Web-Based Management of Ip Networks and Systems
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WEB-BASED MANAGEMENT OF IP NETWORKS AND SYSTEMS THÈSE No 2256 (2000) PRÉSENTÉE AU DÉPARTEMENT DE SYSTÈMES DE COMMUNICATION ÉCOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FÉDÉRALE DE LAUSANNE POUR L’OBTENTION DU GRADE DE DOCTEUR ÈS SCIENCES PAR Jean-Philippe MARTIN-FLATIN Ingénieur généraliste diplômé de l’ECAM (Lyon, France) de nationalité française acceptée sur proposition du jury: Prof. Jean-Pierre Hubaux, directeur de thèse Prof. Roland Balter, corapporteur Dr. Subrata Mazumdar, corapporteur Prof. André Schiper, corapporteur Prof. Morris Sloman, corapporteur Lausanne, EPFL 2000 ABSTRACT The management of IP networks and systems is currently based on the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and the SNMP management architecture. This poses a number of problems. Some are related to the efficiency, scalability, latency, and expressiveness of SNMP, others to the way the design of SNMP-based management platforms historically evolved. After reviewing the numerous alternatives that are currently investigated by the research community, including mobile code and intelligent agents, we propose to base the next generation of management applications on a new management architecture: WIMA, the Web-based Integrated Management Architecture. WIMA is based on standard Web technologies. It relies on a push-based organizational model for regular management (i.e., data collection—for offline processing—and monitoring over a long period of time) and notification/event delivery, and a pull-based organizational model for ad hoc management (data retrieval over a very short time period). Its communication model is characterized by (i) the use of persistent HTTP connections between agents and managers (or between mid- and top-level managers in distributed hierarchical management); (ii) the support for any information model (SNMP, CIM, etc.); and (iii) a reversed client-server architecture that facilitates crossing firewalls. In WIMA, the preferred method for representing management data in transit is XML. It is well suited for distributed hierarchical management; it unifies the communication model across the entire range of integrated management (that is, network, systems, application, service, and policy management); and it offers high-level semantics to the management-application designer. All the major problems that we identified in SNMP are solved in WIMA. Our architecture is validated by a prototype: JAMAP, the JAva MAnagement Platform. Keywords: Network Management, Systems Management, Web-Based Management, Internet, Web, Push, WIMA, SNMP, CIM, HTTP, MIME, XML Index Keys in the Computing Research Repository (CoRR): • Area: Computer Science • Subject Classes: Networking and Internet Architecture; Distributed Computing iii RÉSUMÉ La gestion des réseaux et des systèmes IP repose actuellement sur le protocole SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) et l’architecture de gestion SNMP. Ceci pose un certain nombre de problèmes. Certains sont liés à l’efficacité, au passage à grande échelle, à la latence et à la puissance d’expression sémantique de SNMP; d’autres sont dûs à la façon dont les plateformes de gestion SNMP ont vu leur conception évoluer avec le temps. Après avoir passé en revue les nombreuses alternatives à SNMP actuellement envisagées par la communauté de recherche, et notamment le code mobile et les agents intelligents, nous proposons de bâtir la prochaine génération de solutions de gestion sur une nouvelle architecture de gestion: WIMA (Web-based Integrated Management Architecture). WIMA est fondée sur les technologies Web. Elle repose sur un modèle organisationnel diptyque utilisant d’une part un modèle push pour la gestion régulière (c’est-à-dire la collecte de données à des fins d’analyse a posteriori et le monitoring, tous deux opérant sur une longue durée) et l’envoi de notifications/évènements, et d’autre part d’un modèle pull pour la gestion ad hoc (gestion au coup par coup, sur une durée très courte). Le modèle de communication de WIMA est caractérisé par (i) des connexions HTTP permanentes entre agents et gestionnaires (ou entre gestionnaires de niveaux supérieur et inférieur en cas de gestion distribuée hiérarchique); (ii) le support de n’importe quel modèle informationnel (SNMP, CIM, ou autre); et (iii) une architecture client-serveur inversée qui facilite la traversée des pare-feux. Dans WIMA, il est recommandé d’utiliser XML pour représenter les données de gestion en transit. XML est bien adapté à la gestion distribuée hiérarchique et permet d’unifier le modèle de communication à travers le spectre entier couvert par la gestion intégrée: gestion de réseaux, de systèmes, d’applications, de services, de politiques, etc. XML offre également un niveau sémantique élevé au concepteur d’applications de gestion. Tous les problèmes majeurs que nous avons identifiés dans SNMP sont résolus dans l’architecture de gestion WIMA. Notre architecture