CoSc 3063-System and Network

Administration
Chapter 3: Network Management

Computer science 3rd Year, 1st Sem.

Fitsum Gizachew (BSc students_2014)
 Topics to be covered
3.1. Overview of NW Manegment
3.2. TCP/IP Networking Basics
 Network Management

• Network management is the process of controlling a

complex data network to maximize its efficiency and
productivity
• The overall goal of network management is to help with
the complexity of a data network and to ensure that data
can go across it with maximum efficiency and
transparency to the users

H-3
 Network Management…

• The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Network

Management Forum divided network management into five
functional areas:
• Fault Management
• Configuration Management
• Security Management
• Performance Management
• Accounting Management

H-4
 Fault Management

• Is the process of locating problems, or faults, on the data

network
• Fault management involves a five-step process:
1. Fault detection,
2. Fault location,
3. Restoration of service,
4. Identification of root cause of the problem, and
5. Problem resolution.

H-5
 Configuration Management

• The configuration of certain network devices controls the

behavior of the data network
• Configuration management is the process of finding and
setting up (configuring) these critical devices

H-6
 Security Management

• Is the process of controlling access to information on the

data network
• Provides a way to monitor access points and records
information on a periodic basis
• Provides audit trails and sounds alarms for security
breaches

H-7
 Performance Management

• Involves measuring the performance of the network

hardware, software, and media
• Examples of measured activities are:
– Overall throughput
– Percentage utilization
– Error rates
– Response time

H-8
 Accounting Management

• Involves tracking individual’s utilization and grouping of

network resources to ensure that users have sufficient
resources
• Involves granting or removing permission for access to
the network

H-9
 3.2. TCP/IP Networking Basics
• TCP/IP is not actually a single protocol, but a set of protocols that operate at
different levels. The levels involved in TCP/IP do not exactly match those of the
OSI reference model. Instead of seven layers, TCP/IP specifies only four:
– Network interface layer
– Internet layer
– Transport layer
– Application layer
• Each of these layers corresponds to one or more layers of the OSI reference
model. The table below shows the correspondence between OSI layers and
TCP/IP layers. OSI Layers TCP/IP Layers
Application Application
Presentation Application
Session Application
Transport Transport
Network Internet
Data-link Network interface
Physical Network interface
 Overview of TCP/IP
• As was stated above, TCP/IP consists of a number of different protocols that perform a variety of
functions and operate at a number of different levels. An overview of the protocols included in
TCP/IP is shown below. OSI Layer TCP/IP Protocols

7=Application Telnet DHCP

6=Presentation FTP SNMP
5=Session SMTP DNS
4=Transport TCP UDP
3=Network IP ARP RARP
2=Datalink Hardware oriented
1=Physical Hardware oriented

• One of the most important protocols in the TCP/IP suite is the IP protocol. This is used at the
Internet layer of TCP/IP (i.e. the Network layer in the OSI model) and is used to attach network
addresses to packets. The IP protocol provides best effort delivery between network stations.
• IP routes packets on the network by using IP addresses. An IP address consists of 4 numbers
between 0 and 255 separated by dots. For example, 146.23.0.194 is a valid IP address. When you
surf the Internet and type a URL into your browser (e.g. www.yahoo.com) you are actually using IP
addresses. Every Internet domain such as Yahoo or Google has at least one IP address on the
Internet.
 UDP and TCP

• UDP (User Datagram Protocol) and TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) are both higher-level
protocols than IP (they operate at level 4 of the OSI model), and provide the communication link
between the application program and IP.

• TCP provides connection-oriented transmission through the use of predefined ports.

– A port is simply a number that identifies the communicating application on each computer. Applications using TCP
will acknowledge received packets, and if a sent packet is not acknowledged it will be resent. Therefore TCP
provides completely reliable delivery. The Telnet and FTP applications both use TCP.

• UDP provides connectionless transmission.

