Service-Oriented Network Performance Management

Service-Oriented

Network Performance Management

Application performance management is crucial in service operation. Traditional application management is limited by technology. For example, silo data analysis lacks correlation and is redundant and inefficient; Agent mode affects performance of the controlled system; too long development circle and too difficult to carry out etc. An application performance management platform using network data solves the problems properly. Real-time monitoring, correlative analysis, low cost, and high usability make this platform superior than any other, creating fruitful benefits to IT department.

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Contents

PROBLEM IN CURRENT NETWORK PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT ... 5

DEVICE-CENTRIC MANAGEMENT ... 5

LACK OF COMPOSITE TECHNICAL EXPERTS ... 6

PASSIVE NETWORK PERFORMANCE MAINTENANCE ... 6

SERVICE-ORIENTED NETWORK PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT ... 8

SERVICE-ORIENTED VIEW ... 8

INTRODUCTION TO MINIMIZED NETWORK, SYSTEM, AND APPLICATION EXPERTS ... 9

REDUCE PASSIVE NETWORK PERFORMANCE MAINTENANCE ... 10                                      

Overview

IT departments depends on composite application architecture to maintain their core competence and advantages. SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) in one way has been widely accepted and applied, while in the other way it also increases the complexity of applications running on network infrastructures. As SOA develops, network not only connects terminals, but also operates functions that formerly operated by specialized application services, such as load balance, data cache, accelerate, and encrypt. Network Infrastructure manufacturers also introduce service-oriented network structure that corresponds to SOA, such as SONA (Service-Oriented Network Architecture from Cisco), which guarantees the efficient delivery of composite application.

Netis introduces SONPM (Service-Oriented Network Performance Management) to cater to SOA and SONA. Different from traditional Device-Centric network performance management, SONPM explores a new view based on network service and organizes management view oriented by service. It innovatively accomplishes seamless joint of network performance management, SOA, and SONA environments. Based on SONPM, Netis NPM (Network Performance Manager) constructs a service-oriented network performance management platform. It monitors availability indicators of network services and performance in real time; it automatically analyzes, locates faults, and takes precautions to ensure available and efficient network services.

Future of SOA

SOA is designed to construct a component-service-centric application system that can combine multiple services. SOA doesn’t bind itself with any specific technology; it focuses on providing a modularized way to link business processes and IT architecture to make businesses more flexible and less costly.

Naturally, the composite application based on SOA relies on network: network enables port-to-port communications between different components. At the same time, network provides more functions to serve composite applications on the following three grounds:

! Fundamental Usability: ensure network usability and QoS acting as the most basic function and

key element to support composite application.

! Performance Optimization, Virtualization, and Security: after ensuring availability of network,

network service improves application performance, extensibility, and security, which composite application environment benefits from.

! Application Extension: network uses communication and cooperative service to integrate

numerous traditional business applications, which accelerate the whole business progress. Cisco supposes that as Web2.0 and SOA become more popular in enterprises, CIO and IT administrators must decide where to put these technologies, and must consider how to optimize the performance of composite applications. Network can reach to all key links of application resources and within components; it is a supportive channel that provides services to application layer. The network based on SONA offers three core abilities to Web2.0 and SOA application: fundamental usability; performance optimization, virtualization, and security; application extensibility. Cisco uses SONA to help enterprises come up with business solutions based on network service to ensure a reliable composite application performance.                          

Problem in Current Network Performance

Management

The responsibilities for network management department are to construct, operate and maintain network infrastructures. In traditional ideas, network administrators usually focus more on infrastructures but not performance of application system that builds on network. However, as SOA become more popular nowadays, composite application has been a combination of system and network service. Network provides more and more services to application, and network and application no longer have a parallel carrying relationship, but interlock tightly with each other. IT technicians should not consider network as a carrier for applications; otherwise they would limit their analytical and problem-solving abilities.

There are three major problems in current network performance management:

! Device-Centric management

! Lack of composite technical experts

! Passive maintenance of network performance

The above problems widely exist in network management departments in the past and even now.

