JP4361469B2 - Network management method and network management system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a network management method and a network management system, and in particular, in a multi-agent system in which network management agents for managing a network are distributed in a plurality of locations on the Internet, a plurality of network management agents cooperate to manage the network. The present invention relates to a technology that is effective when applied to a network management method.

  In recent years, the rapid expansion of the Internet has caused various problems due to the difficulty of operation management and high costs. Among such problems, in particular, failures in routing control between AS (Autonomous System) using BGP (Border Gateway Protocol, for example, see Non-Patent Document 1), in the discovery and investigation, Since mutual work between ASs is necessary, countermeasures are difficult, and the effects of failures can be widespread, so effective countermeasures are required.

  As a method of coping with such a path failure, a wide area IP network path failure diagnosis system (ENCORE) has been proposed (for example, see Non-Patent Document 2). The ENCORE is a system for detecting and diagnosing a path failure between ASs by cooperation of network management agents (ENCORE agents) arranged in a plurality of ASs. In ENCORE, in order to execute diagnosis efficiently and flexibly, a combination of network management agents (agent group) that cooperates according to the contents of the diagnosis and the state of the environment such as the network management agent or the network is appropriate. It is necessary to make the agent group perform cooperative work.

  However, in the conventional detection and diagnosis of a path failure by the ENCORE, each time a diagnosis is executed, a cooperative agent group is manually selected. In the case of a multi-agent system in which the network management agents are distributed on the network, it is necessary to consider the state of the network as a condition for selecting the cooperative agent group. In addition, the state of the network such as the Internet is constantly changing, and in order to select an appropriate agent group at a specific time, the state of the network must be simultaneously measured each time. Therefore, for example, when the number of network management agents is large, or when the state of the network management agent or the state of the network frequently changes, there is a problem that it is difficult to select an appropriate agent group.

In addition to the management and detection of path faults such as ENCORE, for example, management such as dynamic load distribution and path control according to the amount of traffic and requests from users, and detection of network intrusion In some cases, a plurality of network management agents distributed on the network may perform management in a coordinated manner. In such a case, as in the case of the ENCORE, the selection of the agent group is performed manually, and there is a problem similar to that in the case of the ENCORE.
Y. Rekhter and T. Li, "A Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4)", RFC 1771, 1995. O.Akashi, T.Sugawara, K.Murakami, M.Maruyama and K.Koyanagi, "Agent System for Inter-AS routing Error Diagnosis", IEEE Internet Computing, Vol.6, No.3, pp.78-82, 2002

  As described in the background art, the problem to be solved by the present invention is that a plurality of network management agents distributed on the network, such as the ENCORE, manage the network in cooperation with each other. In this case, it is difficult to select an appropriate agent group as the number of the network management agents increases, and it is difficult to increase the scale of the network management system.

  In addition, the selection of cooperating agents must be performed manually, and the network state must be measured at the same time, so there is a problem in that the efficiency is low and the operation cost of the network management system increases. is there.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a network management method in which a large-scale network management system in which a plurality of network management agents distributed on a network cooperate to manage the network can be easily increased.

  Another object of the present invention is to provide a network management method capable of improving the efficiency of operation of a network management system in which a plurality of network management agents distributed and arranged on a network cooperate to manage the network, and reducing the operation cost. Is to provide.

  The above and other objects and novel features of the present invention will be apparent from the description of this specification and the accompanying drawings.

  The outline of the invention disclosed in the present application will be described as follows.

  (1) A network management method for managing the network by measuring and analyzing the state of the network by coordinating network management agents distributed and arranged on the network, and a combination of network management agents to be coordinated (hereinafter referred to as the network management agent) , Searching for and determining the agent group), and step 2 for managing the network by the agent group determined in step 1, wherein the step 1 includes: Step 3 for transmitting search conditions for the agent group to information collection agents distributed and distributed, and the information collection agent that has received the search conditions, through other information collection agents, Step 4 for checking the connection status with the network management agent, Step 5 for the information collection agent to acquire information on the other network management agent, and the connection status checked by the information collection agent at Step 4 Step 6 of returning information on the network management agent that matches the search condition to the network management agent that transmitted the search condition as a search result based on the information on the other network management agent acquired in step 5; A network management method.

  (2) In the network management method of (1), the information collection agent is arranged so as to be one-to-one with the network management agent, and the step 4 includes the information collection agent that has received the search condition and This is a network management method for examining the connection status with the other network management agent from the connection status with another information collection agent or the connection status between a specified AS (Autonomous System) on the network and another AS.

