This is my first tutorial here, i need your feedbacks for encouragements. One thing my mother language is not english so there may be some errors so please ignore it.
NETWORK MANAGEMENT:
Network Management is the process of managing and controlling the network in a convenient and effiecent manner. In some cases its also been refer as managing the network remotely but this term refers to the type of network management.
WHY THE FUZZ?
As the networks are growing and becoming more complex they cannot be managed manually i mean by people alone. So there is need of a system and archietecture with the help of which network administration and monitoring could be easier and in such a manner that to minimize the time for rectifying the problem.
Network Management System (NMS): -
A Network Management System is collection of differnt tools that are used for monitoring and controlling the network. It consist of two parts Management System (Manager) and Managed devices. There may be possibility of deivces which are not managed or we can say unmanaged deivces.
ADVANTAGES: -
Now the important thing is to discuss the advatage that this type of system will bring. As per cost point of view, it will lower cost by eliminating the needs of multiple administrators.
The management of network will more convinient and by implimenting pre-active approach the problems can be rectify before being reported.
Lets suppose there are two organizations one of them is using NMS and other is using the old approach. Both of them have there differnt departments on different floors. Suppose the accounts department is at the second floor and the IT people are at the top floor say suppose 5th floor. A computer in accounts department is not able to access the network resource or the link is down b/w the server and the computer, in the case two where there is no network management being done with NMS the operator will call himself and will inform the IT department concern person about this problem. On the other hand where NMS is implemented the IT departmen person will first know that there is a computer on accounts department who is not on the network or the link is down b/w them. Now it seems to be not a big difference but believe me physologically this will impact the operator that before he get notice of the problem u may inform him that we have been notified that such and such thing has happen so we will rectify it urgently or whtever.
There is another advantage of usin NMS in same condition suppose you are the Network Manager and due to some reason you are not at ur seat, you can configure alerts to be received on ur Mobile or u can even configure the server to call on the mobile if any problem get occour on the network. So in my opinion this is a major benefit of implementing this system.
PROS of NMS: -
Well where there are cons of NMS there are pros of it too, the major one is that if the system is not configure and implemented properly then this could result in network congestion, heavy traffic and there is a possibility of network getting down.
Another problem is unmanged devices for managing all the devices SNMP should be enabled in them as it is the base protocol for the Network Management. If any device is unmanaged then it is beyond the scope of NMS.
Functional Models: -
There are five major areas which Network Management take cares, these are know as funcational areas. (FCAPS)
1. Fault Management
2. Configuration Management
3. Accounting Management
4. Performance Management
5. Security Management.
The tutorial would be quite lengthy if i write in detail about all the areas in some other tutorial.
How This All Works: -
Now comming to the important part how this system gonna works. As i said earlier for the management of a device SNMP should be enable in the device. This is known as SNMP agent.
A very simple way to understand the working of the system is considering A trojan Hoarse in a trojan hoarse there are two parts one is client and the other is server. Here server is SNMP agent which is installed in each managed device. This will track all and record all the activities of the device. THis is in the form of MIB (Management Information Base). TO access the server in Trojan we need a client similarly here we have a manager with a user friendly interface which will read the information from that MIB database.
Now what if someone else got the client too and what if s/he can scan the network for the managed device and then start making trouble for the manager. Now there is a problem here with the protocol SNMP it is possible that someone can run the Management System suppose a very basic software for NM is SNMPc. and s/he scan the nodes but the restriction is one needs the password to modify any information. So a password is requried to change the information.
One more thing that i will be discussing here is what sort of information or management is being done. Suppose you are using a switch in your organization. This switch can be of any vendor and importantly SNMP enabled. You have implemented the VLAN in the organization and now u want to know the utilization of the network at each port of the switch, simply from the console of Management System you can visually monitor the number of packets comming into the port, going out from it, how much goodoctects received e.t.c. You can check the status of the port and can shut it down for whtever reason you have. You can set a trap on the port that wheneve the link goes down send the alert this alert can be in the type of a sound, an SMS or change in the color of the node on your screen.
Methods Of Accessing The Information: -
There are two methods to access the information frm the Managed devices.
1. Client Pull:
In this method the client Management System pulls the data or information from the server (the Agent).
2. Server Push:
In this method the Server (Agent) pushes the trap message to a client (Management System).
The key point is that Network Management is a technique or process for managing a network its not a tool, but for its different areas u can use tools. You can read more about Network Management from the following White Paper.
http://netman.cit.buffalo.edu/Doc/DStevenson/
One more thing i have attached presentation regarding Fault Management Hope u ppl really Like it. Its really Cool. :cool:
