SNMP is now the most common management protocol and that is rightly so. Nevertheless which are the alternative protocol solutions, not to mention why decide to use SNMP? Are there any times when some other protocols could be put to use or simply are best utilized? These are typically concerns that a number of persons try to ask every once in awhile. For this reason I'll make an effort to help answer each of them currently, based on my own 20 years experience within Element, Network and also Service Management. Note that the next few paragraphs should really be used simply as food for thought regarding the current network management protocol options, i.e. SNMP, CLI, Netconf as well as 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.
Within 2002, the Internet Architecture Board and people in IETF's network management circle got together with network operators to talk about the matter. The results from this meeting are really recorded inside RFC 3535. It appears service providers had been largely employing proprietary Command Line Interfaces (CLI) to set up their devices. CLI contained a variety of features which the operators appreciated, like the indisputable fact that it seemed to be text-based, compared to the BER-encoded SNMP. Note also that many equipment manufacturers wouldn't provide the option to wholly setup their very own products via SNMP.
Simply as operators mostly liked to create scripts to help configure their particular network nodes, they realized that CLI was short on various ways. They were also surprised by the unknown dynamics in the result. The content and format of output was vulnerable to changes in ways unforeseen. At the same time, Juniper Networks came up with an XML-like management technique. This technique has been sent to the IETF and later given to a wider circle. Collectively, these incidents led IETF towards introduction of NetConf protocol which is anticipated to be much better in-line considering the demands of network operators and devices manufacturers.
On the IP network front, we had CISCO that before long seen that a more lightweight protocol was basically needed to be better suited for Performance Management. As a result, CISCO created Netflow that has turned into a standard today (named IPfix) that was selected by so many Manufacturers.
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.
Within 2002, the Internet Architecture Board and people in IETF's network management circle got together with network operators to talk about the matter. The results from this meeting are really recorded inside RFC 3535. It appears service providers had been largely employing proprietary Command Line Interfaces (CLI) to set up their devices. CLI contained a variety of features which the operators appreciated, like the indisputable fact that it seemed to be text-based, compared to the BER-encoded SNMP. Note also that many equipment manufacturers wouldn't provide the option to wholly setup their very own products via SNMP.
Simply as operators mostly liked to create scripts to help configure their particular network nodes, they realized that CLI was short on various ways. They were also surprised by the unknown dynamics in the result. The content and format of output was vulnerable to changes in ways unforeseen. At the same time, Juniper Networks came up with an XML-like management technique. This technique has been sent to the IETF and later given to a wider circle. Collectively, these incidents led IETF towards introduction of NetConf protocol which is anticipated to be much better in-line considering the demands of network operators and devices manufacturers.
On the IP network front, we had CISCO that before long seen that a more lightweight protocol was basically needed to be better suited for Performance Management. As a result, CISCO created Netflow that has turned into a standard today (named IPfix) that was selected by so many Manufacturers.
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Finally, if you like to learn more, please read the following interesting articles: A History of SNMP and comparison with other protocols and What is the TMN Network Management model
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