  (3) In the network management method of (2), the steps 4 and 5 check the connection status of the network management agent by performing communication using BGP (Border Gateway Protocol), and This is a network management method for acquiring information of the network management agent.

(4) In the network management method according to (2) or (3), the step 4 is performed based on a connection status of another AS connected with the specified AS with 1 or 2 hops . In this network management method, an AS connection state is estimated to check a connection state with the other network management agent.

  (5) In the network management method according to (1) to (4), the step 5 is performed from the shared database that is installed on the network and collectively manages the information of each network management agent. This is a network management method for acquiring information of a network management agent.

  (6) A network management agent that measures and analyzes a network state to manage the network, an information collection agent that collects information about the state of the network management agent and the state of the network, and BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) An AS (Autonomous System) comprising a BGP router for performing communication is a network management system distributed on the network, wherein the information collection agent communicates with the BGP router; Means for analyzing AS-path information acquired from the BGP router to create inter-AS topology information, means for collecting network information other than the AS-path information, and means for communicating with other information collection agents And a network that matches the search conditions received from the network management agent. A network management system comprising: means for searching for a network management agent; and means for receiving the search condition and transmitting (returning) a search result to the network management agent.

  In the network management method of the present invention, a plurality of network management agents distributed on the network cooperate to detect and diagnose a path failure, for example, a dynamic load according to the amount of traffic and user requests. A network management method for managing a network such as distribution, path control, and intrusion detection into a network. As described in (1), a combination of management agents (agent group) that a network management agent on the network should cooperate with When the selection is made, a search condition for the agent group is transmitted to the information collecting agent to cause the information collecting agent to search for the agent group. At this time, the information collection agent checks the connection status of the network management agent and the network status in cooperation with other information collection agents, and obtains information on the other network management agents that match the search condition as the search condition. Return (reply) to the sent network management agent. That is, in the network management method of the present invention, the information collection agent performs selection of an agent group and measurement of a network state, which are conventionally performed manually. Therefore, for example, even when the number of the network management agents is large or when the state of the network management agents or the network is constantly changing, the agent group can be selected efficiently and network operation management can be performed. It becomes efficient and operation cost can be reduced.

  Further, in the network management method of (1), as described in (2) above, the network management agent and the information collection agent are distributed and arranged in a one-to-one manner, so that the step 4 can Based on the connection status between the information collection agent that received the condition and another information collection agent, or the connection status between the specified AS (Autonomous System) on the network and another AS, the connection status with the other network management agent You can investigate. Therefore, it becomes easy to acquire information on the network management agent that matches the search condition, and the agent group can be selected more efficiently.

  In the network management method of (2), for example, if the network management agent and the information collection agent are installed on an AS (Autonomous System) using BGP (Border Gateway Protocol), the step 4 And step 5 can be performed by communication using the BGP as in (3). Therefore, the information collection agent can acquire AS-path information and BGP peer information by communication using the BGP, and can easily acquire information of the network management agent that matches the search condition. At this time, in step 4, as in (4), the connection status of the designated AS and the other AS is estimated from the connection status of the AS in the vicinity of the designated AS, and the other network management agent Can be obtained more easily by checking the connection status.

  In the network management methods (1) to (4), the information of the network management agent acquired by the information collection agent in step 5 is distributed on the network as in (5), for example. It is preferable to acquire the information of each network management agent obtained from a shared DB that collectively manages the information. By doing so, it is possible to efficiently acquire (search) information of the network management agent in the step 5.

  Further, when constructing a network management system to which the network management method as described in (1) to (5) is applied, the information collection agent is provided with each means as described in (6) above. What is necessary is just to perform a process like each step of said (1) to (5).

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail together with embodiments (examples) with reference to the drawings.
In all the drawings for explaining the embodiments, parts having the same function are given the same reference numerals and their repeated explanation is omitted.

  In the network management method of the present invention, when a plurality of network management agents distributed on a network such as the Internet perform cooperative network management, search conditions for the cooperative network management agent are distributed on the network. Send to the arranged information collection agent to search. At this time, when the information collection agent receives the search condition, the information collection agent displays, in cooperation with another information collection agent, the connection status between the network management agent that transmitted the search condition and the other network management agent, and the network status. Acquire and return the information of the other network management agent that matches the search condition to the network management agent. In this way, the network management agent that has transmitted the search condition can automatically acquire the connection status with other network management agents, and can select a combination (network group) of network management agents to be coordinated. Also, at this time, the network management agent and the information collection agent have a one-to-one correspondence relationship, and the network management agent and the information collection agent are installed on an AS using BGP, so that a plurality of networks This makes it easy to obtain the connection status of management agents, and makes the process of selecting a network group to cooperate efficiently.

