Chapter 5. A Real NMS

Up to now we have looked at network management in a fairly theoretical way, with the discussion centering on:

• MIBs, agents , and managers

• Enterprise and SP networks

• Connection management at layers 2 and 3

• NMS/EMS layers

• Network migration to layer 3

• MPLS

• Scalability

• Development skills needed for producing high-grade NMS

• Operational skills needed for running networks and using NMS

In this chapter we look at a real NMS product ”Hewlett-Packard's OpenView Network Node Manager ”and describe some of its principal features. No endorsement of HP OpenView is intended. It is selected purely because it is relatively well-known and also to illustrate the concepts described in this and previous chapters. This product is special in that it is in widespread use by both enterprises and service providers. The headings under which we study it are:

• FCAPS support ”the basic NMS application areas

• MIB support features, such as loading new MIBs for third-party NEs

• MPLS support

• Policy support

• Reliability features, such as support for failover

• Integration with other software, for example, data export/import, trouble ticketing, and workflow

• Programmability, for example, adding additional software for new features such as provisioning

In this chapter we leave the design and development domains, and look more closely at the way organizations actually use real network management products. A good description of this and many other SNMP management features can be found in [EssentialSNMP]. Following these sections is a description of the typical business processes and workflows in enterprises and how these are facilitated using NMS.