Networks & Computers

Typically network management software was engineered in the 1990s, and computer programmers used older languages and transmission technologies, like the ubiquitous internet protocol version 4, or IPv4. Some of this software was used by large corporations to detect faults by intercepting information in SNMP traps sent from a variety of network hosts. These fault management solutions were mostly acquired by large IT management software vendors in the late 1990s through 2005, in an attempt to complement their legacy product offerings.

The best IT monitoring tools are those that can perform a variety of functions as well as fault management, but they must be ready for next generation networks and services. That is the key component that several of the legacy framework providers cannot supply – mobility and ease of use, especially with respect to adding critical new functionality to support new services.

And today there are new challenges with respect to managing networks, including security (addressed by SNMPv3) and the address space explosion caused by the sheer number of new machines and services that are being brought online (addressed by internet protocol version 6, or IPv6). The IPv6 protocol has been designed to have a much larger address space than IPv4, allows flexibility in routing internet traffic and allocating addresses, as well as eliminates the need to use network address translation or NAT to avoid address exhaustion; lastly, it simplifies some aspects of address assignment and renumbering when changing between Internet service providers (ISPs). IPv4 uses a 32-bit address space, which limits the number of supported hosts to 4,294,967,296 (232), whereas IPv6 supports a 128-bit address space, and expands the number of supported hosts to 3.4×1038 addresses.

Why are a huge number of addresses important? Because our world is becoming increasingly more complex, and each new gadget it seems is something that should connect to the internet. As the number of networked devices grows, the networks grow (especially the internet), and each one of these devices, no matter how large or small, will need a unique address. And if that device needs to send information over the network, chances are it will also be programmed to send traps, in order to alert a manager of informational or critical events. If new devices are IPv6 enabled and sending SNMPv3 secure traps, the fault manager had better be able to scale to being able to handle huge amounts of traffic as well as large volumes of encrypted SNMP Traps over the IPv6 protocol.

Unfortunately, the old legacy products cannot easily be retrofitted to support receipt of events and traps over these new protocols like SNMPv3 and IPv6. Because of these new challenges and the need to support those cutting-edge protocols, new software solutions are now needed. These new fault solutions will become a critical component in the entire management infrastructure to help keep next generation services available and functioning.

So, to sum up, basic fault management and receipt of SNMP Traps over IPv6 or using SNMPv3 is typically not offered by any of the top tier management vendors, leaving room for young upstarts to elbow into the market and take some serious market share.

Alex Paul is a writer on fault management for Oidview . Oidview.com focuses on Sending and capturing SNMP Traps offering a software available "fault management" and also a commercially available Snmp tools software application.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Fault Management Using Snmp Traps Over Ipv6