Message-Id: <9104111852.AA00829@katka.funet.fi>
To: netf-netman@nic.nordu.net
Subject: NETF-MAN minutes
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 91 21:52:12 +0300
From: funman@katka.funet.fi

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Minutes of NETF-NETMAN in Stockholm 22.03.1991:
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List of participants:

Mats Brunell         matsb@sics.se
H}vard Eidnes        Havard.Eidnes@runit.sintef.no
Roland Hedberg       roland@umu.se
Juha Hein{nen        jh@funet.fi
Gunnar Lindberg      lindberg@cs.chalmers.se
Steen Linden         anubis@diku.dk
Reijo Metso          gucre@gd.chalmers.se
Gardar Nielsen       goggi@rhi.hi.is
Daniel Rudfeldt      daniel@nexus.se
Harri Salminen       hks@funet.fi
Jyrki Soini          Jyrki.Soini@funet.fi
G|ran Sterner        
Bernhard Stockman    boss@sunic.sunet.se
Mika Uusitalo        uusitalo@tut.fi

Chairman:  Harri Salminen
Secretary: Jyrki Soini

1. Agenda

Brunell told that there is a big interest for feedback among the
producers. Therefore we could do a favor for both them and in the
future for us by making document describing the needs identified.

There was no previously distributed agenda. It was decided that we
start with overview about current Network Management products held by
Juha Hein{nen, discuss what is the current status of network
management and the functionality needed and finally how to proceed.

2. Overview of Network Management Products.

Hein{nen presented the impressions he has received during CeBIT
exhibition.  The products are not the only ones existing, but the
ones he has seen.

HP's product has hierarcical displays and fine outlook. It also has
database support.

Digital's product looked cheap and was targeted for customers needing
strong DNA-architecture support.

Spyder's product is PC based. It has hierarcical displays.

Sun Network Management has no database support but has hierarcical
displays. The quality is about average but the University prices make
it interesting. Proxy agents could probably be written quite easily.

Cabletron's product looked the best. It has even CMIP support. The
features are sold separately.

Network Managers had a product, but it wasn't running at the exhibition.

Cisco's product is basic network management stuff. It has
configuration tool for making displays.

3. Current status

Link layer equipment like bridges, TDM-muxes and modems have usually
their own management products. They provide error counts, bit and
packet rates and so on.

Almost all providers of IP-software have nowerdays SNMP-support.

DECnet is manageable with DECnet's own management features or fore
coming CMIP. Also SNMP proxy agent could be written.

EARN is somewhat different in nature. There could be variables about
spool usage, file ages, link status and so on. One tool for such a
management is alarm system written by EOC.

X.25 statistics is needed of NORDUnet switches. Kvittem has done
scripts to collect them. There probably won't be SNMP agent for the
switches we have.

CLNS and DECnet Phase V are going to be managed by CMIP. For CLNS
there is also SNMP MIB defined.

Mail gateways could have management of queue lengths and old mail.

There are some contact information databases, but they are all
different. Some kind of standard is urgently needed.

4. Needed functionality

Configuration is a very vital for a good management product. The
configuration should be as automatic as possible for instance hosts on
the net could be found automatically. There should be some kind of
display configuration language enabling easy display creations and
modifications. Also management information base must be easily
extendible with any new MIB available. Trigger values and alerts are
needed also for new variables without new version of software. As the
management is distributed and has many levels, the configuration
should also be hierarcical and distributable.

Alerts for up and down events are not enough. Different levels of
alarms are needed for instance for overload alarming. Management
stations should get different alarms. Some alarms must be
acknowledged, some don't. Good alarming system is essential for the
network management.

There is a great need for statistical tools for planning of the
network. Some needed data is not available using SNMP. For instance
capacity planning needs information like percent of time the load is
over 90% of the line capacity.

Trouble ticketing system is needed to make management quality
professional. It could be integrated to management system, which has
to have some kind of database support anyhow.

5. Actions to be taken

Stockman promised to make a mailing list NETF-MAN@nic.nordu.net.

Salminen is going to write The Network Management - Needed Features
-document. Input is gathered from various sources:
- Johnny Eriksson is asked to check what additions are needed for link
layer MIBs.
- Stockman will write what kind of reports should be provided by the
network management product.
- DECnet phase IV requirements for management are asked from G|ran
Bengtson and Ingrid Dahl-Jensen.
- H}vard is going write general requirements of MIB-functionality.
- Olav Kvittem is asked to write what kind of management information
is needed concerning X.25.
- There should also be description about requirements for user
interface and the need for management of upper layer protocols for
instance to look after mail and printer queues.

6. Other business

Sterner asked what kind of management information we needed from
Telecoms. It was decided that NORDUnet staff will discuss with STI
about that.

At the end Sterner gave a quick look on AT&T's Management of
Management, which is a network management product designed to collect
data from different sources, for instance modems and IBM's netview
PC's.