XMLbased Network Management

1
XML-based Network Management
Hong-Taek Ju (???) Dept. of Computer Science and
Engineering Keimyung University, Daegu Korea Tel
82-53-580-5234 Email juht_at_kmu.ac.kr http//comn
et.postech.ac.kr/juht
2
Preliminary

• Expected Audience
• Some knowledge on network management.
• Basic understanding of Web technology.
• Graduate students, Researchers, Software
  Engineers.
• Tutorial Scope
• Introduction on XML technologies.
• Focus on Internet management.
• Focus on element and network, not on service and
  business management.
• State of the art for research work and standard
  activities
• Tutorial Objectives
• Precise understanding on what is XML-based
  network management.
• Concrete examples for applying XML to network
  management.
• Future research topics on XML-based network
  management.

3
Contents

• Introduction
• What is XML?
• Applicability of XML
• State of the Art for XML-based Network Management
• Closing Remarks

4
1. Introduction

• XML is an emerging technology for Web-based
  applications and has been in the spotlight.
• XML has many advantages
• Simplicity, openness, extensible, inexpensive
• Most people believe that XML will succeed much
  more than HTML, HTTP, Web, Java
• Advantages in XML-based network management
• Easy to learn not management domain specific
  technology
• Large supporting tools and technology Low
  development cost
• High compatibility with legacy management
  technology Integrated management.
• Low footprint on device applicable to the
  network devices.

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1. Introduction

• My definition of XML-based Network Management
• All alternative or complimentary approaches
  for the current management framework in order to
  solve the problems of current network management
  or improve the management environment by taking
  advantages of XML technologies

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2. XML What is XML?

• What does XML stands for?
• eXtensible not a fixed format, customizable.
• Markup used to define things.
• Language used to communicate or describe and
  encapsulate its information and pass it.
• XML was designed to describe data.
• Document Type Definition (DTD) or XML Schema is
  used.
• XML is self-descriptive.
• XML is free and extensible.
• XML allows the author to define his own tags.
• XML is a compliment to HTML.
• XML will be used for describing data and HTML for
  displaying same data.
• XML is a future Web technology.
• Quick standard process, large support by vendor.
• Common tool for all data manipulation and data
  transmission.

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2. XML Technology Map
WAP, XHTML
Standard
DTD, XML Schema
XSL
XSLT
Input
Define
Validate
XPath
Web Brower
Program Scripts Database Editor(file)
Generate
Input
XML
Input
Input
Parse
Dump
Exchange
SOAP
Remote System
DOM
Process
Program
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3. Applicability of XML

• Basic management tasks
• Management Information Modeling.
• Description framework for managed resource to
  managed object.
• Management Information Realization.
• Guarantees of consistency between managed
  resource and managed object.
• Management Information Distribution.
• Exchange of management information between
  management applications.
• Management Information Analysis.
• Process of management information production from
  collected information.
• Management Information Presentation.
• User interface for display management information
  or taking management command from operators.

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3. Basic Management Tasks
Agent
Modeling
Realization
Distribution
Manager
Presentation
Analysis
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3. Management Information Modeling

• Standard Information model
• XML Schema for management information modeling
• Advantages
• Easy to learn, not domain specific technology.
• Use of powerful and convenient graphical XML
  editor.
• Modeling result is concise and easy to read.
• Secondary benefits validation, sample data
  generation.
• Disadvantage
• No standard models, but easy to translate from
  standard information models.

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3. Management Information Realization

• Standard management frameworks leave it
  completely unspecified - viewed as a local
  matter.
• Model specification serves as a starting point
  for the coding of the agents.
• For Web interface and CLI, the model
  specification was not provided.
• For SNMP, MIB compilers have been used to
  generate MIB stubs.
• The stubs are supplemented with the code for
  actual access to resources.
• There is no common interface or data format
  between managed resource and management agents
  such as CLI, SNMP, Web.
• Large development cost and footprint.
• Consistency problem by multiple access to single
  managed resource.
• XML for management information realization
• XML can be used for middleware between agents and
  managed resources.
• Low footprint solution.
• Various method can be used for XML generation.

