Author Profile - Nicholas Saparoff is the President and Founder of ByteSphere Technologies and has over 20 years experience designing software and data communication networks. Prior to ByteSphere, Nicholas has held key engineering positions at several hot technology companies in the Boston area.
ByteSphere® is a Boston area software company specializing in Global IT Management and Monitoring solutions and is the world's leading provider of SNMP-enabled network administration and testing tools. ByteSphere's flagship product, OidView, provides the network management community with an incredibly advanced administration and testing toolkit for engineers, support, and field personnel. It is in use by thousands of companies worldwide.
Corporate networks continue to grow at a rapid rate as more and more devices become integrated into the mix. From PDAs, to netbooks, to high powered routers, and the normal assortment of servers, the typical network has a lot in it to manage. Not managing a network is not only likely to increase the likelihood of problems, but it will most probably cost you more in the long run. Inefficient networks mean lower productivity, more calls to tech support, and more wasted time trying to figure out the problems on the network. There are a number of tools we recommend using.
One of the most effective tools that network administrators will typically use is called a MIB browser. The MIB browser allows the network administrator to perform a variety of administrative tasks, like examine loaded MIBs, modify, view, and configure features on routers and switches, and set SNMP trap thresholds. One of the most popular things to do with the MIB browser is to set and view specifications in various devices for when the software will trigger an alert to show that there is a problem in the network. Those alerts will typically be sent to a fault management system. This type of monitoring is called passive monitoring.
A performance management system (e.g. SNMP Collectors) can help network administrators to proactively monitor all of the devices and agents on the network for problems - before they become big problems. Active monitoring is different from passive monitoring in that when network components are monitored actively problems are being readily solved before they blossom into major faults. Passive monitoring is only paying attention when something isn’t working. When trying to identify problem components on a large network it isn’t always evident where the true root issues lie. That is where the effectiveness of this tool is fully leveraged. True performance management takes into account thresholds, historical data and root-cause, and can send proactive notifications to the network administrator when critical thresholds are crossed.
It is important that your network administrator be informed as to all of the different components on the network and their respective performance parameters as well as how they are interacting with one another and how they can be configured for their most effective use.
To ensure that your network is functioning to its optimum efficiency you can most likely follow these simple rules:
- Ensure that you are always using the latest drivers and firmware with all of your devices. Not doing so could not only mean a less efficient network, but could also lead to security issues.
- Make sure that you are properly configuring your network and addressing challenges before they become problems with diligent monitoring.
- Use MIB browser software to ensure that all of your network devices are functioning properly and to get alerts when things start to fail.
Great MIB hunting!
Check out the largest MIB collection at http://www.oidview.com/mibs/detail.html
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