Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
DETAILED ACTION
The amendment filed 04/28/2026 has been entered. Claims 2-4, 7-12, and 15-21 are pending. Claims 2, 10, and 18 have been amended. No new claim is added. Claims 5-6, and 13-14 are cancelled. The 112 rejection is withdrawn.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 2-4, 7-12, and 15-21 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 2-4, 7-12, and 15-21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 20170093754) hereinafter Zhang in view of Suresh et al (US 10243919) hereinafter Suresh and Byrnes (US 20080052758) hereinafter Byrnes and further in view of Smith et al. (US 20080098458) hereinafter Smith.
Regarding claim 2, Zhang teaches a method comprising: performing one or more of creating, reading, updating, and deleting ("CRUDing") a network device configuration of a network device (i.e. a set of APIs for creating, reading, updating, and deleting for network devices configuration, [0060]); detecting the CRUDing (i.e. identifying the requested actions for each device and service (e.g., create, read, update, delete actions collectively referred herein as device and service configuration). The command handler sends the required device and service configurations 1074 to the device and service configuration component, [0079]); in response to detecting the CRUDing, triggering a network device configuration propagation process (i.e. The device and service configuration component creates commands to configure the devices to create, read, update, or delete different devices and services. Task scheduler schedules different tasks (such as configuration commands) that are required to be performed in order to create, read, update, or delete different devices or services as well as registering for event notifications, [0081]).
However, Zhang does not explicitly disclose wherein the network device configuration propagation process includes: incorporating network device configuration data into a Domain Name System (DNS) record; providing the DNS record to a DNS service.
However, Suresh teaches wherein the network device configuration propagation process includes (i.e. periodically retrieving configuration information for devices, the rule-based DNS resolution system may communicate with a hosting system for the devices to obtain notifications on changes to the configuration of those device (referred to herein as “configuration events” or simply “events”). Illustratively, as changes to the configuration of devices within a hosting system occur, the hosting system may notify the rule-based DNS resolution system of those events. The rule-based DNS resolution system may then determine any changes appropriate to the DNS records based on the event, based on rules corresponding to the device whose configuration has changed, Col. 6, lines 1-12): incorporating network device configuration data into a Domain Name System (DNS) record (i.e. the rule-based DNS resolution system uses the retrieved configuration information to refresh DNS records. The rule-based DNS resolution system may identify, from the configuration information, all servers associated with the specified service image, and generate DNS records associating network addresses of the servers, col. 14, lines 11-34 and modification of DNS records may include generation of new DNS records, addition of network address information of a server to DNS records, removal of network address information of a server to DNS records, or deletion of DNS records, col. 17, lines 3-7); providing the DNS record to a DNS service (i.e. DNS resolvers configured to receive requests (e.g., from client devices 102) for DNS records corresponding to an identifier (e.g., domain name, URI, etc.) and return relevant records to a requesting device. These records may be stored within a DNS record data store 136, and may generally include a mapping of a domain name or other identifier to one or more corresponding network addresses or other identifying information of a network endpoint corresponding to the domain name, col. 8, lines 58-67).
Based on Zhang in view of Suresh, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of Suresh to the system of Zhang in order to facilitate communications between computing devices.
However, Zhang in view of Suresh do not explicitly disclose propagating, in response to providing the DNS record to the DNS service, policy agnostic network device configuration within DNS zones.
However, Byrnes teaches propagating, in response to providing the DNS record to the DNS service, policy agnostic network device configuration within DNS zones (i.e. information that enables decision making about traffic originating from and or destined to a specific location in the network can be propagated as Multi-Host A (address mapping) records in private DNS Zones, a DNS zone database is made up of a collection of resource records. Each resource record specifies information about a particular object. For example, address mapping A (Multi-Host A) records maps a host name to an IP address, [0029], uploading current configuration and having the lists such as a White list is a list of IP addresses and domains of trusted e-mail addresses and domains that are always allowed to send email, no matter what the content is, [0030], and the information is used to determine the lists of domain names to block and or allow without implementing the policy on each individual network device, [0031]).
Based on Zhang in view of Suresh and further in view of Byrnes, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of Byrnes to the system of Zhang and Suresh in order to improve the effectiveness of security solutions such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems, (Byrnes, [0005]).
However, Zhang in view of Suresh and further in view of Byrnes do not explicitly disclose triggering, in response to the CRUDing resulting in no net delta, one or more additional processes, wherein the one or more additional processes include a security process.
