Local Networks and the Internet: From Protocols to Interconnection

Chapter 16

Network Administration

SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is the first standardized network administration protocol. As indicated by its name, this protocol has been designed to be simple. It is envisioned to be used in small sites, as the processing power to manage the system is not very high. SNMP enables us to add, modify or delete parameters inside network equipment.

16.1. Vocabulary and concepts

An agent is a program run on the equipment that we want to manage that has direct access to the equipment’s hardware and software. It is interrogated remotely and furnishes information or executes requested instructions.

At the other end is the administration platform(s). This software is often graphical. Via a proprietary or standard administration protocol, it interrogates the agents and displays the results to the administrator after carrying out processes of varying complexity (means, variance, etc.).

— All information about the management of networks is stored in databases. There are two types of database. The first type describes the objects that are managed inside the equipment. This description gives the type, format and size of these objects. It does not, however, give their values. These evolve dynamically and are not kept in the database. For each element query in this database, the equipment will, in fact, look directly at its internal registers. The second ...