Rally 'round the network manager - proposed network management standards for increased business management efficiency - Technology Information

Communications News, Feb, 1999 by Morris Edwards

Mini-revolution sweeps in "smart" systems.

Network management is enjoying a much-appreciated mini-revolution as the major vendors compete to make their systems more functional and responsive to business needs, as well as easier to implement and administer. One significant trend is the integration of network management with systems management of PCs, servers, databases, mainframes, and other computing "endpoints," giving a more complete picture of network activity.

Another important development is the provision of separate management views of specific devices and applications, in contrast to earlier network management systems which were limited to providing a single, enterprise-wide representation. The idea is to give managers of different divisions or departments their own customized views of the enterprise so they can monitor their specific business processes and applications. A related objective is to provide the capability for creating and monitoring service level agreements between the IT department and business managers, guaranteeing certain network availability and performance levels for critical applications.

The ultimate goal is an integrated, enterprise-wide platform that can be customized to provide end-to-end network and systems management by division, department, or business activity and in compliance with service level agreements.

STANDARDS PROGRESS

With this vision in mind, vendors and standards bodies, such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Desktop Management Task Force (DMTF), are working to bring such capabilities within the reach of organizations of all sizes. Among the vendors--Computer Associates (CA), Hewlett-Packard (HP), and Tivoli Systems--each provides an integrated platform with basic network management functions, a variety of systems management features, and a mechanism for mapping management tasks to business processes. They also support a number of third-party software products for specialized functions.

Each platform uses agents to capture data about the various hardware and software components which is reported to the management application or console via SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) or other transport mechanism.

Traditionally, network management data has been stored in an SNMP Management Information Base (MIB). One of the most successful MIB standards has been the Remote Monitoring (RMON) specification adopted by the IETF in 1995 and updated in 1997. RMON defines a way for SNMP-based network management stations to gather network statistics from probes placed at strategic locations on the network or embedded in routers, switches, and other network devices. Software can also be included in network interface cards to collect information on end stations.

The original RMON was limited to tracking information at Layer 2, or the data link layer, of the OSI model, so it could not see beyond the nearest router nor break down network usage by protocol or application. RMON2, the updated version, makes it possible to view traffic patterns at the network level, or OSI Layer 3, and beyond, so it can monitor specific protocols, applications, and users. It can also track protocol and application usage over the network as a whole, as well as in each individual node.

Meanwhile, DMTF has standardized on an object-oriented Common Information Model (CIM) to represent all the managed components in a network--hardware, applications, and users--and to describe the relationships between them. CIM is compatible with SNMP but more useful since it shows how managed objects relate to other objects on the network and systems.

Now in Version 2, CIM promises to enable end-to-end application management while bringing commonality to diverse management systems. Until now, though, vendors have been using CIM as a data model while retaining their proprietary encoding and transport mechanisms.

DMTF has addressed this issue by standardizing on Extensible Markup Language (XML) for data exchange, giving the vendors a common way of transporting management information. Computer Associates, Hewlett-Packard, and Tivoli have already announced support for XML as a means for trading CIM data, though the capability will be added gradually without making SNMP obsolete.

SIMPLIFICATION MOVES

Adoption of XML could also accelerate the use of browsers and other Web technology to simplify network and systems management--a much-needed development--since implementing a management platform has been a complex, time-consuming, and expensive task. In a 1997 study, the Gartner Group, Stamford, Conn, found that, 36 months after purchase, only 30% of respondents had successfully implemented their enterprise management systems.

To make its Spectrum platform less expensive to implement and easier to use, Cabletron Systems recently announced a plan to bundle the Spectrum software and related services with implementation and training for $75,000, regardless of network size. For the flat fee, Cabletron will install its enterprise management platform on a customer's network, identify potential trouble spots, and teach network administrators how to use the product effectively.