Richard Burke
NETWORK MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS AND PRACTICE: A Hands-on Approach
Hard cover, pp. 519, plus XXII $ 39,90
Prentice Hall, Pearson Education, Inc.
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458, 2004
ISBN 0-13-032950-9
http://www.pearsoneduc.com

In general about the book

A communication networks is a complex system, both in terms of the number of nodes that are involved and in terms of the suite of protocols that can be running on any one node. The main trend is toward larger, more complex networks supporting, more applications, and more users. When hundred or thousands of such nodes are connected together to form a network it is not surprising that nodes will occasionally malfunction, the network nodes will be miss-configured, the network resources will be over-utilized, or the network components will simply ''break''.

As a concept, network management (NM) involves configuring, monitoring, and possibly reconfiguring components in a network with a goal of providing optimal performance, minimal downtime, proper security, and flexibility. In other words, NM involves the planning, organizing, monitoring, accounting, and controlling of activities and resources within a network. The constituents that make up a network often come from many different vendors, and the operating systems that run the different nodes in a network are often different. It is therefore important that a NM system be based on standards so that interoperability is also ensured.

This book is designed to support a variety of introductory materials and is primarily written as a textbook to be used for a course on NM. It is divided into twelve chapters, six appendices, Acronyms, Glossary, and Index. The book comes with CD-ROM that includes answers to chapter Review Questions, solutions to chapter Exercises, and all the figures and tables in the book. The contents of the book are discussed in the following, in same details.

Chapter content

Chapter 1, Networking Components, pp. 1-22, gives an overview of communication architecture concepts and networking components. Chapter 2, Overview of Network Management, pp. 23-39, provides a brief introduction to current NM implementation concepts, defines NM vocabulary, and discusses NM principles. Chapter 3, Network Implementation and Management Strategies, pp. 41-65, deals with network implementation and NM strategies, and discusses how the current and projected long-term corporation's needs will be satisfied. Chapter 4, Configuration: Client/Server Components, pp. 67-100, explains some typical configurations of the Client/SERVER devices (desktop components) used on LAN. These configurations include computer hosting the Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, and the Windows NT 4.0 SERVER operating systems. Chapter 5, Configuration: Infrastructure Components, pp. 101-148, discusses how to configure network components such as hubs, switches, routers, and probes. Chapter 6, SNMP, pp. 149-172, covers details related to SNMPv1 protocol, explains the structure of the MIB tree, introduces SNMP commands, and discusses the components and use of SNMP security. Chapter 7, Management Information Base (MIB), pp. 173-205, concentrates on formal definition of MIB objects, how to create them, and how to add new MIB to NM system. Chapter 8, Remote Monitoring (RMON1), pp. 207- 259, describes RMON1 MIB objects and explains how to use a NM system and a probe to capture and analyze objects to measure network traffic statistics. Chapter 9, RMON 2, pp. 261-303, focuses on examination of traffic at the network and higher layers of the OSI Reference Model. Chapter 10, Desktop Management, pp. 305-325, concentrates on explanation of the Desktop Management Interface standard and demonstrates how it is used to access desktop attributes. Chapter 11, Web-Based Management, pp. 327-340, discusses Web-based management and describes the use of a web browser to access object values from an embedded SNMPv1 web server on a Cisco switch. Chapter 12, SNMPv3, pp. 341-412, introduces the reader to the new SNMPv3 Internet Standard and explains its usage.

Six appendices are provided with the aim to support chapter material, provide advanced material, and provided essential reference for the student

Appendix A reviews IP addressing and sub-netting. In Appendix B the basic concepts of the ASN.1 language are discussed. Appendix C deals with rfc 213 which is a description of each of the objects in MIB-II. Appendix D considers the Basic Encoded Rules used to create packet sent over the link. Appendix E discusses other important NM initiatives of which the user should be aware. Appendix F demonstrates usage of other useful tools on the CD-ROM.

Useful book for students

The author has done a good job in compiling and organizing this book. It comprehensively covers almost all the major fundamental aspects of network management. The book provides the reader not only with the basic principles and techniques but also with analyses of the practical implementations.

The chapters in the book are concise and well written. Considering emphases of the book it is suitable as a textbook for one semester undergraduate course. A computer science engineers included in computer network design and management will find the book particularly valuable for in-depth system design and maintenance.

This book promises to make a valuable contrubution to the education of computer sience undergraduate students, and a very useful addition to the library of specialist engaged in the field of network management.

Having in mind the above mentioned, I highly recommend this book.