COMP2106

Management Organization
Chapter 9

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Objectives
Distribution of Management tasks
Management Hierarchies
Philosophies of Management
Distribution
Management Gateways
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Management Organization
Client/Server model
Management application (client) manages
many systems and devices (servers)

Multiple Layers
Requests from higher layers trickle down
layer by layer until they hit the device

Usage of Intermediaries
Logging hosts as in Syslog
Netflow collectors as in Netflow
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 Scaling

Management
Complexity

Keep up with growing size and

complexity of networks

Management Complexity
Developing, deploying, maintaining and
extending management applications
(Build)
Keep pace with growth and size of
Networks (Runtime)
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Build Complexity
Applications start small, may be a single service
provisioning
New equipment from same vendor or others may get
added, different interfaces and configurations
Change in access networks (DSL to Cable)
Additional Services (add voice service)
Accomplishing all these changes and growth in a
single centralized system is impossible . Multiple
Cooperating management systems may be required
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 2013 George Brown College

Runtime Complexity
A single application may not meet the
growth in number of services, devices,
end systems etc. Applications needs to
be distributed across multiple servers.
Vulnerability against failure
System failure
Connection failure
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Management
Hierarchies
Management Proxies
Specialization of applications along the different
layers or types of tasks

Can reduce requirements for management

communication bandwidth. Helpful when
WAN links are involved
Different management applications may run
on their own hosts and user interface.
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Management Styles

Management by Delegation
Management by Objectives
Management by Exception

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Management by Delegation
Most common theme
Upper layer management system delegates certain
tasks to lower-layer systems
Fault Management
Logging of events
Deduplication of errors
Correlation of events

Performance Management
Netflow collection and aggregation
Polling of devices for statistics
Preprocessing of statistical information
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Management by Delegation
Accounting Management
Correlation of call detail records across
the network

Configuration Management
Autoconfiguration backups
Value-added configuration management
functions
Distribution of software patches across
the network
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RMON
Well known technology that implements Management by
Delegation
Special SNMP MIB that enables delegation of certain
tasks to RMON probes, a management appliance or an
application residing on a device
Examples for RMON tasks are
Collection of statistics
Subscribing to certain notifications
Generation of threshold crossing alerts

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Management by Objectives
Also known as Policy-Based Management
Management system establishes certain goals for
subordinate systems (Policy)
Subordinate systems translate these into required
lower-level actions
Policy goals example : Do not let voice services for
old end users be affected by those for new users
Policy rules example: If there are already 80 users
connected to a T1 port, reject any attempt to
provision additional
users.
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Management by Exception
Involves management tasks when something
unusual occurs
Involves delegation of monitoring tasks to a
subordinate, who alerts management
application when something unusual happens
Example is when a subordinate system
monitors the utilization and sends an alert
when utilization crosses certain level
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Management Mediation
Information, Services and protocols etc may be
different at different levels of management
hierarchy
Some kind of translation is required between the
agent at bottom of hierarchy and the manager at
the top level Management mediation
A gateway positioned between a manager and an
agent, where translation is required
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Mediation
An example : A Syslog-to-SNMP
Management Gateway
Function is to convert syslog
messages from an agent into SNMP
traps for a SNMP Manager
Define a syslog mediation MIB
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