MANAGING THE NETWORK

Management architectures and standards;

• Performance management,

• spectrum management,
• fault management,
• disaster management,

After implementation, it is important to ensure that the network design specifications are met.
The corporation’s network management personnel monitor and manage the performance of the
network. Network management includes the following functions:

• Managing configuration changes to the network

• Identifying network faults

• Monitoring performance levels

• Providing security and accounting management for individual and group usage of
the network

Typical network management architecture consists of the following elements:

Network Management System (NMS) - A system that uses an application to monitor and control
managed network devices, such as CiscoWorks.

NB: It is made up of four main elements:

1. Management Station or Manager.

2. Agent.
3. Management Information Base.
4. Network Management Protocol.

Network Management Protocol - A protocol that facilitates the exchange of information between
network devices and the NMS, such as the Simple Network Management Protocol version 3
(SNMPv3)
Managed Devices - Network devices that are managed by an NMS, such as a router or switch

Management Agents - Software on managed devices that collect and store network management
information

Management Information - Data collected by the NMS

In terms of the network management model, a network management station (NMS) is one that
executes network management applications (NMAs) that monitor and control network elements
(NE) such as hosts, gateways and terminal servers. These network elements use a management
agent (MA) to perform the network management functions requested by the network
management stations. The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is used to
communicate management information between the network management stations and the agents
in the network elements.

A NMS provides FCAPS functionality for the whole network. FCAPS: Fault, Configuration,
Accounting, Performance, Security, as categories defined by the ISO model.

FCAPS is the ISO Telecommunications Management Network model and framework for
network management. FCAPS is an acronym for fault, configuration, accounting, performance,
security - the management categories into which the ISO model defines network management
tasks.

The comprehensive management of an organization's information technology (IT) infrastructure

is a fundamental requirement. Employees and customers rely on IT services where availability
and performance are mandated, and problems can be quickly identified and resolved.

Fault management

A fault is an event that has a negative significance. The goal of fault management is to recognize,
isolate, correct and log faults that occur in the network. Furthermore, it uses trend analysis to
predict errors so that the network is always available. This can be established by monitoring
different things for abnormal behavior.

When a fault or event occurs, a network component will often send a notification to the network
operator using either a proprietary or open protocol such as SNMP, or at least write a message to
its console for a console server to catch and log/page. This notification is supposed to trigger
manual or automatic activities. For example, the gathering of more data to identify the nature and
severity of the problem or to bring backup equipment on-line.

Fault logs are one input used to compile statistics to determine the provided service level of
individual network elements, as well as sub-networks or the whole network. They are also used
to determine apparently fragile network components that require further attention.

The leading fault management systems are IBM Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus, EMC Smarts, CA
Spectrum, HP OpenView Software, NetIQ, TTI Telecom Netrac, CA Clarity, Objective Systems
Integrators NETeXPERT, Centina Systems NetOmnia, etc. Fault isolation tools like Delphi are
also available, which are basically used to isolate the fault in any telecom network.

Configuration management

The goals of configuration management include:

  To gather and store configurations from network devices (this can be done locally or
remotely).
 to simplify the configuration of the device
 to track changes that are made to the configuration
 to configure ('provision') circuits or paths through non-switched networks
 to plan for future expansion and scaling

Accounting management

Accounting is often referred to as billing management. The goal is to gather usage statistics for
users.

Using the statistics the users can be billed and usage quota can be enforced.

Examples:

 Disk usage
 Link utilization
 CPU time

RADIUS, TACACS and Diameter are examples of protocols commonly used for accounting.

For non-billed networks, "administration" replaces "accounting". The goals of administration are
to administer the set of authorized users by establishing users, passwords, and permissions, and
to administer the operations of the equipment such as by performing software backup and
synchronization.

Performance management

Performance management enables the manager to prepare the network for the future, as well as
to determine the efficiency of the current network, for example, in relation to the investments
done to set it up. The network performance addresses the throughput, percentage utilization,
error rates and response times areas.

By collecting and analysing performance data, the network health can be monitored. Trends can
indicate capacity or reliability issues before they become service affecting.

Performance thresholds can be set in order to trigger an alarm. The alarm would be handled by
the normal fault management process (see above). Alarms vary depending upon the severity.

Security management
Security management is the process of controlling access to assets in the network. Data security
can be achieved mainly with authentication and encryption. Authorization to it configured with
OS and DBMS access control settings.

Tools for Network Monitoring

There is need to purchase network management software. SNMP is the most common network
management protocol to use. The protocol enables network administrators to gather data about
the network and corresponding devices. SNMP management system software is available in tools
such as CiscoWorks. SNMP management agent software is often embedded in operating systems
on servers, routers, and switches.

SNMP has four main components:

 Management station

 Management agents

 Management Information Base (MIB)

 Network management protocol

Functions of each component:

Network Management Station (NMS) is a server that runs a network management application.
Network elements communicate with the NMS to relay management and control information.
The NMS also enables network data analysis and reporting.

Network Management Protocol - A protocol that facilitates the exchange of information between
network devices and the NMS, such as the Simple Network Management Protocol version 3
(SNMPv3)
Managed Devices - Network devices that are managed by an NMS, such as a router or switch

Management Agents - Software on managed devices that collect and store network management
information

Management Information - Data collected by the NMS

Using SNMP Traps

SNMPv1 (Simple Network Management Protocol) and SNMPv2c, along with the associated
Management Information Base (MIB), encourage trap-directed notification.

The idea behind trap-directed notification is that if a manager is responsible for a large number
of devices, and each device has a large number of objects, it is impractical for the manager to
poll or request information from every object on every device. The solution is for each agent on
the managed device to notify the manager without solicitation. It does this by sending a message
known as a trap of the event.

After the manager receives the event, the manager displays it and can choose to take an action
based on the event. For instance, the manager can poll the agent directly, or poll other associated
device agents to get a better understanding of the event.

Trap-directed notification can result in substantial savings of network and agent resources by
eliminating the need for frivolous SNMP requests. However, it is not possible to totally eliminate
SNMP polling. SNMP requests are required for discovery and topology changes. In addition, a
managed device agent can not send a trap, if the device has had a catastrophic outage.

In order for a management system to understand a trap sent to it by an agent, the management
system must know what the object identifier (OID) defines. Therefore, it must have the MIB for
that trap loaded. This provides the correct OID information so that the network management
system can understand the traps sent to it.

Additionally, a device does not send a trap to a network management system unless it is
configured to do so. A device must know that it should send a trap. The trap destination is
usually defined by an IP address, but can be a host name, if the device is set up to query a
Domain Name System (DNS) server. In later versions of Cisco IOS software, device
administrators can choose which traps they would like send. For information on how to
configure a Cisco device for SNMP, and how to send traps, refer to correspondent device
configuration guides.

References

 ISO/IEC 10040, 1998, "Information technology - Open Systems Interconnection -

Systems management overview" (available as http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-X.701-
199708-I)
 ITU-T, 1996, "M.3010 Principles for a telecommunications management network"
 ITU-T, 1997, "M.3400 TMN management functions"
 ITU-T, "M.3050 Enhanced Telecom Operations Map (eTOM) – The business process
framework"