1 and 2 are schematic diagrams showing a schematic configuration of a network management system to which a network management method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration example of a network management system. 2 is a diagram illustrating a software configuration example of the information collection agent.
In FIG. 1, 1 is a network (Internet), 2x, 2y and 2z are AS (Autonomous System), 3x, 3y and 3z are network management agents, 4x, 4y and 4z are information collection agents, and 5x, 5y and 5z are BGP. A router 6 is a shared database (DB).

  In the network management method of this embodiment, for example, a network management agent installed on an AS (Autonomous System) using BGP is coordinated by a plurality of network management agents distributed on the network. It is a network management method to be managed. At this time, the network management agent performs management such as detection and diagnosis of a path failure, dynamic load distribution and path control according to the traffic and the amount of requests from the user, and detection of intrusion into the network. At this time, the network management agent transmits the search conditions for the network management agent to be coordinated to the information collecting agents distributed on the network to be searched.

  A network management system to which the network management method according to the first embodiment is applied, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, each of the ASs 2x, 2y, 2z distributed on the network 1 such as the Internet is connected to the network. Management agents 3x, 3y, 3z, information collection agents 4x, 4y, 4z, and BGP routers 5x, 5y, 5z are installed. In addition to the ASs 2x, 2y, and 2z, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, a shared database (DB) 6 that centrally manages agent information and network information is installed on the network 1. ing. Although FIG. 1 shows an example in which three ASs 2x, 2y, and 2z are distributed on the network 1, this is not restrictive, and a larger number of ASs may be distributed. In this case, it is assumed that the network management agent, the information collection agent, and the BGP router are installed in each AS.

  The information collection agent 4 (4x) includes, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, a TCP / IP 401, an inter-BGP router communication function 402, an inter-AS topology analysis function 403, a network information collection function 404, and an inter-agent communication function 405. , An agent search function 406, a network management agent communication function 407, and an inter-agent communication library 408.

  At this time, the inter-BGP router communication function 402 is a function for the information collection agent 4 (4x) to communicate with the BGP router 5x. The inter-AS topology analysis function 403 is a function for generating AS inter-AS topology information by analyzing AS-path information acquired from the BGP router 5x. The network information collection function 404 is a function for acquiring network information other than the inter-AS topology information such as an AS number (identifier) and an IP address. In addition, the inter-agent communication function 405 communicates with the other information collection agent using the inter-agent communication library 408 when it is necessary to cooperate with another information collection agent in the process of searching for a network management agent to cooperate. It is a function to do. The agent search function 406 is a function for searching for a network management agent that matches the search conditions received from the network management agent 3x. The inter-network management agent communication function 407 is a function for receiving search conditions from the network management agent 3x and transmitting (returning) information on other network management agents that match the search conditions.

  At this time, the information collection agent 4 (4x) may realize the operation of each function by executing a program (software) on a general-purpose device (computer) such as a computer, It may be a dedicated device that combines hardware means for executing processing corresponding to the operation of each function. Although not described in detail, it is assumed that the other information collection agents 4y and 4z have the same configuration as the information collection agent 4x.

  3 to 7 are schematic diagrams for explaining the operation of the information collection agent in the network management system to which the network management method of this embodiment is applied. FIG. 3 is an example of AS-path information acquired from the BGP router. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of inter-AS topology information created from acquired AS-path information, FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of network information collected by the information collection agent other than AS-path, FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a network management agent search method, and FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating another example of the network management agent search method.

  In the network management method of this embodiment, for example, when performing management such as detection and diagnosis of a path failure on a network, a network management agent on the network sets search conditions for other network management agents to cooperate with the information. The information is sent to the collection agent and the information collection agent is searched.

