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Goodbye SNMP? Hello, WS-Management

Posted by michael on from the at-least-it-isn't-an-acronym dept.

Laoping writes "News.com has a story about a new Web services management specification designed to simplify network administration across a wide range of devices. A bunch of a big tech companies developed it together (Microsoft, Intel, AMD, Dell and Sun). Microsoft will build support for WS-Management into an update to Windows Server, which is due late next year, and in the version of its Microsoft Operations Manager management software due in 2006. The .PDF release, that makes it clear that it is meant to be a Simple Network Management Protocol killer. Now I am all for a replacement for SNMP, but is this the way go?"

8 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. this page but without going blind by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    click

  2. connect the dots by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 4, Informative

    Maybe it will be OK, if it uses persistent HTTP connections, which allow several requests and replies before terminating the transaction. Otherwise the ancient HTTP/1.0 message model is too limited to map all the messaging topology to the spectrum of object management requirements.

    --

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    make install -not war

    1. Re:connect the dots by abigor · · Score: 3, Informative

      Did I miss something? I didn't see any mention of HTTP 1.0, which is obsolete. 1.1 is what's far and away in the most common usage, and it allows pipelined requests.

      That said, SOAP isn't necessarily confined to HTTP transport, though of course in all practical reality it is, for now. But there's no tight binding there.

      Anyway, what does the transport have to do with the "spectrum of object management requirements"? Or am I just not understanding your statement?

    2. Re:connect the dots by Black-Man · · Score: 3, Informative

      I agree with the original poster. HTTP/Web Services seems a bad idea as a replacement for SNMP. SNMP is solely the domain of servers... but routers, switches and other network devices. And your laying this additional layer of abstraction onto something that is an extremely critical piece of network management. In other words... just something else that will fail.

      I use Web Services too, within the context of Web Logic. There are so many unknowns and reliability issues under the hood. For simple http requests... no issues... but for something so critical, not yet.

  3. Re:I'm not sold by nightfire-unique · · Score: 5, Informative
    I don't mean to pooh pooh this idea just because it's somewhat Windows specific but the only real advantage I see to this over snmp is that the delivery modes are more sophisticated and the data can be organized hierarchally.

    The SNMP MIB tree is hierarchical. For example, the "version" parameter of NET-SNMP can be found by querying:

    ucdavis.version.versionTag

    Furthermore, these names have corresponding OID numbers, which are universally unique.

    So why not just add builtin event notification to snmp?

    What, like SNMP traps?

    Come on.. this stuff ain't new. :)

    --
    A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
  4. What about JMX by ghost1911 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Nobody else seemed to mention this yet so I thought I'd point out that Sun seems to be contradicting their latest monitoring framework:

    JMX

    By going along with this new specification. Network Management, monitoring, and other SNMP-like operations in Java are moving to the JMX or java media extension framework. In Java 5, the VM has JMX hooks built in for monitoring and control. Alas, I have to agree that SNMP is tired and old, but it still is in place in a lot of environments (and in routers, firewalls, and other hardware appliances) and is really easy to interface and use. I doubt this will catch on very quickly...

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    .: 2+2 = PI SQRT(1+N) :. All together now, what is n?
  5. Re:wonder by gmack · · Score: 3, Informative

    I disagree.. the specification itself is so complex it's very rare to find someone who implemented it from scratch. That's why whenever there is a SNMP security avisory it tends to affect many vendors.

  6. Re:but the important question is ... by bluescreen · · Score: 3, Informative
    "will it be encumbered by patents? looking at the contributors, my guess is yes "

    Insightful? To me insightful would require actually having read the specification.
    If you look at the spec, you'll see the answer to this question.

    "Microsoft, Intel, AMD, Dell, and Sun (collectively, the "Co-Developers") each agree upon request to grant you a license, provided you agree to be bound by such license, under royalty-free and otherwise reasonable, non-discriminatory terms and conditions to their respective patent claims that would necessarily be infringed by an implementation of the Specification and solely to the extent necessary to comply with the Specification."