Network Management

"Network management includes the deployment, integration and coordination of the hardware, software, and human elements to monitor, test, poll, configure, analyze, evaluate, and control the network and element resources to meet the real-time, operational performance, and Quality of Service requirements at a reasonable cost."

Network Management Requirements

Example of approach
Controlling strategic assets Controlling complexity Improving service Balancing various needs: performance, availability, security, cost Reducing downtime Controlling costs

Network Management
OSI functional areas Fault management
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, .

Network Management
OSI functional classification
Performance management:
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?

Indicators: availability, response time, accuracy

service

throughput, utilization
efficiency

Network Management
OSI functional classification
Configuration and Name Management:
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

Network Management
OSI functional classification
Configuration and Name Management:
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

Network Management
OSI functional classification
Security management
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

Network Management
OSI functional classification
Accounting management
Identifying consumers and suppliers of network resources users and groups Mapping network resources consumption to customer identity Billing

Network Management
Some ideas
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

Network Management
Standards
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

Infrastructure for network management

definitions:
managing entity
managing entity

data

managed devices contain managed device managed objects whose

agent data managed device agent data

agent data

network management protocol

agent data managed device

Management Information Base (MIB)

data is gathered into a

managed device

Network Management standards

OSI CMIP Common Management Information Protocol designed 1980s: the unifying net management standard too slowly standardized SNMP: Simple Network Management Protocol Internet roots (SGMP) started simple deployed, adopted rapidly growth: size, complexity currently: SNMP V3 de facto network management standard

SNMP overview: 4 key parts

Management information base (MIB):
distributed information store of network management data

Structure of Management Information (SMI):

data definition language for MIB objects

SNMP protocol
convey manager<->managed object info, commands

security, administration capabilities

major addition in SNMPv3

SNMP MIB
MIB module specified via SMI MODULE-IDENTITY (100 standardized MIBs, more vendor-specific)
MODULE

OBJECT TYPE:

OBJECT TYPE: OBJECT TYPE:

objects specified via SMI OBJECT-TYPE construct

OSI Object Identifier Tree

SNMP protocol
Two ways to convey MIB info, commands:
managing entity managing entity

request response
agent data Managed device

trap msg

agent data Managed device

request/response mode

trap mode

SNMP protocol: message types

Message type Function Mgr-to-agent: get me data (instance,next in list, block) Mgr-to-Mgr: heres MIB value Mgr-to-agent: set MIB value Agent-to-mgr: value, response to Request Agent-to-mgr: inform manager of exceptional event

GetRequest GetNextRequest GetBulkRequest

InformRequest SetRequest Response Trap

SNMP protocol: message formats

SNMP security and administration

encryption: DES-encrypt SNMP message authentication: compute, send MIC(m,k): compute hash (MIC) over message (m), secret shared key (k) protection against playback: use nonce view-based access control
SNMP entity maintains database of access rights, policies for various users database itself accessible as managed object!