Network Management and SNMP

 What is Network Management?

 ISO Network Management Model

(FCAPS)

 Network Management Architecture

 SNMPv1 and SNMPv2

 SNMPv3 – what’s new?

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Network Management

 Any complex system with many interacting

components must be monitored, managed and
controlled

 In the early 1980 networks expansion prompted the

need for automated network management

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Network management scenarios
 Detecting failure of an interface card in a device

 Host monitoring

 Traffic monitoring to optimize resource

deployment

 Detecting rapid changes in routing tables

 Intrusion detection

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ISO Network Management Model

FCAPS:

 Fault management

 Configuration management

 Accounting management

 Performance management

 Security Management

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ISO Network Management Model
 Fault management – Network faults and problems are
found and fixed
 Configuration management – track devices and their
h/w and s/w configs
 Accounting management - Network resources are
distributed and departments are charged for their
network use
 Performance management – quantify, measure, report,
analyze and control performance of network
components to minimize congestion and bottlenecks
 Security Management – control access to network
resources according to some well-defined policy

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Network Management Architecture

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Simple Network Management Protocol
 Protocol for network management, part of TCP/IP
suite

 Current version SNMPv3

 Includes communication protocol, set of data

definitions and database schema

 Basic components:
Managers/NMS
Managed devices
SNMP Agents
MIB
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SNMPv3

 Was implemented as a full standard

in 2004

 Only changes relate to security and remote

configuration

 SNMPv3 provides for encryption,

authentication and message integrity

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Network Management Architecture

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MIB (Management Information Base)
 MIB – virtual information store for a collection of
managed objects

 Describes structure of management data on managed

device

 Each variable that describes some part of device

configuration is identified by a unique OID (object ID)

 Vendors define MIB variables for their own use

 MIB II – standard MIB implemented by all managed

objects
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SMI (Structure of management
information)

 SMI is the language used to define the management

information residing in a managed object – logically

 SMI states that each managed object should have a

name, syntax and encoding

 SMI is a subset of ASN.1 - a standard for describing

data that is independent of machine-specific encoding.

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Object naming by OID

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MIB-II subtree

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SNMP Transport

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SNMP Transport

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SNMP Operations
 get
 getnext
 getbulk (SNMPv2 and SNMPv3)
 getresponse
 set
 trap
 inform (SNMPv2 and SNMPv3)

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SNMP Operations
 Get and getresponse

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SNMP Operations
 Getnext – retreive a group of values

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SNMP Operations
 Getbulk – retreive a section of a table

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SNMP Operations
 Set – change value or create a new row in the table

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SNMP Operations
 Trap – asynchronous operation

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Primary Goals of SNMPv3
 Check message integrity - To verify that each received message has
not been modified during its transmission .

 User authentication - To verify the identity of the user on whose behalf

a received message claims to have been generated .

 Message timestamp – to detect outdated messages

 Message confidentiality - To assure that the contents of each

received message are protected/encrypted.

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Primary Goals of SNMPv3

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SNMPv3 security framework
 Two core modules within the framework are the User-based Security Model (USM) and
the View-based Access Control Model (VACM).

 The USM is in charge of authenticating/encrypting/decrypting SNMP packets

 The VACM is in charge of administering access to MIB data.

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SNMPv3 security framework
 Authentication -Each SNMP entity is identified by SNMPEngineID,
and SNMP communication is possible only if an SNMP entity knows
the identity of its peer. Traps and Notifications are exceptions to this
rule.

Protection against:
 Modification of Information (Data Integrity)
Ensure that the data is not maliciously altered during transit by an unauthorized entity.
 Masquerading (Data Origin Authentication)
Ensure that it is known exactly who and where the data came from to prevent an
unauthorized entity from assuming the identity of an authorized user.
 Disclosure (Data Confidentiality)
Ensure that an unauthorized entity cannot eavesdrop on the data exchanges.
 Message Stream Modification (Message Timeliness)
Ensure that the data was received in a timely manner to prevent malicious re-ordering of
data by an unauthorized entity.

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SNMPv3 User-based Secuirity Model

 USM communication mechanisms available:

 Communication without authentication and privacy
(NoAuthNoPriv).
 Communication with authentication and without
privacy (AuthNoPriv).
 Communication with authentication and privacy
(AuthPriv).

 Different authentication and privacy protocols supported - Currently, the MD5

and SHA authentication protocols and the CBC_DES and CFB_AES_128 privacy
protocols are supported in the USM.

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SNMPv3 VCAM
 The Access Control Subsystem of an SNMP entity has the responsibility for
checking whether a specific type of access to a specific managed object is
allowed.

 Access control occurs in the agent when processing SNMP retrieval or

modification request messages from a manager, and also when a notification
message must be sent to the manager.

 Elaborates on the concept of community strings in the previous versions of SNMP

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