Netw420 Network Management Systems

Network Management Systems

Dave Theis

D00711424

NETW420 – Advanced Network Management

Professor Ruiz

DeVry University Online

January 2013 Session

1/20/2013

Network management involves monitoring and controlling the devices connected in a network by collecting and analyzing data the network devices. Typical network management is based on Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). It allows a network administrator the ability to remotely manage an entire network from a centralized location.

There are several entities that make up a network management system: managers, agents, MIBs, RMON, probes, MOs, and real devices. This paper will explore the roles of each of these entities.

Since nearly all network management is based on SNMP, management involves two entities: managers and agents. A manager is a hardware platform, usually a server, running a software application that acts as the director to manage the tasks needed to maintain a network.

A manager is responsible for polling many devices and receiving traps (error messages) from devices in the network. A “poll” is a query message sent to an object on the network to ask for information. The information requested by a poll could be a request to send error messages the device has logged, or request statistics at regular intervals, or to serve as a simple heartbeat indicator by the device acknowledging a poll at regular intervals; “are you there? Yes, I am”.

A “trap” is a way for a device to tell the manager that something has happened. Traps are sent automatically, not in response to a poll. An unexpected event, such as an Ethernet link on a switch that has failed may cause the switch to send an unsolicited message, a trap, to the manager.

The agent is a piece of software that runs on the network devices that is being managed. Most devices have an SNMP agent built in to the software. The agent provides management information to the manager by keeping track of various operational aspects of the...