The Push Model in Web-Based Network Management

Jean-Philippe Martin-Flatin
1998
Rapport ou document de travail

The management of IP networks is currently based on the SNMP protocol, and the use of expensive network management platforms designed according to the manager/agent paradigm of the SNMP framework. It uses two different schemes to transfer management data: a request/response protocol for data collection and network monitoring (data polling), and unsolicited push to deliver SNMP notifications. This design is exposed to a number of problems, with regards to the time-to-market of vendor-specific management software, versioning, protocol efficiency, security, etc. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to network management based on the push model. This model is well-known in software engineering, and encountered a large success on the Web recently with the push technologies. It relies on the publish/subscribe/distribute paradigm, and uses a single scheme to transfer all management data. We describe why it is more efficient, in terms of network and systems resources, than the traditional pull model. We also explain in detail how to implement this model with Web technologies to deliver SNMP notifications, to handle events, and to distribute MIB data for network monitoring and data collection.

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Jean-Philippe Martin-Flatin
1998
Rapport ou document de travail

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https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/112?ln=fr

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JAMAP: a Web-Based Management Platform for IP Networks

Jean-Philippe Martin-Flatin

In this paper, we describe JAMAP, a prototype of a Web-based management platform for IP networks. It is entirely written in Java. It implements the push model to perform regular management (permanent network monitoring and data collection) and ad hoc management (temporary network monitoring and troubleshooting). The communication between agents and managers relies on HTTP transfers between Java applets and servlets over persistent TCP connections. The SNMP MIB data is encapsulated in serialized Java objects that are transmitted as MIME parts via HTTP. The manager consists of two parts: the management server, a static machine that runs the servlets, and the management station, which can be any desktop running a Web browser. The MIB data is transparently compressed with gzip, which saves network bandwidth without increasing latency too significantly.

1999

Chargement

A lot of activity is currently going on to replace the SNMP management architecture with a solution better suited to managing modern IP networks and systems. New candidates include Management by Delegation, active networks, and Web-based management. In this exercise, the management community runs the risk of throwing the baby out with the bath water by focusing too much on a few well-known problems exhibited by SNMP (e.g., its poor scalability) and neglecting most of its other characteristics, including those that contributed to its success (e.g., the reasons why it is simple). One way to avoid this is to explicitly capture the experience gained in the management of IP networks and systems with SNMP. In this paper, we make one step in this direction by studying the SNMP management architecture through a software engineers eyes: we identify in SNMP some of the fundamental architectural and design patterns defined in the literature. Patterns are schematic, proven solutions to recurring problems. By characterizing the current management architecture in terms of patterns, we help retain the strengths of SNMP-based management in future management architectures. We also make it easier for new software engineers to move to network and systems management by characterizing this application domain in standard pattern terms, as opposed to using the jargon understood solely by the SNMP community.

2000

Chargement

Web-based management of IP networks and systems

Jean-Philippe Martin-Flatin

The management of IP networks and systems is currently based on the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and the SNMP management architecture. This poses a number of problems. Some are related to the efficiency, scalability, latency, and expressiveness of SNMP, others to the way the design of SNMP-based management platforms historically evolved. After reviewing the numerous alternatives that are currently investigated by the research community, including mobile code and intelligent agents, we propose to base the next generation of management applications on a new management architecture: WIMA, the Web-based Integrated Management Architecture. WIMA is based on standard Web technologies. It relies on a push-based organizational model for regular management (i.e., data collection –for offline processing– and monitoring over a long period of time) and notification/event delivery, and a pull-based organizational model for ad hoc management (data retrieval over a very short time period). Its communication model is characterized by (i) the use of persistent HTTP connections between agents and managers (or between mid- and top-level managers in distributed hierarchical management); (ii) the support for any information model (SNMP, CIM, etc.); and (iii) a reversed client-server architecture that facilitates crossing firewalls. In WIMA, the preferred method for representing management data in transit is XML. It is well suited for distributed hierarchical management; it unifies the communication model across the entire range of integrated management (that is, network, systems, application, service, and policy management); and it offers high-level semantics to the management-application designer. All the major problems that we identified in SNMP are solved in WIMA. Our architecture is validated by a prototype: JAMAP, the JAva MAnagement Platform.

EPFL2000

Chargement

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