est validée par un prototype: JAMAP (JAva MAnagement Platform). Mots-clés: gestion de réseaux, gestion de systèmes, gestion basée sur les technologies Web, Internet, Web, push, WIMA, SNMP, CIM, HTTP, MIME, XML Classification dans le Computing Research Repository (répertoire international de travaux de recherche en informatique): • catégorie: informatique • sous-catégories: réseaux et architecture de l’Internet; informatique répartie iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Jean-Pierre Hubaux for welcoming me on his team and supervising my Ph.D. thesis for four years. Having spent many years in industry, I dreaded becoming a student again. But he patiently put up with my frustration with no longer being in charge, he offered me exceptional working conditions, and he got the best out of me. I am very grateful for the freedom and independence he gave me over these years, and for helping me complete this dissertation on time. I also thank him for arranging the funding of my work by the Swiss National Science Foundation (FNRS) and EPFL. I am grateful to all the members of my Ph.D. committee for the time they spent reviewing my dissertation and the valuable feedback they provided me with. I also thank all my current and past colleagues at EPFL (especially those at ICA, TCOM, LIA, and LSE) for the friendly atmosphere and the good times we spent together. I especially thank Simon Znaty, who taught me how to do research and gave me a goldmine of pointers in network management, and Werner Almesberger, who helped me understand how the Linux kernel works and gave me some precious feedback on Chapter 7. Thanks also to Danielle Alvarez, our ever-smiling secretary, for shielding me from administrative headaches for four years; and thanks to Holly Cogliati for patiently improving my English and teaching me the differences between British and American English. During my Ph.D., I had the chance to meet several people outside EPFL with whom I had regular technical discussions, face to face or via email. They all contributed to improving the quality of my work. Special thanks go to Luca Deri, George Pavlou, Gian Pietro Picco, and Jürgen Schönwälder. I also thank the people I met at AT&T Laboratories, Bell Laboratories, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Imperial College, Institut d’Informatique et Mathématiques Appliquées de Grenoble (IMAG), and University of Twente for the multitude of questions they asked me while I was giving seminars there; they helped me consolidate my work. My Ph.D. work would not have been possible without the technical skills that I developed in my previous job. I would like to thank my former colleagues at ECMWF: Ditlef Martens, Otto Pesonen, and Baudouin Raoult, who taught me so much about Unix internals; Tony Bakker and Dick Dixon, who taught me the basics of networking; Walter Zwieflhofer and Claus Hilberg, my former supervisors, who taught me rigor when selling a technical solution to management; and all the others (Pam Prior, Petra Kogel, Matthias Nethe, Mike O’Brien, Hélène and Didier Garçon, etc.) who made my six years in England such a great working and human experience in my life. Further back in time, I am very grateful to Patrick Lachaize, who encouraged me to move into networking in 1989, before I heard of the Internet. What a visionary idea! I also express my deepest gratitude to Gilles Maignaud, Alain Martinez, and François Martin for teaching me, when I was 16–18, that mathematics, physics, and science at large can be great fun. Even in difficult times, I have always strived to take some pleasure in v vi doing my job. Their advice has served me throughout my career, and I am indebted to them for my continued interest in computer science. Finally, I thank my family and friends for their unwavering support throughout these four Ph.D. years. When other people were telling me that I was crazy to go back to university, they supported my project and encouraged me to pursue my childhood’s dream of becoming a researcher. Most of all, I thank my wife, Béatrice, whose daily love made my Ph.D. possible. She supported me when I had difficulties and offered me the family cocoon that enabled me to be creative. She also put up with the long nights and week-ends that I spent at the university and allowed me to commit fully to my work. I knew that I had married a rare pearl... Lausanne, August 11, 2000 DEDICATION To Béatrice To the memory of Louise and Henri vii viii EPIGRAPH Γηρασκωé δ'αιειè διδασκοµενοé s The older I get, the more I learn Solon (~640 – ~558 B.C.) ix x CONTENTS Abstract . iii Résumé. iv Acknowledgments . v Dedication . vii Epigraph . ix Contents . xi List of Figures . xvii List of Tables . xix 1 Introduction . 1 1.1 Background . 1 1.2 Ph.D. Work . 3 1.3 Caveat . 5 1.4 Organization of the Dissertation . 5 2 Problem Statement . 7 2.1 Terminology . 7 2.1.1 IP world vs. telecom world . 8 2.1.2 Network, systems, application, service, policy, and integrated management . 8 2.1.3 Management application, platform, and system.