9.4 Summary

In this chapter we discussed the following:

SNMP is the dominant management framework for enterprise and IP-based internetworks. However, SNMP lacks features that promote scalability in large internetworks—for example, there is no support for hierarchical management, using techniques such as Mid-Level Management (MLM). In the carrier space CMIS/CMIP has been successfully deployed, but it remains unattractive to the average network manager. IBM has a largely proprietary but sophisticated architecture for its mainframe management model called NetView.
There have been efforts to broaden the attractiveness of CMIS/CMIP IP and enterprise environments; examples include CMOT and CMOL. It is fair to say that none of these transport variants has gained any significant interest from the user community, and SNMP continues to dominate the installed base.
HTTP-based managers are becoming the de facto way of performing configuration management on remote devices. Security mechanisms such as SSH and SSL can be built into these interfaces for peace of mind.
For medium to large internetworks network management can impose unacceptable overheads on bandwidth, CPU, and device memory. A distributed and hierarchical management model needs to be deployed to optimize the available bandwidth.
RMON is a very useful tool for remote monitoring and data collection in multivendor networks. It is up to you to decide how and what data should be monitored and what thresholds and alarm conditions to set. RMON can be invaluable in monitoring LAN health and performance and as a guide to longer-term capacity planning.
Ping, traceroute, tcpdump, netstat, and dig are invaluable tools for IP internetwork diagnostics. Beyond these tools you need to use advanced protocol analyzers.
Policy-based management is a critical emerging technology finally beginning to unite multivendor networks by abstracting network configuration and holding policy data in consistent, centrally managed repositories. Once in place this will significantly relieve the burden of network administration, especially in large, multivendor enterprises. There is some way to go yet in making policy management a practical reality.

References

[1] T. Kenyon, High-Performance Network Design: Design Techniques and Tools (Woburn, MA: Digital Press, 2001).

[2] Simple Network Management Protocol, STD 15, RFC 1157, May 1990.

[3] Introduction to SNMPv2, RFC 1441, March 1993.

[4] Transport Mappings for SNMPv2, RFC 1449, April 1993.

[5] Structure of Management Information for Version 2 of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMPv2), RFC 1902, January 1996.

[6] Protocol Operations for Version 2 of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMPv2), RFC 1905, January 1996.

[7] Management Information Base for Version 2 of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMPv2), RFC 1907, January 1996.

[8] Structure and Identification of Management Information for TCP/ IP-Based Internets, RFC 1155, May 1990.

[9] Reassignment of Experimental MIBs to Standard MIBs, RFC 1239, June 1991.

[10] Assigned Numbers, RFC 1700, October 1994.

[11] Management Information Base for Network Management of TCP/ IP-Based Internets: MIB-II, RFC 1213, March 1991.

[12] Management Information Base for Network Management of TCP/ IP-Based Internets, RFC 1156, May 1990.

[13] ftp.uu.net, MOSC (Managed Object Syntax Compiler). Publicly available (copyrighted) Yacc-based SNMP MIB Compiler.

[14] ftp.synoptics.com, SMIC. Publicly available (copyrighted) SNMP MIB Compiler.

[15] SNMP over OSI, RFC 1418, March 1993.

[16] SNMP over AppleTalk, RFC 1419, March 1993.

[17] SNMP over IPX, RFC 1420, March 1993.

[18] SNMP over Ethernet, RFC 1089, February 1989.

[19] R. L. Townsend, SNMP Applications Developer's Guide (New York, NY: VNR Communications Library, 1995).

[20] Bulk Table Retrieval with the SNMP, RFC 1157, October 1990.

[21] A Convention for Defining Traps for Use with the SNMP, RFC 1215, March 1991.

[22] M. T. Rose, The Simple Book: An Introduction to Management of TCP/IP-Based Internets (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1991).

[23] Introduction to Version 3 of the Internet Standard Network Management Framework, RFC 2570, April 1999.

[24] www.simple-times.org, The Simple Times. Publishes quality materials on SNMP and provides good links for network management information.

