RESTful SNMP Proxy Data Services API

RESEARCH PROBLEM This paper is concerned with building a secure SNMP [1] proxy data service that is easily accessible via a RESTful [2] (Representational State Transfer)[3] interface over the Internet and allows historical retrieval of Management Information Base (MIB) data[4]. RESEARCH QUESTIONS How can we build applications that trivially and securely access current and historical SNMP Management Information from the Internet? How can we make SNMP data readily available to different access mediums like mobile, and web mashups? OBJECTIVES Architect an SNMP proxy forwarder service that is able to accept requests via REST interface and respond with results either in JSON [5] or XML [6] format depending on the response representation scheme requested by the consumer of the service. Add simple but secure authentication and authorisation to the data service that can be easily integrated with web and standalone applications. Add support for querying the SNMP Management Information Base (MIB) [7] history via the REST interface. SIGNIFICANCE Timely network management and monitoring is one of the requirements to predict and respond to network-attached device state changes. To be able to manage and monitor devices we need to transform raw data about the network into meaning full form which is visually easy to capture and respond to. SNMP is one of the protocols that defines a structure and identification of management information of network-attached devices. The current way of accessing SNMP data is non-trivial when it comes to building various applications e.g. mashups over the internet. This has made widespread adoption of SNMP low to new inexperienced network administrators and developers. The high complexity and learning curve of configuring and developing SNMP managers to administer and monitor devices using the Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN) [8], calls for the need to re-architect a solution that flexibly integrates with the current trends of consuming data services, and easy to learn. This is a quantitative research. PRIOR RESEARCH In March 2010, Ahmad K.A Hamid published a paper Web Cache Design for Efficient SNMP Monitoring Towards Realizing Globalization of Network Management [1] Where he proposes REST as the option of extending SNMP management and monitoring over the Internet. The REST style suggested in the research doesnt really reduce on the complexity of having to deal with ASN and Object Identifiers. This is the same approach suggested by Jeong-Hyuk Yoon in Development of SNMP-XML translator and gateway for XML-based integrated network management which doesnt conform to the constraints of REST. Ahmad doesnt suggest a security solution to protect access to the REST interface whereas Jeong-Hyuk suggests having to pass the username and password as part of the request which poses security risks. My security suggestion prevents the password from having to be passed for authentication. Both papers dont cater for historical MIB values which are very important in analysing the current state of some of the performance metrics. This paper also puts the provision for the client consuming the service to specify which kind of output it expects from the request. This gives developers and users the option to choose the more acquainted output, XML or JSON. METHODOLOGY Its a 3 component system comprising of the:- SNMP Manager that polls the SNMP agents and keeps the MIB information in a data store. - Data store. This stores the MIB information. The information stored corresponding to each SNMP OID MUST have a created time stamp. Changes to an OID requires to insert a new record not update a current one. To avoid accrual of a big data store, there should be a setting to limit the maximum history MIB data can be kept. - The web server that handles REST requests and responds with output format corresponding to the accept header received from the client. The default being XML.

REFERENCES
[1] [2] Simple Network Management Protocol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Network_Management_Protocol Steve Vinoski, S. 2008. RPC and REST: Dilemma, Disruption, and Displacement. IEEE Internet Computing 12, 5 (Sep. 2008), 92-95. DOI= http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MIC.2008.109. Ahmad Kamil Abdul Hamid. 2010. Web Cache Design for Efficient SNMP Monitoring Towards Realizing Globalization of Network Management. IEEE Conference on Computer Communications Workshops 19 March 2010, DOI= http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/INFCOMW.2010.5466641. Yoon, J., Ju, H., and Hong, J. W. 2003. Development of SNMP-XML translator and gateway for XML-based integrated network management. Int. J. Netw. Manag. 13, 4 (Jul. 2003), 259-276. DOI= http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/nem.478. JavaScript Object Notation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON Extensible Markup Language http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML Management Information Base http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_Information_Base Abstract Syntax Notation One http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Syntax_Notation_One

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