SNMP is actually among the most common supervision protocols and this is for good reason. However what are other useful protocol alternatives, and exactly why opt for SNMP? Are there any cases where some other protocols really should be applied or even are being currently used? These are typically but important questions that many persons are asking every so often. Because of this I'm going to make an effort to help answer all of them at this point, based on my very own 19 years experience in Element, Network and Service Management. Note that this article ought to be used simply as food for thought when researching today's protocol possible choices, which are SNMP, CLI, Netconf and also Netflow/IPFIX.
IETF created SNMP in the 1980s and so it became a very popular network management protocol. Through the early 21st century it has become very clear the fact that despite that was originally intended, SNMP was not utilized for setting up network devices, on the contrary it appeared to be largely being utilized for the purpose of network monitoring, i.e. Fault and Performance Management.
During two thousand and two, the Internet Architecture Board and key individuals in IETF's network management team started discussions with service providers to review the specific situation. The output of this particular gathering was the realization that operators have been primarily utilizing proprietary Command Line Interfaces (CLI) to setup network nodes. This possessed a variety of characteristics that service providers preferred, including the fact that it was actually text-based, unlike SNMP. In addition, a lot of equipment vendors didn't provide the capability to totally configure their devices by using SNMP.
Now regarding CLI, it became apparent that although operators sometimes liked to write scripts to assist manage their particular devices, they did find the CLI problematic. Most notable was the unforeseen nature of the end result. The information together with formatting of output was susceptible to alternation in unknown ways. Concurrently, Juniper Networks was in fact utilizing an XML-based network management process. That was shown the IETF and shared with a broader circle. These activities made IETF develop NetConf that's expected to be better aligned with all the desires of service providers and their suppliers.
Finally, specifically for routers/switches and IP networks, CISCO quickly understood that an increasingly compact protocol than SNMP seemed to be essential to scale significantly better for collection of performance counters on IP networks. Netflow, designed by CISCO is a standard nowadays (termed IPfix) that's been integrated by a lot of routers/switches Vendors.
IETF created SNMP in the 1980s and so it became a very popular network management protocol. Through the early 21st century it has become very clear the fact that despite that was originally intended, SNMP was not utilized for setting up network devices, on the contrary it appeared to be largely being utilized for the purpose of network monitoring, i.e. Fault and Performance Management.
During two thousand and two, the Internet Architecture Board and key individuals in IETF's network management team started discussions with service providers to review the specific situation. The output of this particular gathering was the realization that operators have been primarily utilizing proprietary Command Line Interfaces (CLI) to setup network nodes. This possessed a variety of characteristics that service providers preferred, including the fact that it was actually text-based, unlike SNMP. In addition, a lot of equipment vendors didn't provide the capability to totally configure their devices by using SNMP.
Now regarding CLI, it became apparent that although operators sometimes liked to write scripts to assist manage their particular devices, they did find the CLI problematic. Most notable was the unforeseen nature of the end result. The information together with formatting of output was susceptible to alternation in unknown ways. Concurrently, Juniper Networks was in fact utilizing an XML-based network management process. That was shown the IETF and shared with a broader circle. These activities made IETF develop NetConf that's expected to be better aligned with all the desires of service providers and their suppliers.
Finally, specifically for routers/switches and IP networks, CISCO quickly understood that an increasingly compact protocol than SNMP seemed to be essential to scale significantly better for collection of performance counters on IP networks. Netflow, designed by CISCO is a standard nowadays (termed IPfix) that's been integrated by a lot of routers/switches Vendors.
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So, if you are interested to learn more, please read theseinteresting posts: A History of SNMP and comparison with other protocols and What is the TMN Network Management model