JUNOS High Availability

Chapter 17. Monitoring Multivendor Networks

Assuming you haven’t skipped too many chapters, if you have made it this far into the book you have learned how to transition routing, switching, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), and the related signaling protocols from a single-vendor to a multivendor environment without risking the availability of the network. A major part of the transition is retaining the ability to monitor the performance and stability of the network. The primary purpose of network monitoring is to protect the availability of the network from hardware failure, configuration error, unauthorized access or activity, and performance degradation—in short, making sure the network is capable of providing performance and services as designed.

This chapter describes configuration elements and gives tips to support classic monitoring and management of fault, configuration, accounting, performance, and security (FCAPS) in a network with high availability requirements. The chapter describes both JUNOS and IOS configuration elements pertaining to Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), system logging, remote access, and simple traffic monitoring in relation to their ability to support high availability.

Network monitoring is built on the premise that deviation from a defined norm can be detrimental to the network. Therefore, it is critical to establish a baseline of what is normal for the network. It is impossible to identify abnormal behavior without an awareness and understanding ...