Network management technologies course description

A comprehensive tour of the available network management technologies available for todays networks. After defining network management the course moves onto basic tools such as nmap that can be used to manage networks. SNMP is then covered in detail followed by the *flow technologies and streaming telemetry. SDN is then covered with course culminating with network automation and configuring networks with ansible. Hands on sessions are used to reinforce the theory rather than teach specific manufacturer equipment.

What will you learn

• Evaluate numerous network technologies.
• Use Nmap.
• Explain the strengths and weaknesses of SNMP.
• Compare and contrast *flow and technologies.
• Explain the role of SDN and NfV.
• Automate network configuration with ansible.

Network management technologies course details

Network management technologies course content

• Day 1: Basic network management
• Network management

What is network management? Benefits, issues. FCAPS model. Fault management, Configuration management, accounting, performance, security. What to manage, what not to manage. Managing network devices, managing servers.

• Traditional network tools

Ping..., SSH, syslog, TFTP for configurations. nmap. Wireshark. Web based management. Splunk. Nessus, snort, Kali.
Hands on syslog, network inventories.

• What is SNMP?

SNMP architecture, SNMP MIBs, SMI, the SNMP protocol, polling security.

• Configuring SNMP

Auto discovery for management stations, NMS configuration, agent configuration, traps.
Hands on Configuring agents and a NMS.

• Day 2: Monitoring with SNMP
• SNMP versions

SNMP history, RFCs, standards, SNMP protocol versions, SNMPv1, SNMPv2, SNMPv3, SNMP security, SMI versions, which version should you use? Futures.
Hands on SNMPv3.

• MIB structure

WThe internet MIB branch, standard mib-2, extra parts of mib-2, private enterprise MIBs, loading extra MIBs.
Hands on MIB browsing.

• SNMP summary

What SNMP is good at. What SNMP is bad at. Review of network management systems.

• Day 3: Performance management
• Server management

Microsoft, Linux, application polling. WMI vs SNMP.
Hands on Application polling.

• *flow

Polling, push vs pull, netflow, sflow, IPFIX, *flow. Streaming telemetry. Flows. Where to monitor traffic. Comparing *flow with SNMP.

• NetFlow architecture

Generators and collectors. When flows are exported. NetFlow reporting products. SolarWinds.
Hands on Netflow configuration. Collectors.

• *flow export formats

XML/NETCONF, JSON/RESTCONF, Protocol buffers/gRPC.
Hands on Packet analysis.

• Day 4: Software Defined Networks
• Classic SDN

What is SDN? benefits. SDN architecture. SDN applications, SDN switches, SDN controllers, Network Operating Systems. Control plane, data plane. Northbound interfaces. SDN components. Southbound interfaces. OpenFlow. ONF, OpenFlow ports, Flow tables.

• Network virtualization

Virtual networks, virtual switches, NfV. Service chaining. NfV and SDN.

• SDN implementations

Classic SDN, Hybrid SDN, SDN via APIs, SDN via overlays. Data centre SDN, VXLAN, Service Provider SDN, SD WAN, Enterprise SDN, WiFi.

• SDN and open source

OpenDaylight, OpenVSwitch, Open Networking Forum, Open Network Operating System.
Hands on OpenStack.

• Day 5: Automating network configuration
• What is Devops?

Programming and automating networks, Devops for network operations. chef, puppet, ansible, saltstack, GNS3, Jenkins.

• Configuration management

CLI, SSH, NETCONF and YANG, REST and RESTCONF, OPENCONFIG.
Hands on NETCONF.

• Ansible and automating network configuration

Ansible architecture, Controlling machines, nodes, Agentless, SSH, modules. Inventories, playbooks, modules, network modules, jinja2 templates.
Hands on Installing ansible, configuring network devices with ansible.

• Network automation

Programming models and options, Python, Git and Github. Python network modules, ncclient, pysnmp, SSH, paramiko, netmiko, NAPALM.
Hands on Python with network modules.

Learning path

Reviews