 

Device-centric Management

Traditional network performance management is usually device-centric, which mainly concentrates on the operation status of devices, including CPU, usage of RAM, UP/DOWN status of device port, connection of network routes, and distribution of data flow on routes.

However, from the perspective of network-provided service to application, application port is no longer connected by one physical line or one device port, but by TCP/UDP/SNA channel, which is the smallest unit to be distinguished on network. In other words, operation status of physical devices can no longer recognize the business applications they support and maintain because the corresponding relation between infrastructure and application no longer exists. Under this circumstance, traditional device-centric management becomes invalid. Even CPU, RAM, port, and lines all run normally, fault-free network service is not promised.

At the same time, network infrastructure uses transmitting technology to provide application with performance optimization, virtualization, security, and other functions. As a result, when problem occurs in the environment with composite application architecture, they do not directly show on physical line or device port, but on transmitting channel. Traditional management organizes management view by distinguishing devices, which cannot clearly present network service status and differentiate transmitting

channel with physical devices and application layer. Moreover, it doesn’t have a specialized way to monitor network service.

In summary, device-centric management has monitoring and management blind area between network infrastructure and business application. Lack of network service monitoring method between these two layers causes difficulty in relating infrastructure and business application during network operation and maintenance; the two layers isolate from each other; problems are difficult to locate. This kind of network can barely provide service level agreement (SLA) to applications.

Lack of Composite Technical Experts

Compared to infrastructure management, maintenance of network service is more complicated. Other than usability, functions offered by network for composite application include performance optimization, virtualization, security, etc., which increase complexity for managing. Network administrators are facing no longer independent devices and facilities, but a series of network services that infrastructure provides for applications. The most significant problem that technical staffs face is that they have to know more than how to manage devices and facilities in order to solve problems.

The combination of network and application leads to a scenario that once a problem occurs, administrators have to face a series of infrastructures such as firewall, load balancer, WAN accelerator, application accelerator, encrypt device and other devices that require specialized knowledge and techniques to deal with. When figuring out whether the problem is on network layer or application layer, administrators have to understand the logic of business and to organize the access relations between network services; otherwise they cannot make logical judgment to the problem. Moreover, it’s necessary for administrators to know the solution to the problem found on port. As a result, if network administrators lack knowledge of TCP/IP and insight of application logic, they are unable to analyze and solve problems even with powerful infrastructure management platform or network data analysis and decoding tools.

Passive Network Performance Maintenance

Traditional device-centric network performance management focuses on operation status of devices and facilities. However, such management cannot find problem of network service usability and performance in infrastructure in time. In other words, as for a specific application, there is no information that directly shows operation status of network service.

Once a problem occurs, lack of a proper perspective makes problem analysis and solving difficult and passive. Although network data can be traced back, it is very arduous to locate the problem.

More importantly, lack of perspective keeps administrators from seizing dynamic changes of network service, which often can relate phenomenon and cause of problem together. Once the ability to seize

these changes is lost, problem analysis and locating might cost twice as much efforts.                                                

Applica'on

Infrastructure

- Directly Provide Service For Applications

- Provide Connection Between Terminals & Applications, Between Application Servers

- Different Connecting Ways Are Used In Different Application Modes - Provide Extra Services, Such As Load Balance

Network Service

Service-Oriented

Network

Performance

Management

Network infrastructure provides services for applications. Traditionally, management of devices and facilities are essential, while the direct ports between infrastructure and applications are often ignored. Virtual transmitting channels, such as Flow, Connection, and Conversation, are built on infrastructure and corresponding to application layer; they directly provides services for applications and accomplish the connections between terminal and application, between application front-end and application rear-end, and between all ports. They also provide different connection modes for different application environments, as well functions including performance optimization like load balancer, virtualization and security.

These virtual channels run through the whole process of applications; they are the last section in service delivery from infrastructure to applications. As a result, they are also the virtual channels capable of presenting network service usability and service quality, where any problems caused by network layer or application components can all be found.

