Alexandre POLOZOFF

Overview

Network management (TMN, SNMP or CMIP based tools) have primarily been concerned with management of actual network connectivity and availability of network servers. But one glaring lack of commercial network management platforms is the ability to monitor critical network applications that the end user depends upon. These applications (usually client-server applications, gateways, SQL servers, logon/logoff to network applications, etc.) typically require the same type of network management as their hardware counterparts but rarely receive any attention. The reason for this lack of attention is the specialized knowledge of the application that is required to provide suitable network management capabilities not easily abstracted into GDMO.

The inability to provide a generic GDMO has kept commercial network management applications from integrating network application management to their repertoire. Yet most network administrators will tell you that time and time again their network management platform report that network connectivity and server availability is up but yet the client end user is incapable of accessing critical business applications. The end user could care less if the network is up because as far as they are concerned their applications are performing below par or not at all.

Likewise, most network client applications are disseminated to the end user via software distribution over the network. While current software distribution tools are able to deal with some network glitches during the actual transfer the problem remains whether batch files that install the software on the end user's machine actually complete successfully or not.

Having worked in several network management development environments and actually worked as a network operations administrator I have had to deal with the complexities of hardware and software (application and distribution) monitoring. This paper details the different scenarios and the integration of in-house developed software in order to provide proactive response capabilities to impending network application outages.

Integration Strategies

The first line of attack in approaching any network application management situation is the ability to integrate (that means to incorporate in-house developed software) with the network application under surveillance. Integration includes both software actually running on the client's computer, the server applications tending the client's request, software distribution to the end user and any gateway/network connectivity software the end user requires to perform their job.

One perceives this as a complicated undertaking considering the broad number of applications. That it is. Though there are strategies to integrate with applications that minimize software development in order to achieve the intended goal of proactively catching problems before they become a problem.

You also need to have the ability to initiate unattended fixes to the client. This is one primarily through the

 

Protocol Decisions

The first and foremost decision that has to be made is what protocol is to be utilized for handling the network application management services we are going to implement. Unlike many others in the network management field I am of the firm belief that each network situation is unique and depending on your network one protocol or another may or may not be suitable. I will not be pushing SNMP, CMIP or any other methodological protocol down your throat. In many situations these may not be the most advantageous protocols to use simply because TCP/IP is not used within the network. I worked on one very successful network application managent where the network management protocol was over NETBIOS. So, you have to look at your unique networking environment and determine what protocols you can utilize without impacting your network.

And really, there are very few advantages of one protocol over another, especially if the "better" protocol won't run over your network!

 

OS Development and NM Environment

This I will leave up to you to decide what is best for your environment. There are a few things to keep into consideration for the environment you ultimately decide upon.

• Support for the protocol you have decided to use
• Tools that support the protocol and the OS environment
• Easy to use development tools geared for your NM needs
• The ability to develop the client side software (agents) as well