Managing Agent Platforms with the Simple Network Management Protocol Brian Remick Thesis Defense June 26, 2015

2 The Big Picture

June 26, Overview l Background l Motivation l Network Management / SNMP l AgentSNMP l Agent Patterns l Summary

June 26, Background l Agent –Software process that can make decisions autonomously. »Without a central control mechanism. –Communication via a standard messaging language (ACL). –Able to migrate from one platform / host to another. l Agent Platform –Development framework for agent software –Runtime environment for agents »Concurrent agent activities »Agent communication »Agent migration –FIPA – Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents »Formal specification for agent platforms

June 26, Motivation l Agent platforms are complex runtime environments. –Difficult to debug from a software perspective. –Difficult to analyze from an administrator’s perspective. l No formal management specification. –FIPA leaves this up to the platform implementation. –Thus, each implementation does it differently (if at all).

June 26, Jade Agent Management – RMA

June 26, Jade Agent Management – Sniffer

June 26, Network Management l Basic Goals –Manage resources of vastly different types in a standard way. –Must be scalable, flexible. –Non-intrusive (as much as possible).

June 26, Network Management l Components of a typical network management system –Resources »Devices, software that need to be managed. –Proxy “agents” »Act as representatives for resources. »Expose standard interface to resource. –Communication protocol »Supports messages between proxy agent and management system. »SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) –Management system(s) »Polls / modifies attributes through the proxy agent interface. »HP Openview

June 26, Network Management

June 26, SNMP l Industry standard protocol for network management. l MIB (Management Information Base) –“Interface” for resources l Flexibility is key. –Need to be able to facilitate interface for any resource. l Off-the-shelf management software natively supports it.

June 26, Proxy “Agents” l Expose standard interface defined by MIB. l Provide resource-specific implementation –Hide complexity of resource/device from manager. l Respond to requests from managers. l Able to send asynchronous traps.

June 26, Enterprise Management Systems l Sophisticated control over resources. l Polling Support –Ability to set thresholds, gather temporal data, graphs, etc. –Customizable: views of data, resource graphs l Designed for more than strictly “network” management. l Examples –HP Openview –Sun Solstice –IBM Tivoli

June 26, HP Openview - Example

June 26, Network and Agent Management l Both solve similar problems. –Distributed resources –Overload conditions –Crashes –Management of varying types of resources l But, differences exist. –Agent platforms are much more dynamic. »Agent are created / destroyed at much higher rates than network nodes. –No physical connections in agent platforms »“Logical” connections between agents via messages. –Migration – No parallel in network management »Network is a static set of nodes.

June 26, AgentSNMP – Goals l Develop a formal set of agent management requirements. –Based on FIPA agent platform specification. l Build an agent management system based on these requirements. –Agent Platform MIB. –Jade agent platform implementation. l Integrate with enterprise management system. –HP Openview l Demonstrate –Test the system with agent behavioral patterns and simulations.

June 26, AgentSNMP – Requirements l Basic management tasks –Agent creation, deletion, migration, etc. l Track agent load, responsiveness –Must be able to detect agents that are “overloaded.” l Analyze agent communication patterns. l Track agent movement between hosts, platforms.

June 26, AgentSNMP – Overview l Agent platform is the “managed resource” –Proxy agent exposes standard interface to the platform. l Management software uses SNMP to communicate with proxy agent. –Able to retrieve information about the platform via interface. l Management software is customized to display platform information visually. –Plugin for HP Openview.

June 26, AgentSNMP – Architecture

June 26, AgentSNMP – FIPA MIB l SNMP interface to agent platform l Access to: –Hosts connected to platform –Agents living on each host –Messages sent between agents –Higher-level patterns of agent communication »Channels –Load analysis of agents l Extensible

June 26, AgentSNMP – Proxy Agent l Specific to Jade implementation. –Other platform implementations might require different proxy agents designs. l Implements interface defined by FIPA MIB. –Maintains data structures that represent MIB objects. l Basic functionality: –Agent living on platform »Necessary for Jade implementation –Registers with AMS to receive information about platform events. –Updates MIB data structures appropriately based on events.

June 26, AgentSNMP – MIB Browser l Simple access to proxy agent interface. l Manipulate individual values in the MIB via SNMP. l Minimal polling, threshold, graphing support. l No customization.

June 26, AgentSNMP – MIB Browser

June 26, AgentSNMP – HP Openview l Takes advantage of Openview’s plugin capabilities l Translates events: –Platform events to Openview GUI events. –Openview GUI events to SNMP requests for platform. l Displays threshold events graphically. –Openview threshold events to GUI events.

June 26, AgentSNMP – HP Openview

June 26, AgentSNMP - Example

June 26, Management Patterns l Simulate common patterns of agent communication. l Designed to be difficult to manage without a sophisticated management framework. l Examples –Client/Server pattern »One server agent replies to requests made by some number of client agents. –Agent Mobility pattern »Agents move from host to host, manager must keep track of their locations.

June 26, Management Patterns (Client/Server) Server

June 26, Management Patterns (Migration) Server “Proxy” Agent

June 26, Management Patterns 15 clients 30 clients

June 26, Summary l Uses well-researched, proven network management techniques. l Provides standard method for managing agent platforms. –Performs basic management tasks. –Detects overloaded agents. –Monitors communication patterns between agents. –Tracks agent mobility. l Integrates with industry-standard management tools. –HP Openview

June 26, Future Work l Add agent management to FIPA specification –All platform implementations would implement a standard management scheme. l Alternative management protocols –SNMP is still standard. –Others are gaining popularity and provide more sophisticated support.

June 26, Questions