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3. Management information distribution

• Communication between management applications
• Agent ? Manger, Manager ? Manager
• Standard management communications
• North bound interface is usually based on CORBA.
• XML and CORBA are interoperable technologies.
• XML does not say anything about communication
  protocol, Implicitly HTTP is used.
• Reliable, efficient by compression, highly
  secure, high connectivity.
• Flexible by use of SOAP.

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3. Management Information Analysis

• This has not been standardized and based on data
  processing such as sorting, filtering, logging
  and correlating.
• Management platforms provide basic management
  functionality and development environment.
• Their price is usually very expensive.
• Customization requires large amount of time and
  effort.
• In most cases, they do not depend on standard
  technology.
• Recently, CORBA has been used widely as an
  implementation platform for management systems.
• XML for management information analysis.
• XML is a standard data processing tool.
• Many supporting tools (such as database) are
  available.
• Lots of developers having XML knowledge.

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3. Management Information Presentation

• This allows user interactive access to the
  management system.
• 
  
  Include telnet connection.
• 
  
  MS-Windows or X-Windows
• 
  
  Without use of XML technologies.
• XML for management information presentation
• Separation with display and data in Web
  environment.
• Platform independent standard display technology.
• Device dependant display support.
• Ubiquitous management user interface.
• User-friendly graphic interface.

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4. State of the Art for XML-based NM

• Research work
• Complimentary approaches to SNMP
• eXtensible Network and Application Management
  Instrumentation.
• SNMP to XML translator
• XML/SNMP Gateway
• Improvement approaches to Web-based network
  management
• Direct Web Interface for Device Configuration
• XML-based Device Configuration
• New Management Architectures
• XML-based Service Configuration
• Web-based Integrated Management Architecture
• XML-based Network Management Architecture
• Standard Activities
• Web Based Enterprise Management (WBEM)

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4. XNAMI

• eXtensible Network and Application Management
  Instrumentation (XNAMI)
• A. John, et al., Bell Labs, 1999
• A method for dynamic MIB expansion.
• XML is used for information modeling.

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4. SNMP to XML Translator (1)

• Automatic translation from SNMP MIB definition to
  XML.
• Model-level mapping Metamodel-level mapping.
• J.P. Martin-Flatin, EPFL, Aug. 2000
• Gave only idea and examples for the two
  approaches
• The two approaches were implemented in libsmi
  package.
• But there was no validation or application for
  the approaches.
• SNMP MIB to XML Schema mapping
• J. H. Yoon, DPNM Lab., POSTECH, Oct. 2001
• Formalized the two approaches into a concrete
  algorithm.
• Reduced information loss in the translation
  process by taking advantages of XML Schema.
• Validated its completeness by developing a simple
  SNMP MIB browser based on XML.

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4. SNMP to XML Translator (2)

• Model-level mapping
• SNMP MIB to DTD/XML Schema and XML documents

SNMP MIB
XML DTD
ifTable OBJECT-TYPE SYNTAX SEQUENCE OF
IfEntry interfaces 2 ifEntry OBJECT-TYPE
SYNTAX IfEntry ifTable 1 IfEntry
SEQUENCE ifSpeed
Gauge32 ifSpeed OBJECT-TYPE SYNTAX
Gauge32 ifEntry 5
lt!ELEMENT ifTable ifEntry gt lt!ELEMENT ifEntry
ifSpeed gt lt!ELEMENT ifSpeed (PCDATA) gt
XML Document
ltifTablegt ltifEntrygt ltifSpeedgt
lt/ifSpeedgt lt/ifEntrygt ltifTablegt
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4. SNMP to XML Translator (3)

