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• 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
 Controlling strategic assets
Examplecomplexity
Controlling of approach
•
Improving
•
service
•
 Balancing various needs: performance, availability,
•
security, cost Reducing downtime
•
 Controlling
• costs
• 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
• Is the process of locating problems, or faults, on the data
network
• It involves the following steps:
– Detect the fault
– Determine exactly where the fault is
– Isolate the rest of the network from the failure so that it can
continue to function
– Reconfigure or modify the network in such a way as to minimize
the impact
– Repair or replace the failed components

– Tests: connectivity, data integrity, response-time, ….

• 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
• Involves following steps:
– Installation of new hardware/software
– Tracking changes in control configuration
– Who, what and why? - network topology
– Revert/undo changes
– Change management
– Configuration audit
– Does it do what was intended
• 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
• Several security measures are provided:
– Security services: generating, distributing, storing of encryption
keys for services
– Exception alarm generation, detection of problems
– Uniform access control to resources
– Backups, data security
– Security logging
• Involves measuring the performance of the network
hardware, software, and media
• Examples of measured activities are:
– What is the level of capacity utilization?
– Is there excessive traffic?
– Has throughput been reduced to unacceptable levels?
– Are there bottlenecks?
– Is response time increasing?
– What is the error rates?
– Indicators: availability, response time, accuracy service
throughput, utilization efficiency
• 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
• Identifying consumers and suppliers of network resources -
users and groups
• Mapping network resources consumption to customer
identity
• Billing
• A simple protocol defines common data formats and
parameters and allows for easy retrieval of information
• A complex protocol adds some change capability and
security
• An advanced protocol remotely executes network
management tasks, is independent of the network
protocol layer
• Managed objects: functions provided by the network
• Element Management Systems (EMS): managing a
specific portion of the network (may manage async lines,
multiplexers, routers)
• Managers of Manager Systems (MoM): integrate
together information from several EMS
• Internet approach: Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP,
secure SNMP, SNMP v2)
• OSI approach: CMIP - common management information protocol,
CMIS - common management information service (user interface)

We concentrate on SNMP
• The world of Microsoft PC software:
Windows NT + several (or hundreds) of PCs with Windows 95 (98??)

• Solution: Microsoft SMS software:

full control over workstations (Windows95) from central NT server
software configuration, updates, full inventory

• NT world - incorporates SNMP mechanisms

• So where is technology today?
– The most common protocols are:
• SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol)
• SNMPv2 (SNMP version 2)
• CMIS/CMIP (Common Management Information
Services/Common Management Information Protocol)
• SNMP is beyond the simple protocol with adequate
monitoring capabilities and some change
capabilities
• SNMPv2 greatly enhances the SNMP feature set
• CMIS/CMIP approaches the advanced tool, but
implementation issues have limited its use
• At the end of the 80’s, a solution was chosen called
the Internet-standard Network Management
Framework.
• This was a set of three documents defining:
– A set of rules for describing management information
– An initial set of managed objects
– A protocol used to exchange management information
• Comprised of agents and managers
•Agent - process running on each managed node collecting
information about the device it is running on.

•Manager - process running on a management workstation that

requests information about devices on the network.
• The SNMP protocol was a mere 36 pages within
these documents
• The framework could be extended by defining new
managed objects, but changes to the description
rules or the protocol weren’t allowed.
• Today, there are literally hundreds of SNMP-
capable products and thousands of managed object
definitions.
• The work on SNMP security was completed in
early 1992
• The security features introduced authentication,
authorization, and privacy
• Unfortunately, this required a changed in the
SNMP protocol which became SNMPv2
• A group was formed and their efforts were
complete in early 1993
• There are 12 documents describing SNMPv2
• There are 3 basic commands that are used with
SNMP:
– Get
– Set
– Get Next
• Authorization and authentication relies on a SNMP
community string
• The community string(s) can be read-only or read-
write
• The default community strings are:
– public (read-only)
– private (read-write)
• Community strings are case sensitive
• Standardized
• universally supported
• extendible
• portable
• allows distributed management access
• lightweight protocol
• There are two approaches for the management
system to obtain information from SNMP
– Traps
– Polling
•Traps are unrequested event reports that are sent to a
management system by an SNMP agent process
•When a trappable event occurs, a trap message is generated
by the agent and is sent to a trap destination (a specific,
configured network address)
•Many events can be configured to signal a trap, like a
network cable fault, failing NIC or Hard Drive, a “General
Protection Fault”, or a power supply failure
•Traps can also be throttled -- You can limit the number of
traps sent per second from the agent
•Traps have a priority associated with them -- Critical, Major,
Minor, Warning, Marginal, Informational, Normal, Unknown
•Traps are received by a management application.
•Management applications can handle the trap in a few ways:
•Poll the agent that sent the trap for more information about the event, and
the status of the rest of the machine.
•Log the reception of the trap.
•Completely ignore the trap.