The only solution is to accept and adopt service-oriented network performance management. The essences of network service are usability

and performance. On premise of stable availability, improving application performance and security become the major concerns. IT administrators need a service-oriented network performance management to solve problems seen in traditional management when they maintain the usability and performance of network services in service-oriented composite application environment. Such management has the following features:

Service-Oriented View

Corresponding to service-centric network performance management, service-oriented view based on SONPM provides service-oriented indicator data at a higher level. These indicator data will be organized in a service-oriented form, and connect application components and network components to form a uniform and integral view.

The view shows the access relation and data path of network performance; infrastructures are organized Client, application component, and infrastructure component Location information of client and component Access relation of network services Way to provide network service Data path of network service Figure2：Service-Oriented View

according to service processes. The intuitive view facilitates IT administrators to better monitor network services. Figure 2 shows essential elements of network service in the sense of a specific application.

Client, application component, and infrastructure component: these components are the

fundamental elements of service, the key to accomplish business, including client, Web server, mediate component, database, router, firewall, load balancer, and other devices.

Access relation of network service: logical access relation of applications and infrastructures

generated after completion of each single transaction.

Data path of network service: the path that goes through infrastructures and applications after

completion of each single transaction, showing the process and path of data transmitting.

Way to provide network service: the way application components and infrastructure components

that have service functions on each layer provide services to components on the former layer. The way, to be more specific, is TCP connection, which includes conventional TCP connection, TCP long connection, asynchronous duplex long connection, etc.

The locations of client and component: different locations of customers and infrastructure

components, which have different influence on network service, have to be dealt with in different ways. For example, the transition delays of WAN and LAN are different.

Introduction to minimized network, system, and application experts

Service-oriented NPM platform uses uniform port technology to organize complicated relations between numerous related components. It takes full advantages of automatic troubleshooting system to analyze problems in order to minimize human efforts.

In the past, few technical experts master multiple techniques to analyze comprehensively; more often, administrators of different components have various ways to analyze and solve problems, which leads to disagreement.

When organizing formerly independent clients, infrastructure components, and application components together in the service-oriented way, problem analysis and locating evolve quite dramatically. First, these components are directly corresponding to specific applications; when problem occurs to the application, we can easily obtain information of all components and data paths in a smaller scope. Second, network services are provided through general communication protocol. Although a series of applications and infrastructures are accomplished by different techniques, the connection and communication between them use general communication protocol. Once problem occurs, network transmission behavior in related component makes changes. That means administrators have a unified port to analyze problems. There is no more need for technical experts to locate the layer and problems. Then specific component on which problems occur can be found. For example, if problems occur on Web server, mediate component,

database, or firewall, load balance, corresponding administrators can look into problems with their specialized knowledge.

Reduce Passive Network Performance Maintenance

Service-oriented NPM platform is capable of finding problems and taking precautions in time; then it analyzes and locates problem, and reports to administrators right away.

How does NPM accomplish that? First, it correlates network services and specific applications so that it can generate effective warnings on network service layer, which traditional management cannot accomplish. Furthermore, NPM is able to sense dynamic changes of network service --- real-time data analysis and statistics lead to fluctuation of network service indicators, which directly reveal the problem and its location.

Nowadays, whether it’s application construction or network construction, the prevalence of SOA brings great challenge to network performance management. Netis proposes SONPM to break through the traditional network performance management. It extends IT administrators’ perspective from network infrastructure to service-oriented performance management.

Based on SONPM, Netis innovatively comes up with NPM product that helps IT administrators organize access relation and data path of network service with service-oriented management view; network services are now directly correlated to specific applications. Based on that, real-time data statistics and

analysis, dynamic monitoring of network service, pre-warning of network service problem and exceptions, preserve problem site, and automatic problem analysis and locating are all successfully accomplished. Service-oriented management is closely concord with SOA. It helps enterprises accomplish efficient and smart network performance management with much less time consumption and human labors.

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