Network Management

Overview
 Table of Contents
• Today’s Networks
• Network Management Requirements
• Network Management Systems
• NMS Software Architecture
• Distributed Network Management
• Proxy Agent
• Standard Management Frameworks

Network Management Overview 2

Requirements and Systems
 Today’s Networks
Local, Long-distance,
Oversea Phone service
World-Wide Web 080, 070, collect-call
Email, DNS, FTP third-party IN service
News, Telnet, IRC cellular, C2, PCS, TRS
RealAudio, RealVideo
MBone
FDDI SDH Access
Token ATM Networks PCS
Ring
Fast WANs SS#7 PSDN
PSTN
Ethernet Gigabit
Ethernet Ethernet ISDN
B-ISDN IN/AIN

Computer Networks Telecom Networks

Video Conferencing
Electronic Commerce
Internet Phone Video-on-Demand
Banking, Accounting Tele-conferencing
Distance Learning Video-conferencing
Internet Telephony
Network Management Overview 3
Requirements and Systems
 NM Users’ Requirements
• Controlling corporate strategic assets
– effective control of network & computing resources
• Controlling complexity
– continued growth of devices, users, applications & protocols
• Improving service
– users expect better service with increased resources
• Balancing various needs
– must assign and control resources to balance various needs
• Reducing downtime
– more users and applications depend on availability
• Controlling costs
– effective resource utilization in order to control costs
Network Management Overview 4
Requirements and Systems
 NM Functional Requirements
• Fault Management
– detection, isolation and correction of abnormal operations
• Configuration Management
– identify managed resources and their connectivity, discovery
• Accounting Management
– keep track of usage for charging
• Performance Management
– monitor and evaluate the behavior of managed resources
• Security Management
– allow only authorized access and control

FCAPS
Network Management Overview 5
Requirements and Systems
 Fault Management
• concerned with:
– providing a reliable networking environment
– ensuring that the systems as a whole, and each essential
component individually, are in proper working order
– redundant components and routes can be used to increase
fault tolerance

• when a fault occurs, the manager should be able to:

– determine exactly where the fault (i.e., abnormal condition) is
– isolate the rest of the network from failure
– reconfigure or modify the network for continued operation
– repair or replace the failed components to restore the network

Network Management Overview 6

Requirements and Systems
 Configuration Management
• concerned with:
– initializing a network & shutting down part or all of the network
– maintaining, adding and updating the relationships among
components
– monitoring the status of components during network operation

• the network manager should be able to:

– startup and shutdown operations on a network
– identify the components that comprise the network (discovery)
– change the connectivity of the components (possibly as a result
of network upgrade, fault recovery or security checks)
– detect changes in the network configuration

Network Management Overview 7

Requirements and Systems
 Accounting Management
• concerned with:
– keeping track of the usage of network resources
– charging the use of network resources
– monitoring the end-user activities for possible abuse, for
suggesting better usage to users and for network planning

• the manager should be able to:

– specify the kinds of accounting information to be recorded at
various nodes
– specify the algorithms to be used in calculating the charging
– generate accounting reports

Network Management Overview 8

Requirements and Systems
 Performance Management
• concerned with:
– providing an efficient communication environment
– monitoring and analyzing the performance of the components
– making proper adjustments to improve network performance

• the manager should be able to:

– determine the capacity utilization, throughput, the average and
worst-case response times
– monitor and gather data on the activities of components
– analyze the gathered data and assess performance levels
– determine the sources of performance problems & fix them
– use the performance stats for future network planning

Network Management Overview 9

Requirements and Systems
 Security Management
• concerned with:
– providing a secure networking environment
– preventing hacking, illegal and unauthorized access
– managing information protection and access-control facilities

• the manager should be able to:

– generate, distribute and store encryption keys
– maintain and distribute passwords and other authorization or
access-control information
– monitor and control access to networks
– collect, store and examine audit records and security logs
– enable & disable the logging facilities

Network Management Overview 10

Requirements and Systems
 Network Management Systems
• A network management system (NMS) is a collection of
tools for network monitoring and control
• based on the manager-agent paradigm
– the manager sends mgmt requests to one or more agents
– an agent performs the requested operation and returns results
– when agents detect faults,they report to the manager
• NMS typically provides a GUI through which most or all
management tasks can be performed
• Many commercial and freely available NMSs exist:
– HP OpenView, IBM NetView, Sun Net Manager, etc.
– research prototypes from CMU, MIT, UC Davis, U. of Twente

Network Management Overview 11

Requirements and Systems
 Management Platform

Collect, organize & interpret

Administrator
Operational Data
Workstation

mgmt requests/replies

event reports
Agent Agent
Agent Agent
Agent Agent Agent

Observation
& Control

Network Management Overview 12

Requirements and Systems
 Elements of an NMS
Network control Server
host (manager) (agent)

