Network applications development will become easier and cheaper with Java
While network management systems have grown in their ability to provide network administrators with an indication of the real-time health of their networks, the more sophisticated systems have been tied to high-end platforms. A new breed of Java applications promises to let managers monitor their networks from anywhere within the company — or even anywhere in the world. In addition, Java will make it easier to upgrade network management both on the devices being monitored and on the management interface. Java promises to provide a new model of network management by allowing developers to integrate network status information with other applications, making it possible for decision makers to point to a problem when it occurs.
Traditional network management has been based on simple network management protocol (SNMP), with which devices can send alerts to a manager, or collect and forward statistical information about traffic. But SNMP limits the kind of information that can be sent, and SNMP programs are not designed to be uploaded easily.
Network-device vendors commonly ship management software for each of their devices. In a large network, it is difficult to run hundreds of different monitoring programs, so companies consolidate network management into a platform — such as Hewlett Packard’s OpenView, SunSoft’s SunNet Manager, or Tivoli’s Tivoli Management Environment (TMI), now owned by IBM. Although these systems offer a comprehensive solution for network managers, installing lots of network management systems for extra employees in the company is expensive, and it is not easy to integrate network management into other applications.
Integrated management
Last March, Sun, Tivoli, and a variety of other partners including Cisco Systems, Bay Networks, Netscape Communications, and Spyglass announced an effort to define a Java-based Internet Management Specification (IMS). IMS will provide an interface standard for configuring, monitoring, and controlling access to the Internet. IMS will allow vendors to develop products that manage servers and network devices from multiple vendors. Customers will be able to configure, monitor, and control any of a variety of Internet services with a single IMS-compliant application.
“The evolution of Java-based management classes will enable system management to effectively and efficiently perform ubiquitously across the Internet,” said Terry Keely, vice president and general manager of Enterprise Network Products at SunSoft.
To help developers create Java-based management applications, Sun has developed Solstice WorkShop. This toolkit helps developers build applets for managing enterprise networks over the Internet. These applets are built using the extensible, Java-powered objects and methods included in the toolkit. Solstice WorkShop is now available for download. With Solstice WorkShop developers can create Java-based management applications on SPARC and Intel Platforms running Solaris, Windows 95, and Windows NT, and the applications can be run on any Java platform.
The devices that will be managed will not be restricted to things like routers and switches. Mike Gionfriddo, architect for the Java Management APIs at SunSoft, pointed out that they are programming some of the devices to include personal digital assistants.
This type of framework also will make it easy to manage the Java terminals that, with the recent announcement of the JavaStation, will soon begin flooding corporate desktops. The servers will be able to keep track of any new configuration data that needs to be updated for different classes of users, as well as track changes to security policy. “Network naming service is a step in that direction. I see more and more management functionality pushed to the servers and the clients to be thinner and thinner,” said Gionfriddo.
Tivoli is adapting its Tivoli Management Environment to support Java with a tool called net.TME. “Our initiative with the Internet and Java is much broader than just network management. We are viewing this as an opportunity for all sorts of distributed systems products,” explained Mike Maples, director of product marketing at Tivoli.
One of the first new features for TME is support for a Web interface so that people can access management data from a browser. A centralized Java-based agent also has been developed that can collect data from different devices and graph it in different ways. “A lot of our customers have wanted to visualize their data better, and we are using Java to provide that functionality to customers,” noted Maples.
Although Hewlett Packard has no plans to add Java support to its HP OpenView Network Management system, help is on the way for OpenView customers who wish to enable Java network management. UB Networks has announced a Web-based management system called NetDirector@Web. NetDirector has a component that turns an OpenView workstation into a Web server. The first components of NetDirector — such as the node monitor and the real-time Java management applets — already are available, and other components are planned for the near future.
“The big advantage is that we can create applications that are real-time information based, as opposed to more static HTML pages. In network management it is real important to see the status of the devices in real time,” said Ron Morita, vice president of applications and UB networks at HP.
Although Java is used as the client interface and is used to configure the device, UB Network’s approach still relies on SNMP to send information over the network. “Today we are talking about turning the network device into a Web server,” said Morita. “In the future, we will put the Java virtual machine on the network device itself. These applications will execute inside the Web server and will be able to get information and take corrective action within the hub.”
Morita believes Java management will create a number of opportunities for Java programmers. To begin with, companies will be able to leverage a single set of Java programmers to do a wider variety of tasks. In addition, it will make it possible for companies to integrate network management into other kinds of applications.
Java devices are here
Companies already have started to announce Java for devices. Sahara Networks is porting Java to its ATM access devices. In addition to traditional SNMP network management reporting capabilities, Sahara is embedding a Java and HTTP Internet server into its new line of ATM access devices. Network managers will be able to determine the status of any device on the network using an HTTP and Java-compliant browser. In addition, managers can change the kind of information that is gathered from the device and the way it is presented to the viewer, and these changes can be uploaded to any device on the network.
Sahara considered using generic Web technology for this kind of application but opted for Java instead. “Web technology alone was not good enough because that is static. Java is the enabler,” said Tim Kraskey, vice president of marketing at Sahara Networks. “Java made things real-time and it embedded security in the information.”
Using SaharaView, Sahara’s network management application, network administrators with a Java-enabled browser can click on an icon representing a device to bring up a Web page served from that particular device. Given the right security, they can look at data and make changes to the configuration of the device.
Since this architecture uses standard Java and Web calls, companies will be able to add other products to this environment. A historical monitoring server can be programmed to poll the servers at a regular interval for recording data traffic patterns. “Eventually you will be able to use this information for chargebacks and other statistical information,” noted Kraskey.
Kraskey believes SNMP will be around for a while, owing to the large embedded base of existing network management systems, but “SNMP management is going away over time. SNMP will still be at the core, but we will go above SNMP,” he said. “We have put the Web agent on top so you don’t see the limitations of SNMP; you see the real-time GUI and graphics of what HTTP and Java give you.”
Companies with extensive SNMP network management in place eventually will migrate, even if their equipment vendors do not choose to support Java. Simplesoft has announced Java support for its SNMP development tools, and SimpleWebManager, a Java applet that communicates directly with SNMP devices. However, the development tools allow users to build client applications only for retrieving, viewing, and uploading SNMP data to network devices; they will not allow the creation of Java applications that run on the devices themselves.
“It will be one more set of functions we can do in Java. Before you needed these heavy operating systems like HP OpenView,” said Sameer Jayakar, a spokesman for Simplesoft. “Now with Java management, you will not need all of those tools.”
Conclusion
Java-based network management promises to ease the development of network applications and make it cheaper to distribute them throughout the enterprise. “Java will definitely be deployed on the remote side like an insurance company that has a whole bunch of small offices with a LAN in a box where they would not have someone technical onsite,” said Martha Young, a market analyst with McConnell Consulting in Boulder, CO. “But they do need technical support, and being able to use Java gives the opportunity to support those remote locations more easily than having to pay an engineer or someone else to be technical.”
Despite the ease of deploying Java applets, these will not completely or immediately replace SNMP. “I don’t think anyone is going to get rid of their Sun or HP management platform,” noted Young. “I see Java and SNMP together versus one dominating the other, primarily because SNMP has been around, and customers have so many devices that are SNMP-managed right now.”
The good news: Companies that want to develop Java management applications on their own will not have to wait for their equipment vendors to get their act together. They will be able to create Java front ends that communicate directly with their installed SNMP devices.
