Decentralized SNMP management with mobile agents

Abstract

The mobile agent paradigm can be employed effectively for the decentralized management of complex networks. Nevertheless, legacy management protocols such as SNMP need to be supported for reasons of migration and efficiency. We show how the integration of the two paradigms leads to a flexibly adjustable decentralized management architecture. NetDoctor is a network management application framework that allows the monitoring of hosts in a heterogeneous network. Mobile agents may query local or remote SNMP agents, process the status data, and perform certain corrective actions. The system supports run-time adjustment and reconfiguration. A quantitative analysis underlines the benefits in respect to the network load reduction.