NMA NME Appl

NME Appl Comm

Comm OS
OS
Router
(agent)
Workstation
(agent) Networks NME
Comm
NME Appl
OS
Comm NMA = network management application
NME = network management entity
OS
Appl = application
Comm = communications software
OS = operating system 13
Network Management Overview
Requirements and Systems
 Network Management Entity
(NME)
• NME is a collection of software devoted to the network
management tasks
• is typically known as an “management agent”
• Each NME performs the following tasks
– collects statistics on communications and network-related
activities
– stores statistics locally
– responds to commands from the network manager, including
commands to:
• transmit collected stats to network manager
• change an attribute value
• provide status information
• generate artificial traffic to perform a test
• etc.
Network Management Overview 14
Requirements and Systems
Network Mgmt Application (NMA)
• NMA is a collection of software for performing network
monitoring and control
• is typically known as “network manager”
• NMA provides an operator interface to allow an
authorized user to manage the network
• NMA responds to user commands by displaying
information and/or issuing commands to NMEs
• Standard protocols (e.g., SNMP, CMIP) are used to
manage a multi-vendor network
• there may be more than one NMA in a large network
which can lead to the need of a hierarchy of managers
(e.g., top level manager, middle level managers, etc.)
Network Management Overview 15
Requirements and Systems
 NM Software Architecture
• User Presentation Software
– interfaces between user and NM software
– a unified user interface desirable
– includes graphical tools to display summarized NM information
• Network Management Software
– a set of NM applications (configuration, performance, etc.)
– a set of application elements (alarm handling, logging, etc.)
– NM data transport service
• Communication and Database Support Software
– local Management Information Base (MIB) access module
– communications protocol stack (e.g., TCP/IP, OSI) to interact
with remote agents and managers

Network Management Overview 16

Requirements and Systems
 Architectural Model of NMS
Unified user interface

Presentation of network management information to users

Network management Network management

application ... application

application element application element ... application element

Network management data transport service

MIB access Communication

module protocol stack

Management Managed networks

Information
Base 17
Network Management Overview
Requirements and Systems
Distributed Network Management
• Resources to be managed are widely distributed
– widespread use of departmental LANs
– need for local control & optimization of distributed applications
• Hierarchical NM architecture desirable
– distributed NMSs are given limited access for network
monitoring and control of departmental resources
– top-level NMS has a global access rights and the ability to
manage all network resources
• Benefits of Distributed NM
– NM traffic overhead is minimized - traffic is localized
– Dist. mgmt offers greater scalability
– use of multiple NMSs eliminates the single point of failure

Network Management Overview 18

Requirements and Systems
 Typical Dist. Mgmt System
Architecture
Management clients (PCs, workstations)

Network

Management server Management server

Managemen Managemen
MIB MIB
t t
application application

Network

Element Element
manager manager

Network resources (servers, routers, hosts) with management agents

Network Management Overview 19
Requirements and Systems
 Proxy Agents
• Managed resources may have various mgmt interfaces
– some with different mgmt protocols (e.g., OSI vs. SNMP, XML
vs. SNMP)
– some with proprietary mgmt interfaces (e.g., older systems)
– small systems not capable of possessing NME (e.g., modems)

• Proxy agents are used to manage these devices

– managers use standard protocols to communicate with proxies
– proxy agents use proprietary protocols to communicate with
proprietary devices
– proxy agents perform translations between managers and
proprietary devices
– an agent to the manager and a manager to proprietary devices
Network Management Overview 20
Requirements and Systems
 Proxy Agent Architecture

Management Proprietary management

Proxy Agent
application interface

Client Client proxy Server proxy

Server stub
stub stub stub

Protocol Protocol Protocol

Protocol stack
stack stack stack

Standard operations Proprietary operations

and event reports and event reports
Network Management Overview 21
Requirements and Systems
 Standard Management
Frameworks
• Internet Network Management Framework (IETF)
– SNMPv1 (Internet Full Standard)
– SNMPv2 (Internet Full Standard)
– SNMPv3 (Internet Proposed Standard)

• OSI Network Management Framework (ISO/ITU-T)

– CMIP (X.700 Series)

• Telecommunication Management Network (ITU-T)

– TMN (M.3000 Series)

• Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF)

– DMI, CIM, WBEM
Network Management Overview 22
Requirements and Systems
 Summary
• Network Management Requirements
– Users’ Requirements
– Functional Requirements (FCAPS)
• Network Management Systems
– Network Management Entity (NME)
– Network Management Application (NMA)
• NMS Software Architecture
• Distributed Network Management
• Proxy Agent
• Standard Management Frameworks

• READ Chapter 1 of Stallings

Network Management Overview 23
Requirements and Systems