Network Management (TU-Braunschweig)
Table of Contents:
This research project deals with the development of a flexible,
portable network management system that should assist network
operators during the network life cycle. During the last years, a
network management platform has been implemented which provides
flexibility and extensibility through the utilization of an
interpreted script language.
A set of tools has been developed for this platform (Topology
Discovery, Network Monitoring, Configuration Database, Trouble Ticket
System, Event Handling). The prototype is freely available and in use
other organizations. It has been presented to the public at the CeBIT
'94 computer exhibition.
Our current research interests are distributed network management
(management by delegation) and cooperating network management
systems. A brief introduction
into distributed network management is available in form of some
slides that I used in my talk during my visit at Twente.
During our activities, we have developed freely available network
management software that runs on most UNIX workstations. We frequently
make use of the Tool
Command Language (Tcl) to make our tools extensible. The software
is based on two key components:
- Tkined
Tkined is a programmable GUI for network management applications.
It allows to draw and maintain a map of a network configuration.
Objects on the map can be selected and manipulated by either
build-in tools or external scripts that communicate with the
Tkined editor.
- Scotty
Scotty is an extension to the Tcl interpreter that allows to access
various services and protocols useful for network management
applications (e.g. ICMP, DNS, SNMP). Some sample applications for
the Tkined editor are included to discover IP network topologies,
to troubleshoot IP hosts, to monitor IP and host performance, to
query SNMP information (including MIB browsers), to monitor SNMP
variables, to filter event messages from a syslog daemon, etc.
A third key component of a network management system is a
configuration database which stores administrative information about
users, accounts, devices, networks etc. We have implemented our own
database server called Bones for this but due to limited resources, we
are not able to support and enhance this software anymore. Instead, we
provide an interface to the msql database server written by David
J. Hughes (bambi@Bond.edu.au).
- J. Schönwälder, H. Langendörfer:
Administration of large distributed UNIX LANs with BONES
Proc. World Conference On Tools and Techniques for System
Administration, Networking, and Security
Arlington (Virginia), Arpil 1993.
- J. Schönwälder, H. Langendörfer:
INED - An Application Independent Network Editor
Proc. World Conference On Tools and Techniques for System
Administration, Networking, and Security
Arlington (Virginia), Arpil 1993.
- J. Schönwälder, H. Langendörfer:
How To Keep Track of Your Network Configuration
Proc. 7th Conference on Large Installation
System Administration (LISA VII)
Monterey (California), November 1993.
- J. Schönwälder, H. Langendörfer:
Netzwerkmanagement - Beschreibung des Exponats auf der CeBIT '94
Informatikbericht 94-02, TU-Braunschweig, March 1994.
- J. Schönwälder, S. Petri, H. Langendörfer:
Frei erhältliche Software für UNIX Administratoren
Proc. GUUG Jahrestagung
Wiesbaden, September 1994.
- J. Schönwälder, H. Langendörfer:
Eine Netzwerkmanagement-Plattform basierend
auf der Tool Command Language (Tcl)
GUUG Frühjahrsfachgespräche
Köln, March 1995.
- J. Schönwälder, H. Langendörfer:
Tcl Extensions for Network Management Applications
Proc. 3rd Tcl/Tk Workshop
Toronto (Canada), July 1995.
- J. Schönwälder, H. Langendörfer:
Einbindung applikations-spezifischer Agenten in das SNMP Management
In `Entwicklung und Management verteilter Anwendungssysteme',
Krehl Verlag, Dortmund, Oktober 1995.
- J. Schönwälder
Eine Netzwerkmanagement Plattform basierend auf der Tool Command Language
Presented at the GUUG workshop, Köln, March 1995.
- J. Schönwälder
Distributed Network Management -- Approaches and Problems
Presented at the University of Twente, Enschede, April 1995.
- J. Schönwälder
Tcl Extensions for Network Management Applications
Presented at the Tcl/Tk workshop, Toronto, July 1995.
- J. Schönwälder
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP): Past, Present, Future?
Presented at the GUUG workshop, Köln, February 1996.
Below are some links to various topics/sites related to network
management. It is mostly an excerpt from my ever growing bookmarks
file. Perhaps they are useful to some of you.
-
OSIMIS
(An implementation of the CMIP OSI protocol available on the
Internet.)
-
ITU-DOC
(The ITU (CCITT) standards archive - unfortunately this service
is not freely available to most of us.)