Network-Management Software

Many SNMP software packages are available, ranging from programming libraries that let you build your own utilities (using Perl, C/C++ or Java) to expensive, complete network-management platforms. This chapter presents some pros and cons for many of the most commonly used packages. This will not only give you an idea of what packages are out there, but also help you decide what might be right for you (keep in mind, though, that these pros and cons are merely our opinions). Whenever possible, we present both open source solutions and commercial products.

Management software falls into five categories:

·         SNMP agents

·         NMS suites

·         Element managers (vendor-specific management)

·         Trend-analysis software

·         Supporting software

Unfortunately, deciding what you need isn't as simple as picking one program from each category. If you have a small network and are interested in building your own tools, you probably don't need a complex NMS suite. Whether or not you need trend-analysis software depends, obviously, on if you're interested in analyzing trends in your network usage. The products available depend in part on the platforms in which you're interested. The minimum you can get by with is an SNMP agent on a device and some software that can retrieve a value from that device (using an SNMP get). Although this is minimal, it's enough to start working, and you can get the software for free.