• Metamodel-level mapping
• SNMP MIB to XML documents

XML DTD
lt!ELEMENT table column gt lt!ATTRIBUTE table name
CDATA gt lt!ELEMENT column scalargt lt!ATTRIBUTE
column name CDATAgt lt!ELEMENT scalar
(PCDATA)gt lt!ATTRIBUTE scalar name CDATAgt
SNMP MIB
ifTable OBJECT-TYPE SYNTAX SEQUENCE OF
IfEntry interfaces 2 ifEntry OBJECT-TYPE
SYNTAX IfEntry ifTable 1 IfEntry
SEQUENCE ifSpeed
Gauge32 ifSpeed OBJECT-TYPE SYNTAX
Gauge32 ifEntry 5
XML Document
lttable nameifTablegt ltcolumn
nameifEntrygt ltscalar nameifSpeedgt
lt/scalargt lt/columngt lt/tablegt
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4. SNMP to XML Translator (4)

• Applications of SNMP to XML translator
• Encoding SNMP MIB data
• 2. Information analysis or presentation for SNMP
  MIB data
• 3. Specification translation for SNMP to XML
  gateway

Web Server
XML/HTTP
SNMP Agent
SNMP
SNMP
XML
GW
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4. XML/SNMP Gateway

• What is XML/SNMP Gateway?
• Relays management information and operations
  between SNMP agent and XML-based manager system.
• While preserving the legacy SNMP agent, one can
  develop XML-based manager by using XML
  technology.
• Two basic requirements for the gateway
• Specification translation SNMP MIB ? XML
• For understanding the management information
  exported by SNMP agent.
• Interaction translation SNMP Operations ?? XML
  Operations
• For supporting interaction between two management
  applications
• XML/SNMP Gateway
• Y. J. Oh, DPNM Lab., POSTECH, May 2002
• For specification translation, Yoons SNMP to XML
  translator is used .
• For interaction translation
• XML does not specify the standard communication
  protocol.
• Proposed three levels of interaction translation
  methods Process, Message, Protocol

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4. XML/SNMP Gateway Architecture
XML-based Manager
HTTP Request Reponse
SOAP Request Reponse
Notification
XML/SNMP Gateway
HTTP Server
HTTP Client
Direct Call of DOM Interface
Request Parser
SOAP Server
XPath Handler
DOM
DOM Event
DOM Interface Call
MIB to XML Translator
XSL Generator
Target node
Trap node
DOM
value
SNMP Stack
Trap Receiver
SNMP Trap
SNMP Request
SNMP Response
SNMP Agent
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4. Direct Web Interface to Managed Devices

• Traditional Approach
• Result of embedding small Web server into network
  device.
• Ubiquitous, simple but powerful, user-friendly
  device management user interface.
• XML Approach (EmWeb XML parser)
• XML generation by program is enough small
  solution to be embedded.
• Separate display format and data generation.
• XML parser can save development cost by
  generating backend stub code based on XML schema.
  

Embedded Web Server
HTML or Java / HTTP
Embedded Web Server
XML XSL / HTTP
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4. XML-based Device Configuration

• Todays configuration management.
• SNMP is hardly used.
• Weak in information modeling power
• Action in side effect, simple MIB structure, etc,
• The CLI and direct Web interface are mostly used.
• Proprietary
• Different from vendor to vendor, product to
  product, release to release.
• Disadvantage in scalability.
• XML-based device configuration
• From Juniper Networks JUNOScripts
• and Cisco Configuration Register
• Proprietary
• But scalable
• And extensible

ltSetConfigurationgtltbgpgt ltportgt10.0.0.1lt/portgt ltne
ighborgt 10.0.0.2lt/neighborgt lt/bgpgtlt/SetConfigurati
ongt
XML RPC
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4. XML-based Application Management

• C. Ensel A. Keller, IBM Research, May 2001
• Apply XML, Xpath and RDF to describe, query and
  compute the service dependencies, respectively.
• RDF (Resource Description Framework)
• A general framework for how to describe any
  Internet resource such as a Web site and its
  content.
• XML is used for describing the resources.

