Planning Your Network Management Services

After you understand the components that make up ZENworks for Servers 3 management services and the console used to manage them, you are ready to begin planning a strategy to configure your network to get the most out of ZENworks for Servers 3. This section covers the steps necessary to understand, plan, and configure your network to maximize the benefits of ZENworks for Servers 3 management services.

Defining Management Groups and Needs

The first step you should take in planning for network management is to define what management groups and needs exist in your network. Virtually all organizations are made up of individual groups, each of which requires its own specific information to function. ZENworks for Servers 3 is flexible enough to fit the business needs of each of the groups if you plan your management strategy correctly.

The first step in defining management groups and needs is to identify the individual groups in your organization. These groups should be organized according to management need types. Look for things such as network resources required, management needs, department location, and so forth.

After you identify the groups that require access to network information, you should begin to define the needs each group has. Determine specifically what information they require, how often they access it, and at what times they access it. For example, group servers that require around-the-clock monitoring for critical services into a single group and servers that are used to compile and generate monthly statistical reports into another group.

Planning Your Network Management Strategy

After you define your management groups and needs, you are ready to plan a network management strategy. Your network management strategy should focus on configuring ZENworks for Servers 3 management to provide an appropriate level of monitoring for your network with a minimal impact on network performance. This may sound complicated; however, it is really only a matter of organizing the groups you created in the previous step into one of the following categories, and then configuring an appropriate polling frequency for each category:

• Mission Critical. Segments and network devices that need to be actively monitored to ensure high availability. Monitoring on these groups should be set at a high polling frequency.

• Crucial. Segments and network devices that need to be actively monitored for availability and usage, or groups that host services that require a balance between polling and network performance. Monitoring on these groups can be set from a few minutes to a few days depending on individual needs.

• Common. Segments and network devices that do not need to be actively monitored. Monitoring on these groups should be set to poll infrequently, or can be done manually at the administrator's request.

NOTE

Devices that are not polled or are polled infrequently can and should be configured to send alarms to the management server. This ensures that you are notified in the event a critical error occurs on the system; however, your network will not incur a performance hit from active polling.

Configuring Your Network

After you define your network group's needs and plan your network management strategy, you should configure your network for optimal discovery and monitoring. ZENworks for Servers 3 management services rely on standard network protocols to monitor and manage devices on your network. The following sections discuss important considerations to ensure that your network channels are consistent and well configured.

Considerations for IP Addressing

ZENworks for Servers 3 aggressively searches for IP addresses during the discovery process. The following is a list of considerations that you should check for devices you want to be discovered and managed by IP addresses:

• The device must have a valid IP address.

• TCP/IP must be bound on the designated management console workstations.

• IP must be bound on the management server.

• A static IP address must be assigned to the management server.

• You must verify that a router's addresses are defined in either its management information base (MIB) or seed router table.

• Routers must have static IP addresses.

• Verify that the subnet mask configurations on all IP networks are correct.

NOTE

If a subnet mask is too restrictive, you may not be able to discover all the devices in your management site. The discovery process does not support noncontiguous subnet masks, such as 255.255.0.255.

Identifying IPX Transports

After you verify your IP addressing, look for any software that needs to communicate over IPX. After identifying the IPX transport software, verify that it is configured with an IPX/SPX-compatible transport protocol.

NOTE

ZENworks for Servers 3 is fully compatible with the Novell IP compatibility mode driver.

Using IPX Software for NDS and DNS Names Resolution

After you verify your IPX software, check and set up NDS and DNS names for your network devices. ZENworks for Servers 3 uses the server name or hostname instead of the IP or IPX addresses to display maps and configuration views. Set up the most important devices with NDS and DNS names, because they are much easier to understand than network addresses. Name resolution can be in the form of local host files, NDS objects, or bindery tables.

