Tips & Tricks for Simplifying Network Management

2. Tips & Tricks for Simplifying Network Management Jeff Buddington CSE, Network and Identity Management Avaya @jrbudding

3. Agenda – What is the Need / Goal ? • Deploy the Latest Network Management Technologies without Forklift Upgrade • Detect Latency Jitter and Packet Loss • Automate and Secure Edge and Core Configuration • Determine Stability of Network Services • Enable easy and successful Change Management • Resolve Information Overload • Eliminate Setup of Network Management • Enable Reliable Alert Messaging

4. Deploy the Latest Network Management Technologies –On Switch • Benefits of having an Avaya Data Network: • Lifetime Warranty • SLAmon Agent –Synthetic Voice traffic generation to test QoE and network QoS treatment end to end • BYOD – Auto-Secure and self-setup of switch port VLAN by login or connected device type • Built In flow connection display – IPFIX Sniffer-Like display of conversations • Unified look and feel

5. Detect Latency, Jitter, Packet Loss SLAmon Agent On-Switch • Embedded SLAmon Agent –Synthetic Voice traffice generation to test QoE and network QoS treatment end to end • Switch to Phone, Switch to Switch, etc. • Missing QoS setups on switch hops?

6. Automate and Secure EdgeIdentity Engines with your Switches Unified Wired / Wireless Guest Access & Captive Portal Secure Network & Device security Network Access Protection Identity-based Network Access Control Automate Wired / Wireless and Edge Auto Provisioned For access to VLANs and network services based on device type or user login Scalable Redundant HA Solution Multi-Vendor Support Central Policies

7. Automate and Secure EdgeIdentity Engines with your Switches • Fingerprint Guest Devices • Network Access Protection – Check and Validate Firewall, Antivirus, Updates on Guest Devices

8. Determine Stability of Network Services • Answer key business questions over time: • Routing Stability? • Physical Stability? • Link Flapping? • Trunk Link & Switch Availability? • Ongoing problems or isolated incidents? • Key Resource Indicators

9. Easy Configuration Change Management –COM • Live central audit logs of any Element Management activities using the Enterprise Device Managers • Historical Backup and Restore • What has changed since things were working weeks ago? • What is the difference between a working and non-working closet? • Easily set Network Wide Configuration Baseline • Email notifications to alert operator of any changes to baseline and what changed. • Automate any type of network wide setting

10. Resolve Information Overload • Executive Summary from the Top: • Trunks with the most Broadcast, Unicast, Multicast traffic • Find areas in the network of most concern • Key Performance Indicators • The most important statistics and areas of concern are automaticallyhighlighted and sorted to the top

11. Eliminate Setup of Network Management • Common Services make Network Management Administratively Easy: • Changing device credentials with COM updates the central repository – reporting with VPFM doesn’t “skip a beat” • Auto Trending and Thresholds for trunk links automatically. • Single Web Sign On through System Manager

12. Enable Reliable Alert Messaging • Benefits of Configuring SNMPv3: • Network switch events are acknowledged by the network management system. If a temporary network outage to a switch occurs, when connectivity resumes the events will be retransmitted. • Authentication and Encryption of SNMPv3 communications to the switch. SNMPv1 communications can be intercepted and the READ/WRITE community strings can be used to take down the network. Very important on a network without Identity Engines that is not secured.

13. Comprehensive yet Simple Management • Proper management of a data network with voice, video and other services running over it will require a comprehensive suite of Network Management Tools working together. Without a solution that provides all of the functions listed here your ability to effectively and quickly manage a network will be limited. Avaya provides the following capabilities in COM, VPFM, IPFM, VPS: • Single Sign On • To All Network Management Applications through a rich Web User Interface • Shared Device Credentials • All Network Management Apps Share SNMPv3, SNMP, SSH, CLI, Credentials. • VoIP Quality Management – • Quality of Experience, Latency, Packet Loss, Jitter measurement across the Data Network from point to point automatically* • Auto Trending • Trend Key Resource Indicators on just Important Links automatically. • Auto Thresholding • Built in “out of the box” thresholds automatically enabled for Key Performance Indicators • Executive Level Exception Reports • Instead of showing me hundreds of stats, show me the key problem areas, busiest devices, most utilized links with the Top-N reports.

14. Comprehensive yet Simple Management • Email Alerts • Free me from sitting in front of the Network Management Console all day by emailing me important service affecting traps. • Physical Connectivity Topology Visualization • Knowledge and visualization of where key network resources such as Call Servers, Media Gateways, Wireless Access Points, Servers, Internet Gateway allows optimization and protection of network services. Includes ability to search with and Innovative Network Management “GoTo Search Box” by NetBIOS or DNS Name, IP Address, MAC Address. – Export to Visio Diagram • IPFIX / Netflow Collector with Reporting • The very next question after why is there so much utilization on a network link is “what’s causing it”. Find out with IPFM. Summary reports across multiple switches to display a higher level view of how the network is being used by what application flows to and from what destination. Good for security and performance tuning. Use in conjunction with EPM to filter out undesired traffic. • Element Management • Not just a generic collection of management utilities UCM includes the actual element managers for Voice**, Wireless, Data. With an element manager such as EDM (or Enterprise Device Manager) you can configure all possible attributes of a specific devices such as VSP-9000, ERS8800, ERS8600, ERS5500, WLAN 8180 and 8120AP’s with a common experience and cartelized real time security audit logging of configuration changes. • Configuration Backup and Restore • What has changed between when the network was operating properly and now? Many organizations could not tell you with out a schedulable network device configuration file backup / restore feature with the ability to do a “SmartDiff” comparison of a configuration baseline versus the current running configuration. COM with BCM provides this functionality.

15. Comprehensive yet Simple Management • Centralized ACLs for Filtering and QoS • With the ability to monitor the hundreds or thousands of links that connect your network together automatically for excessive utilization or error rates, and voice quality of experience - a perfect match for that functionality is EPM which allows the operator to set centralized policies for Network Level Filtering (by many different factors such as Source/Destination IP or Subnet, TCP/UDP Port Number, VLAN, etc.) or Quality of Service (QoS) to easily correct Quality of Experience Issues or maintain fast and reliable network services. EPM also includes Energy Savings Policies and Reporting. • Centralized VLAN Management • Simple Point and Click Capability across multiple switches for rapidly creating or extending multiple VLANs across the network. • Energy Management • In order to begin an Energy Management / Sustainability program within your organization, it’s necessary to understand your current energy consumption tends, heat generation, and carbon footprint. EPM and VPFM provide the ability to discover network devices such as PoE switches and PoE powered devices. EPM provides an energy consumption dashboard and the ability to implement Avaya Energy Saver Policies by Powered and Non-powered port types and PoE powered device type throughout your network. EPM then provides energy saving reports Quarter over Quarter and by several other criteria. VPFM provides a Top-N executive level report allowing you to quickly locate and identify the Top energy using “power hogging” devices on your network.

16. @jrbudding