RDF Schema
Service dependency
RDF description
e-business application
e-business application
Service Dependency
Xpath
Query
Customer database
e-business application
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4. WIMA

• Web-based Integrated Management Architecture
  (WIMA).
• J.P. Martin-Flatin, Ph.D Thesis, EPFL, Aug. 2000.
• HTTP-based management communication model.
• Dissociation of communication and information
  model
• URL encoding of management operation.
• Specifying information model and encoding in the
  MIME header.
• XML was suggested as one of encoding format.
• For notification delivery, reverse the HTTP
  client and server roles.

manager
agent
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4. XNM

• XML-based Network Management architecture (XNM)
• H. T. Ju, Ph.D Thesis, POSTECH, Oct. 2001
• Extended the use of EWS from direct Web user
  interface to Web-based management agent by using
  standard Web and XML technologies.
• Management information model
• Use XML schema for management information model
• Standard management information models does not
  cover a significant amount of managed resource to
  be managed.
• XML Schema is a widespread approach in many
  application areas.
• Utilize the advantages of XML schema for
  modeling.
• Management communication model
• Uses HTTP for management protocol without any
  extension.
• Uses the XPath standard for addressing managed
  objects
• Standard XML technology for addressing parts of
  an XML document.
• Effectively query the managed objects (Scoping
  and Filtering).
• Implemented the manager and agent system based on
  proposed architecture.
• Developed a management system for a commercial
  high density Linux server clusters based on our
  proposed architecture.

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4. WBEM Architecture

• Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM)
  Initiative.
• WBEM Architecture

Data Description CIM
CIM Ops. HTTP Access
lt/xmlCIMgtTransport Encoding
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4. WBEM Example
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4. WBEM Example
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4. WBEM Example

• M-POST /cimom HTTP/1.1
• HOST www.xyz.com
• Content-Type application/xml charset"utf-8"
• 73-CIMOperation MethodCall
• 73-CIMMethod GetClass
• lt?xml version"1.0" encoding"utf-8" ?gt
• ltCIM CIMVERSION"2.0" DTDVERSION"2.0"gt
•  ltMESSAGE ID"87872" PROTOCOLVERSION"1.0"gt
•   ltSIMPLEREQgt
•    ltIMETHODCALL NAME"GetClass"gt
•     ltLOCALNAMESPACEPATHgt
•      ltNAMESPACE NAME"root"/gt
•      ltNAMESPACE NAME"cimv20"/gt
•     lt/LOCALNAMESPACEPATHgt
•     ltIPARAMVALUE NAME"ClassName"gt
• ltCLASSNAME NAME"Joke"/gt
• lt/IPARAMVALUEgt
•    lt/IMETHODCALLgt
•   lt/SIMPLEREQgt

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4. WBEM Example
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4. WBEM

• WBEM standards are being implemented now by
  several groups as open source.
• The WBEMsource initiative is an umbrella
  organization for providing coordination between
  open source WBEM projects
• The Open Group's Pegasus project 
• OpenWBEM
• Sun WBEM Services
• B4wbem
• SNIA Open Source CIMOM
• Equipment vendors and operating system suppliers
  begin to support WBEM.
• Cisco
• Microsoft
• Sun
• Can WBEM replace SNMP?
• This was the panel topic in IM 2001, Seattle.
• Panel chair J. P. Martin-Flatin
• Panelists James W. K. Hong (POSTECH), Aiko Pras
  (U. of Twente), Jürgen Schönwälder (U.
  Braunschweig), Andrea Westerinen (Cisco), Jim
  Davis (Sun)

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5. Concluding Remarks

• XML provides a standard way to manage data on the
  Web - describe, process, exchange and display
  data.
• It has many advantages and become ubiquitous
  technology.
• There has been many activities for improving
  todays network management environment by taking
  advantages of XML.
• But not enough yet.
• Also, XML is no silver bullet, it a only tool,
  whose benefits lie primarily in the manner of its
  usage.

