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Re: [nv-l] Generating Topology Map with MLMs

To: nv-l@lists.us.ibm.com
Subject: Re: [nv-l] Generating Topology Map with MLMs
From: James Shanks <jshanks@us.ibm.com>
Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2005 08:31:22 -0400
Delivery-date: Thu, 08 Sep 2005 13:33:05 +0100
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Hello Usman,

I'm sorry but it's not up to me to advise you.   You have to figure out a
suitable deployment strategy for yourself, I'm afraid.   In the preamble of
every IBM manual it says that it is responsibility of the user to decide on
the suitability of the product that manual refers to for use in his
environment, and that's exactly where you are right now.

You want to use NetView as a service provider.  But NetView was not
designed as a tool for deployment by service providers to manage multiple
independent  IP networks.  It was designed as an enterprise tool for one
corporate enterprise to manage its interconnected network, no matter how
big.  So it's going to be up to you to decide on a deployment strategy that
works for you given the complexities of the networks you want to manage and
the limitations of the tools you have.

Furthermore, I'm a bug fixer, not a deployment specialist.  Those folks
work for IBM Global Services (IGS), and perhaps one of them has some
suggestions on how you should deploy NetView in this environment.   But I
really don't.   All I can do is tell you what will, and what won't, work.

So no, there is no way to put another NetView's map on your NetView console
along side your own.  Each NetView has one three-part database, object,
topology, and map, and they are woven together, to be shown on one
independent GUI.   So either you merge the networks into one, as you have
said you cannot do, or export multiple the displays from independent
NetViews to the same machine.    I don't see any other alternative.
Perhaps someone else does.

BTW, there's a lot of talk these days about portal solutions, putting
multiple independent GUIs in one subdivided screen; but even a solution
like that, whether you get it from another software vendor who provides the
portal, or you wait for something like that to come from IBM,  will still
result in independent GUIs, not merged ones.

James Shanks
Level 3 Support  for Tivoli NetView for UNIX and Windows
Tivoli Software / IBM Software Group


                                                                           
             usman.taokeer@s-i                                             
             ii.com                                                        
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             owner-nv-l@lists.         nv-l@lists.us.ibm.com               
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                                       nv-l@lists.us.ibm.com,              
                                       owner-nv-l@lists.us.ibm.com         
             09/08/2005 05:46                                      Subject 
             AM                        Re: [nv-l] Generating Topology Map  
                                       with MLMs                           
                                                                           
             Please respond to                                             
                   nv-l                                                    
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           





James i will cut this to short,  what i want to achieve here is to have a
single topology MAP having showing subnet of different customers. NOW i
cant just give my NetView access to all these subnet( these are not just
subnet but complete enterprise networks). Now here i will go with your
recommendation that what should i do, use MLM or install NetView in each of
customers network?

I am not sure that NetView can share Topology map with other NetView
servers? and if yes, then how?

forwarding events is not a problem but i also want to have single console
of Topology map of all networks that are being managed!


Regards,
Usman Taokeer
Si3.

                                                                           
 James Shanks <jshanks@us.ibm.com>                                         
                                                                           
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 owner-nv-l@lists.us.ibm.com                nv-l@lists.us.ibm.com          
                                                                        cc 
                                                                           
 06-09-05 07:11 PM                                                 Subject 
                                            Re: [nv-l] Generating Topology 
                                            Map with MLMs                  
         Please respond to                                                 
       nv-l@lists.us.ibm.com                                               
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           





MLM is not a substitute for NetView but an adjunct to it.  Whether it is
suitable or not for the purpose you want, only you can decide.
MLM only discovers devices in one subnet; it's own.  That's why you would
need one for each subnet of the customer's network if you want to use MLM
discovery.  it is possible to manually add a few devices in another subnet
to an MLM for monitoring, but there is no way to get it to automatically
monitor or discover more than its own subnet.  It is not a tiny NetView.
It's original design purpose was to monitor remote locations connected to
the central NetView by slow WAN links which could not sustain the constant
ping or SNMP traffic that Netview monitoring requires.

MLM's communicate with NetView via SNMP sets and gets, and also traps.  You
have to have both the read and write community names correct in
ovsnmp.conf.  You can also configure the trapd destination table in the MLM
to threshold on outside traps.  Once netmon finds an MLM using an SNMP get
with the read community string, it send an SNMPset to that MLM telling it
to start reporting the discovery and monitoring data it has to the central
location.  The nodes the MLM has discovered will get added to NetView
topology provided that netmon can ping them to verify their authenticity.

Combining two distinct  customer networks under one NetView will only work
well if they have separate and distinct addressing schemes, since
duplicates are not allowed,  unless you also deploy CNAT gateways between
them to do translations.

You might profitably spend some time reading in the MLM doc before making
your deployment decision.  You might also deploy a test one and play with
it a little too.  That's easy enough to do.

James Shanks
Level 3 Support  for Tivoli NetView for UNIX and Windows
Tivoli Software / IBM Software Group




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