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Managing Agent Platforms with the Simple Network Management Protocol

This thesis defense by Brian Remick explores the complexities of managing agent platforms using the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). It addresses the challenges of debugging and analyzing agent-based systems, emphasizing the need for a formal management specification. The proposed AgentSNMP system integrates seamlessly with existing enterprise management systems like HP OpenView, enabling efficient communication and management of agents. Key components include agent creation, migration, and communication analysis, aimed at facilitating scalable and flexible management processes for diverse network resources.

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Managing Agent Platforms with the Simple Network Management Protocol

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  1. Managing Agent Platforms with theSimple Network ManagementProtocol Brian Remick Thesis Defense August 27, 2014

  2. The Big Picture

  3. Overview • Background • Motivation • Network Management / SNMP • AgentSNMP • Agent Patterns • Summary

  4. Background • Agent • Software process that can make decisions autonomously. • Without a central control mechanism. • Communication via a standard messaging language (ACL). • Able to migrate from one platform / host to another. • Agent Platform • Development framework for agent software • Runtime environment for agents • Concurrent agent activities • Agent communication • Agent migration • FIPA – Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents • Formal specification for agent platforms

  5. Motivation • Agent platforms are complex runtime environments. • Difficult to debug from a software perspective. • Difficult to analyze from an administrator’s perspective. • No formal management specification. • FIPA leaves this up to the platform implementation. • Thus, each implementation does it differently (if at all).

  6. Jade Agent Management – RMA

  7. Jade Agent Management – Sniffer

  8. Network Management • Basic Goals • Manage resources of vastly different types in a standard way. • Must be scalable, flexible. • Non-intrusive (as much as possible).

  9. Network Management • Components of a typical network management system • Resources • Devices, software that need to be managed. • Proxy “agents” • Act as representatives for resources. • Expose standard interface to resource. • Communication protocol • Supports messages between proxy agent and management system. • SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) • Management system(s) • Polls / modifies attributes through the proxy agent interface. • HP Openview

  10. Network Management

  11. Industry standard protocol for network management. MIB (Management Information Base) “Interface” for resources Flexibility is key. Need to be able to facilitate interface for any resource. Off-the-shelf management software natively supports it. SNMP

  12. Proxy “Agents” • Expose standard interface defined by MIB. • Provide resource-specific implementation • Hide complexity of resource/device from manager. • Respond to requests from managers. • Able to send asynchronous traps.

  13. Enterprise Management Systems • Sophisticated control over resources. • Polling Support • Ability to set thresholds, gather temporal data, graphs, etc. • Customizable: views of data, resource graphs • Designed for more than strictly “network” management. • Examples • HP Openview • Sun Solstice • IBM Tivoli

  14. HP Openview - Example

  15. Both solve similar problems. Distributed resources Overload conditions Crashes Management of varying types of resources But, differences exist. Agent platforms are much more dynamic. Agent are created / destroyed at much higher rates than network nodes. No physical connections in agent platforms “Logical” connections between agents via messages. Migration – No parallel in network management Network is a static set of nodes. Network and Agent Management

  16. AgentSNMP – Goals • Develop a formal set of agent management requirements. • Based on FIPA agent platform specification. • Build an agent management system based on these requirements. • Agent Platform MIB. • Jade agent platform implementation. • Integrate with enterprise management system. • HP Openview • Demonstrate • Test the system with agent behavioral patterns and simulations.

  17. AgentSNMP – Requirements • Basic management tasks • Agent creation, deletion, migration, etc. • Track agent load, responsiveness • Must be able to detect agents that are “overloaded.” • Analyze agent communication patterns. • Track agent movement between hosts, platforms.

  18. AgentSNMP – Overview • Agent platform is the “managed resource” • Proxy agent exposes standard interface to the platform. • Management software uses SNMP to communicate with proxy agent. • Able to retrieve information about the platform via interface. • Management software is customized to display platform information visually. • Plugin for HP Openview.

  19. AgentSNMP – Architecture

  20. AgentSNMP – FIPA MIB • SNMP interface to agent platform • Access to: • Hosts connected to platform • Agents living on each host • Messages sent between agents • Higher-level patterns of agent communication • Channels • Load analysis of agents • Extensible

  21. AgentSNMP – Proxy Agent • Specific to Jade implementation. • Other platform implementations might require different proxy agents designs. • Implements interface defined by FIPA MIB. • Maintains data structures that represent MIB objects. • Basic functionality: • Agent living on platform • Necessary for Jade implementation • Registers with AMS to receive information about platform events. • Updates MIB data structures appropriately based on events.

  22. AgentSNMP – MIB Browser • Simple access to proxy agent interface. • Manipulate individual values in the MIB via SNMP. • Minimal polling, threshold, graphing support. • No customization.

  23. AgentSNMP – MIB Browser

  24. Takes advantage of Openview’s plugin capabilities Translates events: Platform events to Openview GUI events. Openview GUI events to SNMP requests for platform. Displays threshold events graphically. Openview threshold events to GUI events. AgentSNMP – HP Openview

  25. AgentSNMP – HP Openview

  26. AgentSNMP - Example

  27. Management Patterns • Simulate common patterns of agent communication. • Designed to be difficult to manage without a sophisticated management framework. • Examples • Client/Server pattern • One server agent replies to requests made by some number of client agents. • Agent Mobility pattern • Agents move from host to host, manager must keep track of their locations.

  28. Management Patterns (Client/Server) Server Server

  29. Management Patterns (Migration) Server “Proxy” Agent

  30. Management Patterns 30 clients 15 clients

  31. Summary • Uses well-researched, proven network management techniques. • Provides standard method for managing agent platforms. • Performs basic management tasks. • Detects overloaded agents. • Monitors communication patterns between agents. • Tracks agent mobility. • Integrates with industry-standard management tools. • HP Openview

  32. Future Work • Add agent management to FIPA specification • All platform implementations would implement a standard management scheme. • Alternative management protocols • SNMP is still standard. • Others are gaining popularity and provide more sophisticated support.

  33. Questions

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