CCNA – Semester4

Module 6
Network Management

Objectives

• Differences between a NOS and a traditional OS

• Identify network management tools
• Describe SNMP and CMIP
 Workstations and Servers

Workstations

• A workstation uses special softwares to perform the

following tasks:
– Intercepts user data and application commands
– Decides if the command is for the local operating system or for the
NOS.
– Directs the command to the local operating system or to the network
interface card (NIC) for processing and transmission onto the network
– Delivers transmissions from the network to the application running on
the workstation
Server

• Server systems must be equipped to support

multiple concurrent users and multiple tasks as
clients make demands on the server for remote
resources.
• Servers usually have high-capacity, high-speed
disk drives, large amounts of RAM, high-speed
NICs, and in some cases, multiple CPUs.

Introduction to NOS

• A computer OS is the software foundation on

which computer applications and services run
on a workstation.
• A NOS enables communication between
multiple devices and the sharing of resources
across a network.
Windows NT

• NT 4 was designed to provide an environment for

mission critical business that would be more stable than
the Microsoft consumer operating systems.
• Program failures are isolated and do not require a
system restart.
• Windows provide preemptive multitasking, file level
security, file-by-file compression

Windows 2000 Professional

• Windows 2000 Professional is not designed to

be a full NOS.
• The primary purpose is to be part of a domain
as a client-side operating system.
• It can be a file server, a print server, an FTP
server, and a web server, but will only support
up to ten simultaneous connections.
Windows 2000 Server
• The Active Directory Services feature serves as the
centralized point of management of users, groups,
security services, and network resources.
• It includes the multipurpose capabilities required for
workgroups and branch offices as well as for
departmental deployments of file and print servers,
application servers, web servers, and communication
servers.
• Windows 2000 Advanced Server provides the additional
hardware and software support needed for enterprise
and extremely large networks.

Windows .NET Server

• Windows .NET Server is built on the Windows

2000 Server kernel, but tailored to provide a
secure and reliable system to run enterprise-
level web and FTP sites in order to compete with
the Linux and UNIX server operating systems.
Origins of UNIX

• UNIX was designed to support multiple users,

multitasking and marketed for network servers only.
• UNIX, in its various forms, continues to advance its
position as the reliable, secure OS of choice for mission-
critical applications that are crucial to the operation of a
business or other organization.
• UNIX is also tightly integrated with TCP/IP.

Origins of Linux

• Linux was UNIX-like in its operation but used

software code that was open and completely
free of charge to all users.
• Linux is one of the most powerful and reliable
operating systems in the world today.
• Application support must be considered when
Linux is implemented on a desktop system.
Apple

• Apple Macintosh computers were designed for

easy networking in a peer-to-peer, workgroup
situation.
• Network interfaces are included as part of the
hardware and networking components are built
into the Macintosh operating system.
• The Macintosh, or Mac, is popular in many
educational institutions and corporate graphics
departments.

MAC OSX

• Mac OS X support for

protected memory,
preemptive multitasking,
advanced memory
management, and
symmetric
multiprocessing. It
allows AppleTalk and
Windows connectivity.
Concept of service on servers

• Remote management is a powerful service that allows

administrators to configure networked systems that are
miles apart.
• Network processes are referred to as services in
Windows 2000 and daemons in UNIX and Linux.

Network Management
Network management requirements
• The network administrator must actively manage the network,
diagnose problems, prevent situations from occurring, and
provide the best performance of the network for the users.

Network management model

SNMP and CMIP standards

SNMP protocols

• SNMP was adopted as the standard for TCP/IP

internets in 1989
• SNMPv2c provides support for centralized and
distributed network management strategies,
improves the SMI, protocol operations,
management architecture, and security.
• SNMPv3 provides secure access to MIBs by
authenticating and encrypting packets over the
network.
Organizational model for SNMP
• The organizational model for SNMP based network management includes four
elements:
– Management station
– Management agent
– Management information base
– Network management protocol

Network management station

• Usually a standalone workstation, but it may be

implemented over several systems.
• It includes a collection of software called the network
management application (NMA).
• SNMP uses User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and
communicates over ports 161 and 162. It is based on an
exchange of messages. There are three common
message types:
– Get: Enables the management station to retrieve the value of MIB
objects from the agent.
– Set: Enables the management station to set the value of MIB objects
at the agent.
– Trap: Enables the agent to notify the management station of
significant events.
Management information base

• MIB is used to store the structured information

representing network elements and their
attributes.
• The structure itself is defined in a standard
called the structure of management information
(SMI)
• SMI defines the data types that can be used to
store an object, how those objects are named,
and how they are encoded for transmission over
a network.

Management agents

• Are key network platforms and devices, other hosts,

routers, bridges and hubs, equipped with SNMP so that
they can be managed.
• Provide management information to the NMS. All the
management information of a particular agent is stored
in the MIB on that agent.
• An agent might keep track of the following:
– Number and state of its virtual circuits
– Number of certain kinds of error messages received
– Number of bytes and packets in and out of the device
– Maximum output queue length, for routers and other internetworking
devices
– Broadcast messages sent and received
– Network interfaces going down and coming up
RMON

• Network management applications often offload

some network management functionality to a
remote monitor (RMON) probe.
• The RMON probe gathers management
information locally, and then the network
manager periodically retrieves a summary of
this data.
• RMON gather statistics by analyzing every
frame on a segment.

Components of organization model

Network management applications

• The network management applications rely on

the host operating system, and on the
communication architecture.
• Includes a GUI interface to allow the network
administrator to monitor and manage the
network
• Examples of network management applications
are Ciscoworks2000, HP Openview, and
SNMPv2c.

Understanding the protocol

Understanding the community strings

SNMPv2c message format

SNMPv3 message format

Configuring SNMP

• More than one read-only string is supported.

• The default on most systems for this community string
is public. It is not advisable to use the default value in an
enterprise network.
• To set the read-only community string used by the
agent, use the following command:
Router(config)#snmp-server community string ro
– String – Community string that acts like a password and permits access to
the SNMP protocol
– ro – (Optional) Specifies read-only access. Authorized management stations
are only able to retrieve MIB objects.
Configuring SNMP

• More than one read-write string is supported.

• All SNMP objects are available for write access.
• The default on most systems for this community string
is private. It is not advisable to use this value in an
enterprise network.
• To set the read-write community string used by the
agent, use the following command:
Router(config)#snmp-server community string rw
– rw – (Optional) Specifies read-write access. Authorized management
stations are able to both retrieve and modify MIB objects

Configuring SNMP

• There are several strings that can be used to

specify location of the managed device and the
main system contact for the device.
Router(config)#snmp-server location text
Router(config)#snmp-server contact text
Cisco syslog

• The Cisco syslog logging utility is based on the

UNIX syslog utility.
• System events are usually logged to the system
console unless disabled.
• The syslog utility is a mechanism for
applications, processes, and the operating
system of Cisco devices to report activity and
error conditions.

Syslog facility
Configuring syslog
• To enable logging to all supported destinations:
Router(config)#logging on
• To send log messages to a syslog server host, such as
CiscoWorks2000:
Router(config)#logging hostname | ip address
• To set logging severity level to level 6, informational:
Router(config)#logging trap informational
• To include timestamp with syslog message:
Router(config)#service timestamps log datetime

Summary
• The functions of a workstation and a server
• Development of Networking Operating Systems (NOS)
• An overview of the various Windows platforms and other
OSes
• Reasons for network management
• The layers of OSI and network management model
• The role that SNMP and CMIP play in network monitoring
CCNA4 – Module6