Cisco Enters the World of Service-Level Management - Cisco Systems Inc Netsys Service-Level Management

The current complexity of networks combined with the increasing demand for specific service levels has created a need for network management support that goes beyond traditional device or segment management capabilities. Cisco Systems Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) delivers a solution that addresses this need with version 4.0 of Netsys Service-Level Management (SLM). Netsys SLM provides an end-to-end service-level management solution that lets network managers define and monitor network connectivity and performance policies, and to troubleshoot problems when they occur. According to John McConnell, president of McConnell Consulting (Boulder, Colo.), "Cisco is attacking the problem from an infrastructure and from a policy perspective."

Unlike traditional device- or segment-management tools that use SNMP and gather and report statistics on factors such as packet throughput, CPU utilization and buffer capacities, Netsys SLM takes a policy-based, end-to-end perspective to the network. Netsys SLM gives network managers the opportunity to define service levels, monitor the network from end to end on the basis of those service-level definitions, and repair problems that are identified. It also enables network administrators to change service-level agreements or other requirements on the basis of factors such as time of day, user of department. Rob Romero, product line manager for Cisco's Netsys Technology Group, says that Netsys SLM "provides more than local statistics," and enables network managers to understand the impact of problem reports on the whole network, on the basis of user-designed policy definitions. According to consultant McConnell, "once the policies have been defined, other Cisco Solver tools are available to ensure that the service levels that are established are valid and can be achieved. Those are pretty powerful tools."

Netsys SLM consists of four core modules: Connectivity Service, Performance Service, LAN Service and WAN Service Managers. The Connectivity Service Manager module is required for all other module implementations, although Cisco is bundling a modified version of the Connectivity Service Manager with its LAN Service Manager module for smaller companies.

Netsys SLM enables network managers to establish service-level policies for connectivity, reliability and security services. The Performance Service Manager enables organizations to define policies for quality of service; it also lets users analyze interactions between traffic flow, routing parameters and router configurations. The LAN Service Manager adds LAN switching topology viewing and diagnostic capabilities; and the WAN module, currently in field trials, integrates WAN switching analysis and trouble-shooting functions.

A network engineer at a large telecommunications company who asked for anonymity is extensively using the Netsys SLM modeling capability to pull configurations from Cisco and Bay Networks Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) routers as part of a conversion to Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) from Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP). He does a lot of modeling with OSPF connectivity to ensure against outages and to prevent any routing problems, and reports that Netsys SLM translates the Bay Networks' binary configuration file to ASCII for use in the Netsys SLM modeling function. All of his Bay Networks routers are used at end nodes where there is less traffic. Although he has been very pleased with the modeling capability of Netsys SLM, he is uncertain of its outcome if his Bay Networks routers were used in the backbone.

Jim Parkhurst, a senior staff engineer at MCI (Washington), uses Netsys SLM to model the characteristics of WAN traffic as part of MCI's Enhanced Proactive Network Management initiative. Parkhurst views it as the main tool to attain the high level of network control required to meet MCI's service-level agreements. With 33,000 points of entry to the network, he can't instrument every piece of equipment; however, he says that the "Netsys policy-based modeling capability gives me the opportunity to have an early warning sense of problems."

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