– There is no acknowledgement of received packets so UDP uses best effort delivery. Because of the lack of
acknowledgement packets there are fewer overheads in UDP compared to TCP, so communication is more efficient,
but less reliable. The DHCP and DNS protocols use UDP.
 ARP and RARP
• Every network device (e.g. NIC, router, bridge, etc.) has a unique hardware address. This
address is known as the MAC (media access control) address.
• MAC addresses are different to IP addresses: they are a 48-bit binary code and they never
change – they are permanently assigned to the device at manufacturing time.
• IP addresses, on the other hand, are assigned by software and so they can change during
the lifetime of a device. In low-level protocols, all addressing is performed using MAC
addresses.
• ARP stands for the address resolution protocol.
– It operates at the Network layer of OSI, and the Internet layer of TCP/IP.
– ARP is responsible for translating from IP addresses to MAC addresses.
• RARP stands for the reverse address resolution protocol, and is responsible for translating
from MAC addresses to IP addresses.
– Because of the service provided by ARP and RARP, all protocols above them in the OSI model are able to use
IP addresses only when referring to network devices.
 ICMP

• ICMP is the Internet Message Control Protocol. ICMP is

used to transmit status and error messages between
network stations. For example, whenever you type a URL
into Internet Explorer and you get the message “Page
cannot be displayed”, it is an ICMP packet that is
responsible.
 DHCP
• Every computer on a network must have a unique address.
• This address is attached to any packets of data that are intended for transmission to the computer.
• If the network is using the TCP/IP protocol, these addresses will be IP addresses (i.e. they will consist
of 4 numbers between 0 and 255 separated by dots).
• If two computers have the same address it causes an address conflict, and network problems will
result.
• There are two ways of ensuring that all computers have unique addresses: static IP addressing and
dynamic IP addressing.
– In static IP addressing each computer is assigned a unique address by the network administrator. It will keep
this address until the network administrator assigns a different one. It is the administrator’s responsibility to
ensure that the same address is not assigned twice.
– In dynamic IP addressing the assignment of addresses is handled automatically by a program running on the
server. This program is responsible for ensuring that every computer has a unique address. Addresses are
leased to clients for a limited period of time, after which the client must request a new lease.
 Why is DHCP Important?
• Important when it comes to adding a machine to a network
• When computer requests an address, the administrator would have to
manually configure the machine
 Mistakes are easily made
 Causes difficulty for both administrator as well as neighbors on the network
• DHCP solves all the hassle of manually adding a machine to a network
 How does DHCP work?
• When a client needs to start up TCP/IP operations, it broadcasts a request for
address information

• The DHCP server will not reallocate the address during the lease period and will
attempt to return the same address every time the client requests an address

• The client can extend its lease or send a message to the server before the lease
expires it that it no longer needs the address so it can be released and assigned
to another client on the network
 Limitations

• Some machines on your network need to be at fixed addresses,

for example servers and routers.
• You need to be able to assign a machine to run the DHCP server
continually as it must be available at all times when clients need
IP access.
 Advantages of DHCP Disadvantages of DHCP
• DHCP minimizes the administrative
burden • When DHCP server is
• By using DHCP there is no chance to unavailable, client is unable
conflict IP address to access enterprises
• By using DHCP relay agent you network
provide IP address to another network
• Your machine name does not
• DHCP servers are easy to administer
change when you get a
and can be set-up in just a few
minutes new IP address
• Client addresses are assigned
automatically
 DNS

• DNS stands for the Domain Name Service. Although high-level protocols in TCP/IP
use IP addresses to communicate, it is easier for people using the computers to
identify them by names, such as COM1 and COMSERVER. These names are
known as host names.
• DNS is the protocol used to obtain host name to IP address translation information
between computers on the network. Typically every network will have at least one
DNS server. Clients needing to know translations will contact the DNS server using
the DNS protocol to obtain the required information. On a local network, the host
name can just be a single word, for example COM1 or COMSERVER. On the
Internet the name will consist of a sequence of words separated by dots, for
example www.yahoo.com or www.bbc.co.uk.
 Lab works 3

– Configuring a Linux Box for Networking/DHCP

– Configuring a Linux as a Router
– Configuring a Web Server (Apache)
– Configuring a DNS Server (BIND)
– Configuring Mail Transfer Agents (Post Fix)