IETF effort promises fewer net failures

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: OPTICAL NETWORKING
10/12/05

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* IETF's NetConf
* Links related to Optical Networking
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: IETF effort promises fewer net failures

By Tim Greene and Denise Dubie

The IETF has nearly completed a protocol that could address
perhaps the major underlying cause of network breakdowns:
misconfigured equipment.

The thrust behind NetConf, which could be adopted by year-end,
is to reduce the programming effort involved in automating
device configuration. The goal is to generate better
configuration tools and encourage faster updating of these tools
when network equipment vendors upgrade the software on their
machines, industry experts say.

Software that keeps people out of the loop as much as possible
when configuring switches and routers is a key to improving
uptime, says Jeffrey Nudler, a senior analyst at Enterprise
Management Associates. "The possibility of failures would be
much reduced if you consider that changing device configuration
causes 60% of downtime due to human error," he says.

Rather than rely on typing command-line interfaces or scripts
that mimic humans entering CLIs, NetConf would use XML to
configure devices and to more efficiently tap state and
configuration data stored on devices, says Andy Bierman,
chairman of the IETF's Network Configuration Working Group. "XML
is just so much better at separating data from metadata and also
adapting to the CLI," he says.

A widely adopted standard programming interface, such as that
defined by NetConf, would make it simpler for vendors that
specialize in configuration management to create broadly
applicable tools, says Sherrie Woodring, CEO of configuration
management vendor Emprisa. "A lot of our R&D costs go toward
learning the multiple techniques to get information out of a
device and incorporating that into a product."

Today, management software vendors painstakingly learn the
format and protocols that equipment makers use to store and
access configuration data on each piece of gear. They then write
software that can gather and manipulate this data via a
consistent user interface.

When a vendor updates software on, say, a router, that might
include a change to the format to which configuration management
software vendors have to adapt - and that takes time that can
delay network upgrades, says Paul Froutan, vice president of
product engineering at Rackspace in San Antonio. The company
uses Voyence's software.

"Everything today is being done in a custom manner," Froutan
says. "Generally, when you have a new device or there is a new
feature added, you want to get at it immediately. If it's not
updated quickly enough, that's when you stop supporting that
product or standard."

Being able to gather configuration data quickly has greater
implications the larger the network. Jim Keck, vice president of
enterprise systems services in Citigroup's technology
infrastructure group in New York, says if NetConf takes off he
imagines it will simplify configuration of the more than 30,000
switches and routers in Citigroup's network.

"Normalizing this process so I can simply ask, 'What's the
[operating system]?' would have a major impact," he says,
referring to the various operating system iterations running on
his Cisco network gear and other hardware.

By creating a more widely understood platform, businesses would
need fewer device-specific experts. "Instead of having to know
multiple protocols and tools, anyone could take this information
and apply it to troubleshooting or root-cause analysis, speeding
mean time to repair," Nudler says.

Most vendors supply their own configuration tools, but if they
fit to a standard it would be easier to create individual tools
that control more devices, says Eliot Lear, a consulting
engineer at Cisco who co-wrote one of the NetConf proposals.
"It's likely over time you'll see more and more accessibility to
more and more devices from the same tool," he says.

That appeals to Citigroup's Keck. "Fewer tools helps our support
team stay leaner and more responsive," he says.

Some vendors already are using configuration tools that follow
the NetConf model of including XML support. Cisco, for example,
has its Enhanced Device Interface (ED-I) and Juniper has Junos
Script to support programmatic interfaces to configuration. Both
vendors are active in writing NetConf.

Even if the IETF endorses NetConf quickly, that doesn't mean it
will appear right away in lots of equipment or configuration
tools.

Juniper will likely standardize on NetConf when it wins IETF
approval, says Craig Bardenheuer, a director of product
management. "A standard makes it easier for our customers to
write tools to deploy our gear quickly and efficiently," he
says.

Similarly, Cisco will likely adopt it, but cautiously, Lear
says. Cisco supports CLI and ED-I, and supporting NetConf as
well might create compatibility problems. "The only thing worse
than two solutions to solve the same problem is three solutions
to solve the same problem," he says.

Even after equipment vendors start using NetConf, they will
still add their own extras as a way to stand out from the
competition, so totally unified configuration platforms may be
beyond reach, Lear says.

As for the makers of configuration management software, while
they find NetConf attractive their use of it will depend on
customers buying NetConf-capable equipment, says David Schrodel,
CTO of configuration management vendor Voyence. "If we could get
80% to 90% of the functionality out of NetConf that we get out
of investing our R&D dollars, it would be a huge step forward.
But we'd have to see [NetConf-enabled gear] in customer networks
before we consider adoption," he says.

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

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4. IETF effort promises fewer net failures
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_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Tim Greene and Denise Dubie

Tim Greene is a senior editor at Network World, covering virtual
private networking gear, remote access, core switching and local
phone companies. You can reach him at <mailto:tgreene@nww.com>.

Senior Editor Denise Dubie covers network and systems management
for Network World. Reach her at <mailto:ddubie@nww.com>.
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by HP
Free Whitepaper, Traffic Management; From The Network Core To
The Network Edge

Traffic management becomes critical as your network
infrastructure expands to support different types of traffic and
users. Most traffic management solutions have serious
limitations: too expensive, difficult to use, and overly taxing
on bandwidth. However ProCurve Networking by HP addresses these
requirements, overcomes the limitations of other solutions, and
gives you valuable insight into LAN performance. Click here to
download HP's Traffic Management Whitepaper
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=117263
_______________________________________________________________
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