Network Management
byWoraphon Lilakiatsakun
Course details
Midterm 30 % Final 40 % LAB 20 % Assignment 10 %
Books Network Management Fundamental
Alexander Clemm Cisco press
LANs to WAN complete management guide
SNMP V3, Rmon1 and 2 William Stallings
Defining Network Management
Network management refers to the activities, methods, procedures and tools that pertain to the operation, administration, maintenance, and provision of networked systems
Operation – keeping the network up and running smoothly Monitoring the network to spot
problems asap. Administration – keeping track of
resources in the network and how the are assigned Documentation
Maintenance – concern with performing repairs and upgrades (involving corrective and preventive) When a router need a new OS When a new switch should be added
Provisioning – concern with configuring resources in the network to support a given service
Organization Network Management Networkuses manages
Organization NetworkOperates
Administersmaintainsprovisions
Systems and ApplicationsActivities and Operational
Procedures
Support
Use and leverage
Network Management
Important of Network Management Not just work ! But it is needed carefully
planning Let’s consider in term of service provider
perspective Who can operate the network at the lowest cost Who provides better customer experience
(minimal turnaround time) Who can maintain and guarantee the highest
QoS Who can roll out services fast and efficiently
Similar factor to businesses that run their own networks Cost saving in operating the network
benefit the enterprise (COST) Fast turnaround time to deploy new
services and high QoS can translate to competitive advantage (Quality and Revenue)
Cost
One of the main goals of network management is to make operations more efficient
and operator more productive Ultimate goal is to reduce TCO
(Total Cost of Ownership) that is associated with the network
Total Cost of Ownership
Operational Cost
people , electricity ,physical space
Equipment Cost
amortized over equipment lifetime
TC
O(T
otal Cost of O
wnership)
Operating cost can be higher than the cost of amortizing the network equipment May be a factor of 2 or more
Let ‘s consider Operating cost 200,000/year Equipment cost 300,000 (amortized
100,000/year) Efficiently operation can save 50,000 /year
Make business more competitive
How ? Network testing and troubleshooting tools
More quickly identify and isolate problems System that facilitate turn-up of service and automate provisioning
System that facilitate turn-up of service and automate provisioning
Reduce human error Performance reporting tool and bottleneck
analysis Minimize the required investment Maximize the “bang for the buck”
Other ? Reduce skill level Reduce in investment in training
Quality
In term of network services and communication Bandwidth – use efficiently delay - minimize Reliability – traffic can go through
steadily availability - working most of the time
Redundancy (in case of equipments fail)
How ? System for the end to end provisioning of a
service automate many steps that be configured
Less error prone / Misconfiguration Easy to troubleshoot and fix
Performance trend analysis Help network managers detect potential network
bottlenecks Take preventive action before problems occur
Alarm correlation capabilities Faster identification of the root cause of observed
failure Minimize time of actual outage
If quality is not met Lost revenue
Customers will change the operator Increased network cost from
inefficient utilization or network resources More network equipments to support a
certain level of service Higher operation cost
To fix the problems
Revenue Open up market opportunities ex. Service provisioning systems
Reduce time start from a service is ordered to a service actually turned up
Translate to quicker time to revenue generation
Augment a service offering management-related capabilities To configure service features over Web (ex.
For voice: caller ID) Attract more customers
Players in Network Management space
Enterprise ITDepartment
Service provider
End Users
Users ofNetwork Management
Equipment Vendor
Third-partyApplication Vendor
System Integrator
Providers ofNetwork Management
Network Management Users The Service Provider
Telecommunication services Telephone, voice mail
Data services Leased line, Internet connectivity
Many communication services are being commoditized
To win the marketplace Turn up and roll out the services fastest Offer best service level at lowest cost
The Enterprise IP Department In charge of running the network inside
an enterprise Can be thought of as mini service
provider but … No generate income , it is a cost
center Focus on providing services at the lowest
cost
Only one customer: the enterprise End users within the enterprise have
no choice Not core business of the enterprise Enterprise IT departments are not
regulated So, not much for investing in
management applications and tools
The End User
Refer to “Network Manager” whose roles might be the following Network administrator – configure
network devices / trouble shoot (remotely)
Craft Technician – fix problems (on site) Help desk representatives – take user
calls and support Network planner – plan topology
Network Management Provider The Equipment Vendor Before not focus on management
features Recently, capability to manage
networking equipment is increasingly being recognized
In some cases, a management software might bundle with the equipment
Third-party Application Vendor not own the equipment Multivendor support
The system Integrator Provide services to integrate a set of
management applications with a specific network and operations support environment
Technical Challenges
Application Characteristics Scale Cross-section of technologies Integration
Application characteristics Transaction-based system characteristics Provisioning applications
Drive desired configurations down to network devices
To perform provisioning, a management system typically send requests to set of network elements and processes the responses These interactions constitute transactions
Network and Network element
Network Provisioning
Interrupt driven system characteristics
An important aspect is to keep track of the health of the network
Alarm monitoring applications can receive and process such alarms, alerting the network manager to take action properly
Real time app or near real time app
Alarm monitoring
Number crunching system characteristics
Network performance analysis identify bottleneck Assess whether service levels are being
met Evaluate utilization of network resources Understanding traffic pattern Trends for planning future network
rollout
Scale
Operations concurrency How to maximize concurrency in
communication network element Instead of sequential process – send a
request/wait/ then send again Send several requests to network
element at once
Impact of operations concurrency on Operations throughput
Pic 1-12
Event-propagation How to allow events to propagate
efficiently to the system and update state
After an event is received, the management app. has to do Quickly identify where it belongs What its implication is What else might be affected
Scoping How to access and manipulate large
chunks of management information efficiently and through single operation
Distribution and addressing How to allow processing to be
distributed across different system How to provide for location
transparency and efficient addressing
Impact of bulk operations on management efficiency Fig 1-13
Cross-section technologies Information Modeling
Require expertise with object-oriented analysis and design techniques such as Unified Modeling Language (UML)
Databases Require persistent storage such as to
store configuration information with which to provision the network and services
Distributed system Management applications are
distributed applications. Communication protocols
Management apps have to communicate with other systems
Network element and other management apps
User interfaces –human factors Other considerations
Integration Fig 1-15
Management integration Fig 1-16
Organization and Operations challenge Functional division of Tasks
Network planning – topology /nodes/links Network deployment- to install equipment Network maintenance and planning –
perform software and hardware upgrade Workforce management Inventory management Order management – take order from
customers Help desk Billing
Geographical distribution Support and manage globally
Operation Procedures and contingency planning Comprehensive operational procedure
and guidelines and documenting are needed
Part of procedure should deal with contingent planning
What should be done when a virus outbreak inside the network or under denial of service attack
Business challenges Placing a value on network management
Return of investment models are needed but it is hard to quantify
Feature Vs Product Uneven competitive landscape
Timing – 3rd party management vendor tends to lag behind
Economics Customer expectation