1. Basic Ingredients of Network Management
Woraphon Lilakiatsakun

2. Basic components
Fig 3-1

3. Network devices
A NE (network element) must offer a management interface for management purposes
Allow managing system to send requests ( configure, retrieve statistical data and etc)
Send information (response and unsolicited )
Manager – a managing application who in charge of the management
Agent – a NE who support the manager by responding its requests

4. Manager-agent communication
Fig 3-2

5. Management agent Consists of 3 parts A management interface
A Management Information Base
The core agent logic

6. Management interface
Support a management protocol that define rule of conversation
Communication between the managed network element
For example
To open management session
To request to retrieve statistical data
To request to change configuration

7. Management Information Base (MIB)
Conceptual data store (management information) that contain management view of devices
A type of database used to manage the devices in a communications network. It comprises a collection of objects in a (virtual) database used to manage entities (such as routers and switches) in a network. (Ref. from wikipedia)

8. MIB related standard RFC 1155 RFC 1157 RFC 1213
Structure and Identification of Management Information for TCP/IP based internets
RFC 1157
Simple Network Management Protocol
RFC 1213
Management Information Base for Network Management of TCP/IP-based internets

9. MIB – OID Tree OID = 1.3.6.1 (internet)
OID = (dpsAlarmControl)

10. Core agent logic
Translates between the operation of the management interface, MIB, and actual device
Ex. Translate the request to “retrieve a counter” into internal operation that read out a device hardware register.
Additionally, it can include more management functions that offload the processing required by management app.
Pre-correlated raw events before sent out

11. An anatomy of management agent
Fig 3-4

12. Management information (1/2)
The version of installed software
To decide which devices need to have new software
Utilization of port
Whether capacity upgrades are necessary
Environmental data (temperature and voltage)
Ensuring that a device is not overheating
Fans
What is causing the temperature to rise

13. Management information (2/2)
Packet counters for different interfaces
Whether the network is under a certain type of attacks (DoS)
Protocol timeout parameter
To fine tune network communication performance
Firewall rules
Security purposes
others ?

14. Managed object (MO)
Refer to “ a chunk of management information that exposes one of the real world aspects”
Ex. MO could represent a device fan along with its operational state, a port on a line card along with a set of statistical data
MO could be
a MIB object in SNMP
a parameter in a CLI (command-line interface)
An element of an XML document in web-based management interface

15. Not all aspects in the real world are modeled
Color of devices
Real world object that MO represents is referred to as the “real resource”
Since management information in MIB represents real resource
When querying the MIB for MO representing a packet counter 3 times, the value returned will be different

16. Basic parts of network management - refined
Fig 3-6

17. The Management System Tools to manage the network
monitor the network
Service provisioning system
Craft terminal
In fact, management system is different from management applications
But often we can use both as the same meaning

18. Manager/agent reference diagram
Fig 3-8

19. Caching MIB
Fig 3-9

20. The Management network
Networks for carrying traffic of subscriber or end user are referred as “production network”
Networks for carrying management traffic are referred as “management network”
Both can be physically separate networks or they can share the same physical network

21. Connecting a craft terminal to a managed device
Fig 3-10

22. Connecting to multiple devices through a terminal server
Fig 3-11

23. Dedicated Vs Shared Management and Production networks
Fig 3-12

24. Pros of a dedicated management network
Reliability
Congestion or network failure occurs somewhere in the network, it makes the devices hard to reach
Also hard to find out what it happen
Interference avoidance
Compete with production traffic
May interfere high QoS services (voice ,video streaming)
Ease of network planning
No need to consider on management traffic
Security
Hard to attack and more secure

25. Cons of a dedicated management network
Cost and overhead
Addition cost for a management network
No reasonable alternative
Some devices do not provide a physical connection for another usage
DSL router cannot be connected with two physical links

26. Final word Cost is the huge disadvantage
So, the management network is needed only critical area
Backbone of service providers or big enterprises)
Hybrid solution
Generally, it shares over production networks
Only critical segments are used as dedicated networks

27. Managing the management
The management support org. is responsible for making sure that the network is being run efficiently and effectively
These tasks must be performed
Monitoring the network for failures
Diagnosing failures and communication outages
Planning and carrying out repairs
Provisioning new services and adding/removing users

28. Keeping an eye on performance of the network
Taking preventive measure
Planning network upgrades
Increase capacity
Planning network topology and buildout
Ensure that the network will meet future demand

29. Organization structure
Network planning
Analyzing network usage and traffic patterns and planning network build out
Network operation
Keeping the network running and monitoring the network failures
Network administration
Installing new devices / software
Customer (user) management
Interacting with the customers

30. Other thing are needed
Establishment of process and operational policies, documentation of operational procedures
Well-defined procedures
Well-defined workflow
Make management consistent and efficient
Collection of audit trails
Automatically logging activities of operations

31. Network documentation
Must be accurate and up-to-date
Important for network planning and software upgrades
Identify some discrepancies
Reliable backup and restore procedures
Bring network back to live again in case of disaster
Security emphasis
Networks potentially most vulnerable from the inside
Limit the damage that can cause by one person

32. Management life cycle Plan Before the network system starts
During the network system is running

33. Management life cycle Deploy Operate Decommission
Installation of the equipment
Bootstrap mechanism to allow a device to obtain and IP address and have layer2 or 3 connectivity
Operate
Monitoring/troubleshooting/performance tuning and etc
Decommission
Old equipments (old technology) will be replace

34. TMN-layer: a management hierarchy reference model

35. Management layer TMN (telecommunication Management network)
Network element
Element management
Network management
Service management
Business management

36. Network element It means “the management agent “ It involves with
the management functionality
Communication pattern (protocols)

37. Element management
Involve managing the individual devices and keep them running
Functions such as
to view and change a network element’s configuration
To monitor alarm messages emitted from elements
To instruct network elements to run self-test

38. Network management
Concern with keeping the network running as a whole (end-to-end)
Monitoring that involves ensuring that data flow to reach destination with acceptable throughput and delay
Managing multiple devices in a concerted fashion

39. Service management
Managing the services that the network provides and ensuring those services are running smoothly
Let’s think as ISP (Internet service provider) ?

40. Business management Billing and invoicing Help desk management
Business forecasting
Etc ?