Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
After a new network is designed, installed, and configured, it must be managed by the
operations team. Network management tools are used to gather operating statistics and
to manage devices. Statistics are gathered on WA N bandwidth utilization, router CPU
and memory utilization, and interface counters. Configuration changes are also made
through network management tools such as CiscoWorks. The ISO defines five types of
network management processes that are commonly known as FCAPS. These processes
are as follow s:
Fault management:
Refers to detecting and correcting network fault problems
■
Configuration management:
Refers to baselining, modifying, and tracking config-
uration changes
■
Accounting management:
Refers to keeping track of circuits for billing of services
■
Performance management:
Measures the network's effectiveness at delivering
packets
■
Security management:
Track s the authent ic at ion and author iz at ion infor mat ion
■
Network management is supported by the elements listed in Table 15-2.
Ta b l e 1 5 - 2
Network Management Elements
Network Management
Element
Description
NMS
Network management systems run the applications that man-
age and monitor managed devices.
Network management proto-
cols and standards
These are used to exchange management information be-
tween the NMS and the managed devices. The key protocols
and standards are SNMP, MIB, and RMON.
Managed devices
These are the devices managed by the NMS.
Management agents
Reside in the managed devices and include SNMP agents and
RMON agents.
The protocols and tools described is this chapter perform some of these functions. SNMP
is the underlying protocol used for network management. Agents are configured in man-
aged devices (routers) that allow the NMS to manage the device. RMON is used for ad-
vanced monitoring of routers and switches. CDP is a Cisco proprietary protocol that
allows the discovery of Cisco devices. NetFlow is a network monitoring solution that al-
lows for greater scalability than RMON. Syslog allows system messages and error events
to be gathered for review.