Defining Community Names for SNMP Configuration

After setting up your NDS and DNS names, define the community names for your SNMP configuration. SNMP agents and RMON agents, as well as SNMP-enabled devices, require a community name to be identified. You need to configure each SNMP-enabled device with a community name and trap target destination that includes the ZENworks for Servers 3 management server.

The community name secures communication channels between the manager and the agent from intruders. The names are set to "public" by default; however, you should change the names to something else to prevent outside intruders from accessing information and modifying your system configurations.

Defining Administration Roles

After you configure your network for ZENworks for Servers 3 management, you must define roles that will be used to administer it. You can assign administrators specific, defined roles for your organization, which enables youcompromising network security.

The first step is to define the individuals who will be administering your network. After you have that list of individuals, you should define a scope for each one based on his or her specific access needs. After administrators and their scopes have been defined, they can log in and have access to the specific management components that they need to perform their tasks.

The following sections discuss different types of management roles within an organization.

Understanding the ZENworks for Servers 3 Management Site

The management role you should use most frequently is the management site administrator. The ZENworks for Servers 3 management site sets boundaries for access to object data through role-based services. You create roles and tasks that utilize management functions of ZENworks for Servers 3 in the network container space. This defines the level of access to network objects and information.

You need to develop a strategy for creating roles in a management site that reflects your management organization. Use your list of individuals and the scope of their administration needs to plan for roles that manage printers, monitor network traffic, handle alarms, and manage server systems through your network.

NDS user or group objects can be assigned to appropriate roles, thereby acquiring the permissions of the role. The following are the different levels within a role:

• Roles. Created for the various network management functions in your organization. This simplifies setting permissions and restrictions to management tools and network data.

• Tasks. Actions performed that utilize components of ZENworks for Servers 3 management servers based on assigned responsibility.

• Component/modules. A specific tool that provides a network management function. (For more information about the components included with ZENworks for Servers 3 Management Services, see the first section in this chapter.)

Discussing General ZENworks for Servers Roles

After you define the management site roles for your network, take a look at some general roles to cover any individual and management tasks that are not yet covered.

Several predefined roles exist, or you can define a role by creating an RBS role object in NDS and specifying tasks that the role can perform. The tasks are listed in properties of the RBS task objects in NDS.

The following is a list of predefined roles that ZENworks for Servers 3 creates:

• RBS Admin role. Responsible for defining, creating, and administrating management roles.

• Segment Administrator role. Responsible for administrating individual segments, such as adding or deleting users.

• Segment Manager role. Responsible for maintaining individual segments, such as adding new workstations or protocols.

• Segment Monitor role. Responsible for monitoring network traffic on individual segments.

• Server Administrator role. Responsible for administrating specific servers, such as for adding or deleting users.

• Server Manager role. Responsible for maintaining users and applications on specific servers.

• Server Monitor role. Responsible for monitoring traffic and services on specific servers.

• Site Database Administrator role. Responsible for creating and maintaining ZENworks for Servers 3 database sites.

The following is a list of tasks that are available to be assigned to role objects:

• Alarm Manager. Gives a role the appropriate rights and assignments to manage alarms that are raised on a server or segment level.

• Database Object Editor. Gives a role the appropriate rights and assignments to manage ZENworks database object through the Database Object Editor tool.

• DB_ADMIN_TOOL. Gives a role the appropriate rights and assignments to create and maintain ZENworks databases.

• MIB browser. Gives a role the appropriate rights and assignments to view MIB objects through MIB browser.

• MIB compiler. Gives a role the appropriate rights and assignments to modify and recompile MIBs by using MIB compiler.

• Node management. Gives a role the appropriate rights and assignments to manage individual nodes on a segment.

• Remote ping. Gives a role the appropriate rights and assignments to ping nodes on the network remotely.

• Traffic management. Gives a role the appropriate rights and assignments to monitor traffic on a server or segment level.

• Unified View. Gives a role the appropriate rights and assignments to gain access to the unified view for full network administration.

• ZfS maps. Gives a role the appropriate rights and assignments to gain access to the ZfS maps for a complete graphical view of the network.