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Simple Internet network management text
Books continued some of the approaches described for building an office procedure support environment. However, it might have been worth trying to cover all aspects mentioned in the book by an extended application, e.g. the internetworking issue is hardly addressed at all by the example. In summary, this book is a very good, in-depth survey of the open systems area. It covers this rapidly emerging domain with much technical material, systems descriptions, and examples. With some existing background information, the book is easy to read and understand. One criticism is that
some chapters should have covered the actual interoperability problems in more detail for the different domains. Moreover, some recent and practically very important material has not been included though on occasion this may simply be a problem of the rapid evolution of the field. Overall, everyone concerned with open systems in a more or less technical way will appreciate this book as a valuable source of information. It can be recommended without any major reservations.
Dr Alexander Schill University of Karlsruhe Germany
Simple Internet network management text The Simple Book (An Introduction to Management of TCP-IP-based Internets) by M T Rose. Prentice Hall, UK. 1991, 347 pp This is the second book by the same author in two years in which he explains the basic principles of today's approach to internetworking, and describes his activities in developing and implementing standards, or vice versa: making interconnected networks run and developing standards based on the experience. While The Open Book: A Practical Perspectiveon OSI (Prentice Hall, 1990) focused on OSI principles of networking, this book provides a deeper view of managing TCP/IP-based networks, i.e. it presents the Internet Network Management Framework standard, and the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). Hence the author deals with the "hot" topic of today: how to manage interconnected networks effectively. At the same time, the importance of the solution used by the lnternet community is compared with the OSI approach to network management which led to the Common Management Information
262
Protocol (CMIP) definition. As a new and serious topic it contains a list of uncertainties and unsolved problems, of which the author was clearly aware. In addition, he has used the text as a platform for discussing his personal opinions and experience his practical knowledge as an implementor and proponent of both OSI and Internet protocol suites is of great value, being familiar with standard technologies and their strengths and weaknesses. This work is simple in the best sense of the word: the text is clear, readable and exact, with a careful distinction made between commonly accepted ground and the author's personal opinions, views and briefs. As a chairman of the SNMP Working Group, the author emphasizes the fundamental axiom for the network management of Internets: the necessity of minimal impact in adding network management to managed nodes, reflecting the lowest common denominator. The work cannot cover all aspects of managing Internets, but describes management in the context of Internet's protocol suite.
computer communications volume 16 number 4 april 1993
Much attention is payed to managing end-to-end parts of Internets, rather than the media or applications, thus readers will not find topics such as Domain Name System or BOOTP discussed. The first two chapters serve as a detailed introduction to networking, network management (including OSI), and the Internet protocols. The next three chapters describe the Internet NM Framework standard, from a model of the NM system, its components and data representation, through the Structure of Management Information (SMI) and the Management Information Base (MIB), to the mechanism used to manage Internets' SNMP. Chapter 6 briefly introduces the policies of managing Internets, as forms of troubleshooting and gathering statistics. Chapter 7 presents an overview of an actual implementation, the 4BDS/ISODE SNMP package (ISODE standards for ISO Development Environment) for Berkeley UNIX systems. An agent and manager implementation are examined, together with an Application Programmers Interface (API). The last chapter is followed by appendices: a list of relevant Internet documents (Request for Commonet - RFC), Internet management (commonly used questions and answers, advice on how to write a MIB Module), MIBII definition taken from RFC1158, and ordering information for ISODE. This book can be recommended not only for the lnternet community, but also for those interested in the state-of-the-art of network management and its future development, which hopefully could lead to the real interconnection of networking systems regardless of the differences in implementation and architecture.
Rita Puzmanov~i Czech Technical University, Prague, Czechoslovakia
some chapters should have covered the actual interoperability problems in more detail for the different domains. Moreover, some recent and practically very important material has not been included though on occasion this may simply be a problem of the rapid evolution of the field. Overall, everyone concerned with open systems in a more or less technical way will appreciate this book as a valuable source of information. It can be recommended without any major reservations.
Dr Alexander Schill University of Karlsruhe Germany
Simple Internet network management text The Simple Book (An Introduction to Management of TCP-IP-based Internets) by M T Rose. Prentice Hall, UK. 1991, 347 pp This is the second book by the same author in two years in which he explains the basic principles of today's approach to internetworking, and describes his activities in developing and implementing standards, or vice versa: making interconnected networks run and developing standards based on the experience. While The Open Book: A Practical Perspectiveon OSI (Prentice Hall, 1990) focused on OSI principles of networking, this book provides a deeper view of managing TCP/IP-based networks, i.e. it presents the Internet Network Management Framework standard, and the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). Hence the author deals with the "hot" topic of today: how to manage interconnected networks effectively. At the same time, the importance of the solution used by the lnternet community is compared with the OSI approach to network management which led to the Common Management Information
262
Protocol (CMIP) definition. As a new and serious topic it contains a list of uncertainties and unsolved problems, of which the author was clearly aware. In addition, he has used the text as a platform for discussing his personal opinions and experience his practical knowledge as an implementor and proponent of both OSI and Internet protocol suites is of great value, being familiar with standard technologies and their strengths and weaknesses. This work is simple in the best sense of the word: the text is clear, readable and exact, with a careful distinction made between commonly accepted ground and the author's personal opinions, views and briefs. As a chairman of the SNMP Working Group, the author emphasizes the fundamental axiom for the network management of Internets: the necessity of minimal impact in adding network management to managed nodes, reflecting the lowest common denominator. The work cannot cover all aspects of managing Internets, but describes management in the context of Internet's protocol suite.
computer communications volume 16 number 4 april 1993
Much attention is payed to managing end-to-end parts of Internets, rather than the media or applications, thus readers will not find topics such as Domain Name System or BOOTP discussed. The first two chapters serve as a detailed introduction to networking, network management (including OSI), and the Internet protocols. The next three chapters describe the Internet NM Framework standard, from a model of the NM system, its components and data representation, through the Structure of Management Information (SMI) and the Management Information Base (MIB), to the mechanism used to manage Internets' SNMP. Chapter 6 briefly introduces the policies of managing Internets, as forms of troubleshooting and gathering statistics. Chapter 7 presents an overview of an actual implementation, the 4BDS/ISODE SNMP package (ISODE standards for ISO Development Environment) for Berkeley UNIX systems. An agent and manager implementation are examined, together with an Application Programmers Interface (API). The last chapter is followed by appendices: a list of relevant Internet documents (Request for Commonet - RFC), Internet management (commonly used questions and answers, advice on how to write a MIB Module), MIBII definition taken from RFC1158, and ordering information for ISODE. This book can be recommended not only for the lnternet community, but also for those interested in the state-of-the-art of network management and its future development, which hopefully could lead to the real interconnection of networking systems regardless of the differences in implementation and architecture.
Rita Puzmanov~i Czech Technical University, Prague, Czechoslovakia