[25] SNMP Applications, RFC 2573, April 1999.

[26] User-Based Security Model (USM) for Version 3 of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMPv3), RFC 2574, April 1999.

[27] View-Based Access Control Model (VACM) for the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), RFC 2575, April 1999.

[28] Coexistence between Version 1, Version 2, and Version 3 of the Internet Standard Network Management Framework, RFC 2576, March 2000.

[29] Coexistence between Version 1 and Version 2 of the Internet Standard Network Management Framework, RFC 1452, April 1993.

[30] http://www.watson.ibm.com, IBM Research Web site.

[31] "Bulk Transfers of MIB Data," The Simple Times, The Quarterly Newsletter of SNMP Technology, vol 7, no. 1, March 1999.

[32] P. E. Mellquist, SNMP++, An Object-Oriented Approach to Developing Network Management Applications (Des Moines, IA: Prentice Hall PTR, Hewlett-Packard Professional Books, 1997).

[33] Remote Network Monitoring Management Information Base Version 2 Using SMIv2, RFC 2021, January 1997.

[34] Remote Network Monitoring Management Information Base, RFC 1757, November 1994.

[35] Common Management Information Services Protocol over TCP/IP (CMOT), RFC 1095, April 1989.

[36] ISO Presentation Services on Top of TCP/IP-Based Internets, RFC 1085, December 1988.

[37] Information Processing Systems—Open Systems Interconnection—Specification of Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1), International Organization for Standardization, IS 8824, December 1987.

[38] Information Processing Systems—Open Systems Interconnection—Specification of Basic Encoding Rules for Abstract Notation One (ASN.1), International Organization for Standardization, IS 8825, December 1987.

[39] Information Processing Systems—Open Systems Interconnection—Specification of Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1), International Organization for Standardization, IS 8824, December, 1987.

[40] ITU-T Rec. X.680, Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1)—Specification of Basic Notation, 1994.

[41] ITU-T Rec. X.690, Specification of ASN.1 Encoding Rules: Basic, Canonical, and Distinguished Encoding Rules, 1994.

[42] www.catelrock.com, Home page for Castle Rock's SNMPc.

[43] www.cai.com, Computer Associates International home page for CA Unicenter.

[44] www.tivoli.com, Tovoli Systems, home page for Tivoli TME.

[45] www.hp.com, Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) home Web site.

[46] Framework Fraud?, Data Communications International, September 1999, 33–42.

[47] RITA—The Reliable Internetwork Troubleshooting Agent, RFC 2321, April 1998.

[48] K. Washburn, J. T. Evans, TCP/IP: Running a Successful Network (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley 1993).

[49] Internet Control Message Protocol, DARPA Internet Program Protocol Specification, September 1981.

[50] P. Albitz, and C. Liu, DNS and BIND (Cambridge, MA: O'Reilly & Associates, 1997).

[51] www.fluke.com, Fluke test equipment home page.

[52] www.nai.com, Network Associates, Inc. home Web site.

[53] www.wg.com, Wandel & Goltermann Technologies, Inc. (W&G), home Web site.

[54] www.radcom-inc.com, Radcom Equipment, Inc., home page for protocol analysis equipment.

[55] Routing Policy System Replication, RFC 2769, February 2000 (proposed standard).

[56] B. Moore, E. Ellesson, J. Strassner, Policy Framework Core Information Model. Internet draft: draft-ietf-policy-core-info-model-02.txt, October 1999.

[57] J. Strassner, et. al., Policy Framework LDAP Core Schema. Internet draft: draft-ietf-policy-core-schema-06.txt, November 1999.

[58] A Framework for Policy-Based Admission Control, RFC 2753, January 2000.

[59] The COPS (Common Open Policy Service) Protocol, RFC 2748, January 2000 (proposed standard).

[60] COPS Usage for RSVP, RFC 2748, January 2000 (proposed standard).

[61] Network Policy and Services: A Report of a Workshop on Middleware, RFC 2768, February 2000.