Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) which will help you to increase your understanding on Network Management System (NMS)
Q1. What is Network Management System?
A network management system is a framework for managing the hardware and software components of a company’s data network. It allows an administrator to monitor all parts of the network from a central server and can help optimize the performance of a network and improve its security. Network management systems are common in large organizations because a network administrator can use them to oversee extensive networks that include hundreds or thousands of separate components.
Q2. What are different types of Network Management Systems?
Network management systems come in several configurations, including cloud-based, on-site and off-site. Here are descriptions of these three types of network management systems:
Cloud-based
Some companies choose to purchase their network management systems as cloud-based services, which store data online. Cloud-based systems often offer the advantage of lower costs since they don’t require the company to invest in on-site servers. They can also allow IT personnel to access their services wherever they are and may allow the provider to send automatic updates and extensions to their network when required.
On-site
A business may choose to base its network management system on its premises. These systems may have higher startup costs but often offer improved security. On-site servers may also provide better performance for large networks, but they often require extensive maintenance from company personnel. This makes on-site network management systems more common for large enterprises that have the IT staff and facilities to house them.
Off-site
An enterprise may choose to locate its network management services in an off-site data facility. This type of network management system may allow the company to save money by avoiding the cost of installing and maintaining on-site servers. It may also provide increased performance for large networks,but may not be as secure as on-site data storage.
Q3. How does a network management system do its job?
Network management systems collect data from connected network devices such as switches, routers, access points, and client devices. They also give network administrators fine-grained control over how those devices operate and interact with one another.
The data captured from these devices is used to proactively identify performance issues, monitor security and segmentation, and accelerate troubleshooting.
Q4. What kinds of devices can a network management system control?
Many network management platforms started as a way to control LANs. As enterprise networks increased in complexity and diversity, these management planes extended their capabilities into SD-WAN, security, and IoT.
The most effective platforms combine devices and sensors into a single view of network traffic, making it easy for IT not only to monitor but to protect and remediate performance issues.
Q5. How do network elements send data to the system?
Network management systems collect real-time data from network elements, such as switches, routers, and access points, as well as from endpoint devices, such as mobile phones, laptops, and desktops. This information is used to provide insights into the health of the network.
Typically, the data is collected and sent to the system in one of two ways:
• SNMP: The Simple Network Management Protocol is an open standard and has been widely supported by most manufacturers of network elements since the early 1990s. SNMP queries each element in the network and sends each response to the network management system.
• Streaming telemetry: A software agent installed in a network element allows for the automatic transmission of key performance indicators in real time. Streaming telemetry is rapidly replacing SNMP, because it is more efficient, can produce many more data points, and is more scalable. And telemetry standards, such as NETCONF/YANG, are gaining traction as ways to offer the same multivendor support as SNMP.
Q6. What are the most important network management capabilities?
When it comes to managing a complex or highly distributed network, the three most critical capabilities of a network management tool are directly tied to how well that platform unifies sites and remote workers.
First, ease of adoption and deployment directly affects the value that IT teams will get from the tool. There’s an adage in software as a service (SaaS)—”Adoption is the new ROI”—and the same is true for network management. If it’s not easy to deploy and use on a daily basis, it will quickly fall by the wayside.
It’s also key to find a platform that can manage the full scope of the network, from access to WAN to IoT.
And finally, the security, control, and treatment of network data must have equal priority, no matter how you choose to deploy.
Q7. What are the top myths about network management systems?
Networks become more complicated as the number of devices and applications connected to them grows, but a complicated network doesn’t require a complicated-to-use network management system. Today’s network management systems are open, extensible, and software-driven to help accelerate and simplify network operations while lowering costs and reducing risk.
Powered by deep intelligence and integrated security, these systems deliver automation and assurance across the entire network, whether big or small, resulting in better efficiency and cost-savings while offering end-to-end visibility, automation, and insight.
Open APIs and standards such as OpenConfig mean users can optimize their networks with solutions that best fit their business objectives.
Q8. How can network management systems meet the demands of hybrid work?
In today’s hybrid work environment, organizations face a variety of new challenges. The challenges include a highly distributed and mobile workforce, an inconsistent range of quality connectivity options, and the need to rapidly implement tools for collaboration, support, and business continuity.
In turn, network management systems need to be agile, with built-in intelligence and automation to facilitate decision making and reduce errors. Security must be inherent and prioritized to help ensure that networks and the devices connected to them are secure from the core to the edge.
Q9. What is the difference between network management and network management systems?
While network management refers to the tasks administrators perform to maintain and secure a network, the network management system—also known as network management software—is a tool that the administrators use for performing those tasks.
Q10. What are the 5 different types of network management?
Fault management, in many ways, is the most fundamental area of the ISO network management model because it addresses the ability to maintain operations of the entire infrastructure. Fault management applies a combination of technology and processes to detect, repair and document errors that could interfere with network operations.
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) services are commonly used to identify problems and alert the appropriate IT manager. These tools also report and record issues that IT managers can analyse for trends, which can yield important insights into longer-term issues that can be addressed to improve performance.
Configuration management involves more than just the initial setup of routers, switches, servers or other pieces of network equipment. It also encompasses the ongoing tracking of any changes to the configuration of the system. Because configuration issues are one of the major causes of outages, organizations need to have effective tools and best practices to address every aspect of configuration management.
A crucial part of this is monitoring and recording any configuration adjustments that occur involving network hardware and software. For example, documenting when a new network interface is installed or an OS is refreshed. Although network managers can record these changes manually, manual monitoring can be a cumbersome and inefficient use of resources. Many opt to use configuration management software.
Accounting management documents all network utilization information. Primarily for bookkeeping purposes, accounting management will bill back or track departments or lines of business for usage. For smaller organizations that don’t have multiple departments, chargeback is irrelevant. However, all businesses and government entities need to track utilization.
This information is essential for cost management. It can also be important to recognize trends that indicate inefficiencies that might be caused by a configuration issue or some other error. For larger enterprises, documenting which units and users are consuming bandwidth is crucial to justify the relevance of the network to business operations. IT is typically seen as a cost center, so this type of network management is vital, especially since IT is often under the aegis of the CFO.
Performance management aims to ensure acceptable service levels in the network to support optimal business operations. A big component of performance management is collecting statistics on network service quality on an ongoing and consistent basis. Network monitoring tools cull performance data on a range of metrics — either through passive monitoring of network traffic or synthetic tests — and then feed that information into performance monitoring applications. Performance monitoring compiles and analyzes statistics on metrics like link utilization, packet loss rates and network response times.
This data can be fed into an SNMP management system, which alerts network managers when service levels drop below or exceed acceptable thresholds. While alert fatigue can be a major issue with network managers sometimes ignoring important fault indicators, successful performance management requires consistent and accurate monitoring. Network management systems can help diminish alert fatigue by correlating network performance data from multiple sources, sometimes associating it with IT data from other aspects of the enterprise, such as application performance data.
Security management is a multi-layered discipline within network management that requires ongoing collection and analysis of relevant information. Functions that fall under the security management umbrella include network authentication, authorization and auditing. Most security management services incorporate foundational capabilities, such as network firewall configuration and management, vulnerability management, intrusion detection systems and unified threat management. Organizations can use these to set and execute on policies.
In recent years, personnel inside and outside the IT organization have come to understand how crucial security is to enterprise operations. A security breach can lead to the loss of data and potentially take down the network. The primary goal of network security management is to ensure that only authorized users and devices can access the network resources to which they have rights. Unauthorized users or devices that are determined to have malware or some other malicious or harmful code are deflected. A roles-based component in security management software can also recognize if users should have access to specific resources based on their job function.