Essential SNMP, 2nd Edition

Applying the Concepts of Network Management

Being able to apply the concepts of network management is as important as learning how to use SNMP. This section of the chapter provides insights into some of the issues surrounding network management.

Business Case Requirements

The endeavor of network management involves solving a business problem through an implementation of some sort. A business case is developed to understand the impact of implementing some sort of task or function. It looks at how, for example, network administrators do their day-to-day jobs. The basic idea is to reduce costs and increase effectiveness. If the implementation doesn't save a company any money while providing more effective services, there is almost no need to implement a given solution.

Levels of Activity

Before applying management to a specific service or device, you must understand the four possible levels of activity and decide what is appropriate for that service or device:

Inactive

No monitoring is being done, and, if you did receive an alarm in this area, you would ignore it.

Reactive

No monitoring is being done; you react to a problem if it occurs.

Interactive

You monitor components but must interactively troubleshoot them to eliminate side-effect alarms and isolate a root cause.

Proactive

You monitor components, and the system provides a root-cause alarm for the problem at hand and initiates predefined automatic restoral processes where possible to minimize downtime.

Reporting of Trend Analysis