Network Management System - Components and Requirements

Background and Planning: Effective planning for a network management system requires that a number
of network management tasks be performed. The network management system should discover the
network inventory, monitor the health and status of devices and provide alerts to conditions that impact
system performance. NMS systems make use of various protocols for the purpose they serve. For
example, SNMP protocol allows them to simply gather the information from the various devices down the
network hierarchy.

Role of NMS: NMS software is responsible for identification of a problem, the exact source(s) of the
problem, and solving them. NMS systems not only are responsible for the detection of faults, but also for
collecting device statistics over a period of time. An NMS may include a library of previous network
statistics along with problems and solutions that were successful in the past—useful if faults recur. NMS
software can then search its library for the best possible method to resolve a particular problem.

NMS Components: An NMS manages the Network Elements. These elements or devices are managed
by the NMS, so these devices are called managed devices. Device management includes:

 Faults,

 Accounting,

 Configuration,

 Performance, and

 Security

Hence in short we call it FCAPS management. Each of these five functions is specific to an organization,
but the basic idea to manage these devices is FCAPS.

ABC Network: Computers’ Network at ABC is a network employing different technologies, which range
from the slow speed satellite links to the gigabit Fiber optic backbones. Due to the deep penetration of
ABC’s business into far flung areas of the country, the media used are also diverse. Since network
management at the detailed level is always specific to one particular network. So all the above
mentioned factors force us to look for an NMS which can take care of specific needs to ABC network.
ABC’s NMS Needs: Following list does not necessarily outline all the network management
requirements that ABC looks forward to have. However the list mentioned below can give a good idea
on ABC’s expectations from the proposed system:

1. Real time uptime monitoring of all Network nodes and Network Devices
2. Real time uptime monitoring of critical Servers, Storage etc.
3. Real time uptime monitoring of all the critical Services.
4. Provisioning of Detailed component level reporting with statistical analysis.
5. Provisioning of Briefly detailed Reports for mid-level-management.
6. Provisioning of Summary/ dashboard reports for the top management.
7. Provisioning of SLA monitoring based on vendor agreements.
8. Configuration management of all the network devices deployed at ABC network.
9. Inventory Collection
10. 3D view of network topology and instantaneous Logical Connectivity snapshots.
11. QOS monitoring tools
12. Provisioning of Troubleshooting Assistance Tools based on the topology.
13. Fault Management: Provisioning of Correlation engine/ algorithms for quick fault isolation,
analysis, and conclusion.
14. Identification of individual devices creating problems i.e. Top Talkers etc.
15. Bandwidth Management i.e. monitoring, alerting, reporting, archiving.
16. Capacity Planning Features: Provision of Reports over traffic trends in specific areas suggesting
upgrades/ traffic engineering.
17. Performance Management: Close monitoring of RTD, Packet Losses, Retransmissions,
Throughput.
18. Log Analysis: Logs collection from network devices, prioritization of critical logs, alerting,
reporting.
19. Traffic Monitoring Features i.e. NetFlow Traffic Monitoring, Accounting etc.
20. Network discovery with L2 and L3 view of network.
21. Network Change Management
22. Graphical view of Routing Protocols and VLANs
23. Alerts on abnormal behaviors and reports on availability, uptime, interface statistics, routing
protocol statistics, traffic volumes etc.
24. Security Information management i.e. Logs and Compliance Reporting
25. Security Event Monitoring i.e. Real-time Monitoring and Incident Management.