Web Services based configuration management for IP network devices

Abstract

The tasks of operating and managing diverse network devices from multiple vendors are getting more difficult and complicated. For that reason, IETF Netconf Working Group has been standardizing network configuration management. The Netconf protocol is an output of that standardization and can be used to effectively manage various devices on a network. However, it is still problematic for the manager to discover and manage configurable parameters in various devices. This paper proposes a method that can quickly discover devices and their parameters as well as methods to manipulate the configuration information on them. We present the architecture for XCMS-WS which meets this mechanism. Using the Web Services technologies, we have develioed a more powerful and flexible system than our previous XCMS. For validation, we have applied XCMS-WS for the configuration management of NG-MON, a distributed, real-time Internet traffic monitoring and analysis system.