However, Smith teaches triggering, in response to the CRUDing resulting in no net delta, one or more additional processes (i.e. If the respective network device determines that a VPN configuration, or reconfiguration, is not required, device configuration process 400 proceeds to 422. Reconfiguration is not required, for example, when a member is deleted from the VPN. Referring to FIG. 2, if network device 118b is deleted, the remaining network devices 118a and 118c-118d will retain their existing local network addresses. In other words, to conserve computing resources and speed of the system or method as a whole, these network devices will not be renumbered to account for the elimination of the second network device. Also, the numerical identifier associated with the deleted network device 118b will not be made available to future VPN members, thereby eliminating any confusion regarding the identity of future VPN members, [0069]), wherein the one or more additional processes include a security process (i.e. the network device configuration transfer tool receives, decrypts, and decodes the respective VPN configuration file, and writes the received data to the designated storage areas, [0072]).
Based on Zhang in view of Suresh and Byrnes and further in view of Smith, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of Byrnes to the system of Zhang and Suresh in order to provide an adequate amount of security, (Smith, [0006]).
Regarding claim 3, Zhang teaches the network device is configured by a system operator or an automated process (i.e. A network administrator uses a network controller in the cluster 205 to create, configure, update, delete, or monitor different logical device in the hosts and devices 211-215, [0040]).
Regarding claim 4, Zhang does not explicitly disclose the system operator or automated process is associated with a customer of the DNS service.
However, Suresh teaches the system operator or automated process is associated with a customer of the DNS service (i.e. the rule-based DNS resolution system 130 described herein can enable client devices 102, associated with servers 112 on the hosting system 110, to specify rules by which DNS records can be automatically created, maintained, or destroyed, based on a configuration of the servers 112. Specifically, the rule-based DNS resolution system 130 can include a user interface 136 through which users of the DNS service may specify rules for managing DNS records of servers, Col. 9, lines 41-19) and current DNS records and the new set of DNS records do not match, the rule-based DNS system 130 may take corrective action, such as notifying an administrator (e.g., a client device 102) of the error, or replacing current DNS records with the new set of DNS records, col. 18, lines 2-7). Therefore, the limitations of claim 4 are rejected in the analysis of claim 1 above, and the claim is rejected on that basis.
Regarding claim 7, Zhang teaches the detecting the CRUDing is one or more of implementation-specific and configuration-specific (i.e. The command handler also sends the requested device and services configurations to the device and service configuration component to create commands to configure the devices and services specified by the network controller cluster, [0044]).
Regarding claim 8, Zhang teaches the detecting the CRUDing is based on one or more of detecting an instruction for performing the CRUDing (i.e. The control interfaces are uses to send commands from the virtual controller cluster 205 to the agent 490 on each host to create, read, update, and delete different logical device and logical services according to each device or service schema, [0059]), detecting a datastore access, and identifying a delta in a current datastore relative to a prior datastore. Since the claim says one or more of the lists, only one limitation is considered.
Regarding claim 9, Zhang in view of Suresh do not explicitly disclose the DNS zones are provided by the DNS service.
However, Byrnes teaches the DNS zones are provided by the DNS service (i.e. in DNS Zones the DNS data is divided into manageable sets of data called zones where the zones contain name and IP address information about one or more parts of a DNS domain. A DNS zone database is made up of a collection of resource records. Each resource record specifies information about a particular object. For example, address mapping A (Multi-Host A) records maps a host name to an IP address, [0029]). Therefore, the limitations of claim 9 are rejected in the analysis of claim 1 above, and the claim is rejected on that basis.
Regarding claims 10-12 and 15-21, the limitations of claims 10-12 and 15-21 are like the limitations of claims 1-4 and 7-9. Zhang Further teaches a system comprising: one or more processors; and memory storing instructions (i.e. Electronic system 1400 includes a bus 1405, processing unit(s) 1410, a system memory 1420, a read-only memory (ROM) 1430, a permanent storage device 1435, input devices 1440, and output devices 1445, [0104]); a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions (i.e. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program, claim 9). Therefore, the limitations of claims 10-12 and 15-21 are rejected in the analysis of claims 1-4 and 7-9 above, and the claims are rejected on that basis.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AYELE F WOLDEMARIAM whose telephone number is (571)270-5196. The examiner can normally be reached M_F 8:30AM-5:00PM.
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/AW/
AYELE F. WOLDEMARIAM
Examiner
Art Unit 2447
8/27/2026
/SURAJ M JOSHI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2447
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