•Management applications can be set up to send off an e-

mail, call a voice mail and leave a message, or send an alpha-
numeric page to the network administrator’s pager that says:
Your PDC just Blue-Screened at 03:46AM. Have a nice day. :)
• When an event happens on a network device a trap
is sent to the network management system
• A trap will contain:
– Network device name
– Time the event happened
– Type of event
• Resources are required on the network device to
generate a trap
• When a lot of events occur,the network bandwidth
may be tied up with traps
– Thresholds can be used to help
• Because the network device has a limited view, it
is possible the management system has already
received the information and the trap is redundant
• The network management system periodically
queries the network device for information
• The advantage is the network management system
is in control and knows the “big picture”
• The disadvantage is the amount of delay from
when an event occurs to when it’s noticed
– Short interval, network bandwidth is wasted
– Long interval, response to events is too slow
• When an event occurs, the network device
generates a simple trap
• The management system then polls the network
device to get the necessary information
• The management system also does low frequency
polling as a backup to the trap
• Management Information Base (MIB) is a
collection of related managed objects
• Used to define what information you can get back
from the network device
• There are standard and enterprise specific MIBS
• Types of MIB Modules
– Standard: These are the standard MIBS currently
designed to capture the core aspects of the particular
technology
– Experimental: Temporary and if achieves
standardization then it is placed in the standard module
– Enterprise-specific: Vendor specific MIBS that provide
additional management capabilities for those features
that require it
• A MIB compiler
• A MIB browser
• A MIB alias tool
• A MIB query tool
• The OSI framework is an object-oriented paradigm
– Objects have attributes, generate events, and perform
actions
– Objects are scoped by numerous hierarchies for the
purpose of inheritance or containment
• Although the OSI model “sounds neat”, it is much
more complicated and is not very common
• These protocols do not state how to accomplish the
goals of network management
• They give methods to monitor and configure
network devices
• The challenge to analyze the information in an
effective manner rests with software engineers who
write network management applications
• Historically, network management revolved around
multiple systems, each managing one specific set
of components on the data network
• Restrictions of money, physical space, and
technical expertise led to the desire to have the
components managed by a single system that
would show their interconnections on a network
map
• A network management platform is a software
package that provides the basic functionality of
network management for different network
components
• The goal for the platform is to provide generic
functionality for managing a variety of network
devices
• Basic features for any platform to include are:
– Graphical User Interface (GUI)
– Network Map
– Database Management System (DBMS)
– Standard Method to Query Devices
– Customizable Menu System
– Event Log
• Additional features for a platform include:
– Graphing Tools
– Application Programming Interface (API)
– System Security
• Management Platforms that exist today
– Sun’s SunNet Manager
– HP’s OpenView
– IBM’s Netview for AIX
– Cabletron’s Spectrum
• The Network Management Platform can use
various architectures to provide functionality
• The 3 most common are:
– Centralized
– Hierarchical
– Distributed
• The Network Management Platform resides on a
single computer system
• For full redundancy, the computer system is
backed up by another system
• Can allow access and forward events to other
consoles on network
• Used for:
– All network alerts & events
– All network information
– Access all management applications
• Pros:
– Single location to view events & alerts
– Single place to access network management applications
and information
– Security is easier to maintain
• Cons:
– Single system is not redundant or fault tolerant
– As network elements are added, may be difficult or
expensive to scale system to handle load
– Having to query all devices from a single location
• Uses multiple computer systems
– One system acting as the central server
– Other systems working as clients
• Central server requires backups for redundancy
• Key features:
– Not dependent on a single system
– Distribution of network management tasks
– Network monitoring distributed throughout network
– Centralized information storage
• Pros:
– Multiple systems to manage the network
• Cons:
– Information gathering is more difficult and time
consuming
– The list of managed devices managed by each client
needs to be predetermined and manually configured
• Combines the centralized and hierarchical
architectures
• Uses multiple peer network management systems
– Each peer can have a complete database
– Each peer can perform various tasks and report back to a
central system
• Contains advantages from central & hierarchical
architectures
– Single location for all network information, alerts &
events
– Single location to access all management applications
– Not dependent on a single system
– Distribution of network management tasks
– Distribution of network monitoring throughout the
network
• Goals
– Effectively manage a specific set of devices
– Avoid functionality overlap with the platform
– Integrate with a platform through the API and menu
system
– Reside on multiple platforms
• Applications do not share information
• Applications that exist today
– BayNetworks’ Optivity
– Cisco’s CiscoWorks
– 3Com’s Transcend
• Built from two major components: the Platform
and Applications
• A practical approach follows these steps:
– Perform device inventory
– Prioritize the functional areas of network management
– Survey network management applications
– Choose the network management platform
• Sniffers
• RMON
• Network Statistics
• Baseline
• Trouble shooting
• Capacity planning for the future
• Reports