a, "Rapid troubleshooting and management of a network using a chatbot", Technical Disclosure Commons, (November 25, 2019)
https://www.tdcommons.org/dpubs_series/2716