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Thank you
36
Useful References (1)

• General information about XML
• Recommendations
• w3c XML Recommandation Annotated,
  http//www.xml.com/axml/testaxml.htm
• w3c XSL version 1.0 Recommendation,
  http//www.w3.org/TR/xsl/
• w3c XSLT version 1.0 Recommendation,
  http//www.w3.org/TR/xslt.html
• w3c XSLT version 1.1 Working Draft,
  http//www.w3.org/TR/xslt11/
• Portal Sites
• A Technical Introduction to XML
  http//www.XML.com
• The XML Cover Pages Oasis, http//www.oasis-open
  .org/cover/sgml-xml.html
• XML Portal, http//www.xmlportal.co.kr/
• W3C, XML, http//www.w3c.org/xml
• XMLHack - developer news from the XML community,
  http//www.xmlhack.com
• Tutorials
• XML Introduction - Database Lab. Univ. Chung Nam,
  Korean, http//dblab.comeng.chungnam.ac.kr/7Edolp
  hin/xml/atoz/xml-9710/xml-9710.html
• Java Technology XML Tutorial,
  http//java.sun.com/xml/tutorial_intro.html
• Tutorials XML/HTML, http//www.zvon.
  org/index.php?nav_idtutorialsmimehtml
• 2. Web and XML-based Management
• DPNM, POSTECH http//dpnm.postech.ac.kr/xbm/index
  2.xml
• WBEM, http//www.dmtf.org/wbem

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Useful References (3)

• 3. Papers for XML-based network management
• John, A. Vanderveen, K. Sugla, B., A Java based
  SNMP agent for dynamic MIBs , Global
  Telecommunications Conference, 1999. GLOBECOM '99
  , Volume 1a , 1999. Page(s) 396 -400 vol. 1a
• Festor, O. Festor, P. Ben Youssef, N. Andrey,
  L., Integration of WBEM-based management agents
  in the OSI framework , Integrated Network
  Management, 1999. Distributed Management for the
  Networked Millennium. Proceedings of the Sixth
  IFIP/IEEE International Symposium on , 1999.
  Page(s) 49 -64
• Imamura, T. Maruyama, H., Mapping between ASN.1
  and XML , Applications and the Internet, 2001.
  Proceedings. 2001 Symposium on , 2001. Page(s)
  57 -64
• Tellez, J. Meriem, T.B., Management solutions
  for WDM networking , Networks, 2000. (ICON 2000).
  Proceedings. IEEE International Conference on ,
  2000. Page(s) 120 -124
• John, A. Vanderveen, K. Sugla, B., XNAMI-An
  extensible XML-based paradigm for network and
  application management instrumentation ,
  Networks, 1999. (ICON '99) Proceedings. IEEE
  International Conference on , 1999. Page(s) 115
  -124
• Natarajan, R. Mathur, A.P. McKee, P., A XML
  based policy-driven management information
  service , 2001 IEEE/IFIP International Symposium
  on Integrated Network Management Proceedings,
  Seattle, May 2001, pp. 277 -280
• Lewis, D. Mouritzsen, J.D., The role of XML in
  TMN evolution , 2001 IEEE/IFIP International
  Symposium on Integrated Network Management
  Proceedings, Seattle, May 2001, pp. 689 -702
• Ensel, C. Keller, A., Managing application
  service dependencies with XML and the resource
  description framework , 2001 IEEE/IFIP
  International Symposium on Integrated Network
  Management Proceedings, Seattle, Mya 2001, pp.
  661 -674
• Hong-Taek Ju, Mi-Jung Choi, Sehee Han, Yunjung
  Oh, Jeong-Hyuk Yoon, Hyojin Lee and James W.
  Hong, "An Embedded Web Server Architecture for
  XML-Based Network Management", Proc. of the
  IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management
  Symposium (NOMS 2002), Florence, Italy, April
  2002, pp. 5-18.