At this time, for example, when the information collection agent 4x receives the search condition from the network management agent 3x by the network management agent communication function 407, the BGP router 5x uses the BGP router communication function 402. Get BGP AS-path information from Then, the AS topology analysis function 403 analyzes the acquired AS-path information, and creates inter-AS topology information centering on the AS 2x in which the AS is installed. The AS-path information is obtained, for example, by executing a “show bgp paths” command on the connected BGP router 5x. At this time, when the “show bgp paths” command is executed, for example, an execution result as shown in FIG. 3 is obtained, and each line indicates individual path information. The value in the Path column shown at the right end of FIG. 3 indicates a list of ASs that are routed through each route, that is, AS-path information. In the example illustrated in FIG. 3, the AS-path in the route information on the first line is “xyzab”. In the example shown in FIG. 3, the AS number (b) at the right end in the AS list is the origin of the route, and the AS number (x) at the left end is the final receiving destination, that is, its own AS number. Is shown. When the information collection agent 4x acquires AS-path information as shown in FIG. 3, for example, the inter-AS topology analysis function 403 combines the AS-paths in the respective path information, As shown in FIG. 4, an inter-AS topology (network topology) centered on its own AS (AS _x 2x) is created.

  The information collection agent 4x acquires AS-path information from the BGP router 5x to create an inter-AS topology, and network information other than the AS-path information from the BGP router 5x, for example, BGP peer information. To get. The BGP peer information is obtained, for example, by executing a “show bgp peers” command on the connected BGP router 5x. At this time, when the “show bgp peers” command is executed, for example, an execution result as shown in FIG. 5 is obtained. FIG. 5 shows a part of information output for one BGP peer. When there are a plurality of BGP peers, information (execution results) as shown in FIG. 5 is obtained for the number of BGP peers. It is done. When the information collection agent 4x acquires BGP peer information as shown in FIG. 5, the network information collection function 404 collects the BGP peer's IP address, AS number, etc. from the BGP peer information.

  Further, when the information collection agent 4x receives a search condition from the network management agent 3x, the agent search function 406 searches for an agent that matches the received search condition. At this time, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, when the information collection agent 4x receives a search condition from the network management agent 3x, the information collection agent 4x retains the shared DB 6 installed on the network or the information collection agent 4x itself. Search for matching internal information. At this time, the agent search function 406 determines that cooperation with other information collection agents is necessary, for example, when a search for information collection agents belonging to ASs other than the AS 2x to which the information collection agent 4x belongs is necessary. In this case, the information collection agent 4x uses the inter-agent communication function 405 to transmit the received search condition to another information collection agent 4y as shown in FIG. When the search is completed, the information collection agent 4x transmits (returns) the search result to the network management agent 3x.

  At this time, for example, when the information collection agent 4x determines that cooperation with another information collection agent is necessary and tries to transmit a search condition to another information collection agent, as shown in FIG. When a failure has occurred in the connection path to the information collection agent 4y to be transmitted and transmission is not possible, the information collection agent 4x searches, for example, the vicinity of the information collection agent 4y to be transmitted. When another information collection agent 4z is found in the vicinity, as shown in FIG. 7, the search condition is transmitted to the other information collection agent 4z, and the search is continued.

  In the information collection agent 4x that has received the search condition from the network management agent 3x, the information collection agent 4x performs the processing as described above, so that the information collection agent 4x and the network management agent 3x that has transmitted the search condition and the other network management agent Connection status and network status can be collected automatically. Therefore, by transmitting (returning) the collection result in the information collection agent 4x to the network management agent 3x, the network management agent 3x automatically selects an appropriate combination (agent group) of the network management agents to cooperate with. You can choose.

  8 and 9 are diagrams showing examples of search conditions in the network management method of the present embodiment, FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of search conditions, and FIG. 9 is a diagram showing another example of search conditions. .

In the network management system to which the network management method of this embodiment is applied, as the search condition transmitted by the network management agent, for example, inter-AS topology information can be used, and an agent belonging to an AS in the vicinity of a certain AS is selected. A condition for searching can be set. At this time, in order to search for an AS in the vicinity of AS _a 2a shown in FIG. 8, the vicinity is specified by the number of hops from a certain AS, for example, information on ASs in the vicinity of hop number 1 of AS _a 2a. If the collection agent is a search condition, in the example shown in FIG. 8, four ASs AS _b 2b, AS _d 2d, AS _h 2h, and AS _k 2k are detected, and information such as the AS number is returned. . In addition, for example, an information collection agent of an upstream AS of an AS can be used as the search condition. In this case, for example, if a search condition for searching for an upstream AS agent is transmitted to AS _a 2a shown in FIG. 9, the information collection agent of AS _a 2a is connected to AS _b 2b, AS on the upstream side. _c 2c is detected, and information such as AS number is returned. In addition, for example, the search condition can be an AS agent having many BGP peers.

  FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an agent group selection procedure performed on the network management system in the network management method of the present embodiment.

  Based on the operation of the information collecting agent as described above, a procedure until a network management agent cooperates to select another network management agent on the network management system is summarized as shown in FIG. become.

For example, it is assumed that the certain network management agent 3x transmits a search condition to the information collection agent 4x as an agent in the vicinity of the hop number 1 of AS _y 2y as shown in FIG. At this time, the information collection agent 4x that has received the search condition transmits the received search condition to the information collection agent 4y of the AS _y 2y and inquires an agent in the vicinity of the hop number 1. Then, the information collection agent 4y of the AS _y 2y as AS near hop number 1 of its own _{(AS y 2y), AS a} 2a, AS c 2c, detecting the AS _f 2f, returns a detection result.

The information collection agent 4x that has received the detection result from the information collection agent 4y of the AS _y 2y accesses the shared DB 6, as shown in FIG. 10, and determines the detection result, that is, the hop number 1 of the AS _y 2y. Information on network management agents of the AS _a 2a, AS _c 2c, and AS _f 2f is searched and acquired using the neighboring AS _a 2a, AS _c 2c, and AS _f 2f as keys. The acquired network management agent information is returned to the network management agent 3x. As a result, the network management agent 3x can acquire agent information that matches the search conditions. The network management agent 3x can automatically (effectively) select (determine) a combination (agent group) of network management agents to be coordinated based on the acquired agent information. At this time, if the network management system performs management such as detection and diagnosis of path faults, for example, the agent group including the network management agent 3x is, for example, a conventional ENCORE (for example, Non-Patent Document 2). Refer to the same procedure as in the above.

  As described above, according to the network management method of this embodiment, the local agent information is collected by the information collection agents distributed on the network, and the connection between the network management agents is based on the information. By examining the state, it is possible to appropriately and automatically select a combination (agent group) of network management agents that should cooperate in detecting and diagnosing a path failure. In other words, since it is not necessary to manually select the agent group, even if the number of network management agents is large or the network management agent and the network state are constantly changing, it is easy to select an appropriate agent group. Can be selected. Therefore, the operation management of the network becomes efficient and the operation cost can be reduced.

  The present invention has been specifically described above based on the above-described embodiments. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. is there.

1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a network management system to which a network management method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied, and is a diagram illustrating an overall configuration example of a network management system. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a network management system to which a network management method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied, and is a diagram illustrating a software configuration example of an information collection agent. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating operation | movement of the information collection agent in the network management system to which the network management method of a present Example is applied, and is a figure which shows an example of AS-path information acquired from a BGP router. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating operation | movement of the information collection agent in the network management system to which the network management method of a present Example is applied, and is a figure which shows an example of the topology information between AS created from the acquired AS-path information . It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating operation | movement of the information collection agent in the network management system to which the network management method of a present Example is applied, It is a figure which shows an example of the network information which the said information collection agent collects other than AS-path . It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating operation | movement of the information collection agent in the network management system to which the network management method of a present Example is applied, and is a figure which shows an example of the search method of a network management agent. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating operation | movement of the information collection agent in the network management system to which the network management method of a present Example is applied, and is a figure which shows another example of the search method of a network management agent. It is a figure which shows the example of the search condition in the network management method of a present Example, and is a figure which shows an example of a search condition. It is a figure which shows the example of the search conditions in the network management method of a present Example, and is a figure which shows the other example of search conditions. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example of the selection procedure of the agent group performed on a network management system in the network management method of a present Example.

Explanation of symbols

1 ... Network (Internet)
2x, 2y, 2z ... AS (Autonomous System)
3x, 3y, 3z ... Network management agent 4x, 4y, 4z ... Information collection agent 401 ... TCP / IP 401
402 ... Communication function between BGP routers 403 ... Inter-AS topology analysis function 404 ... Network information collection function 405 ... Inter-agent communication function 406 ... Agent search function 407 ... Network management agent communication function 408 ... Inter-agent communication library 5x, 5y, 5z ... BGP router 6 ... Shared database (DB)

Claims (6)

A network management method for managing the network by measuring and analyzing the state of the network in cooperation with network management agents distributed and arranged on the network,
Step 1 for searching and determining a combination of network management agents to be coordinated (hereinafter referred to as an agent group);
Managing the network by the agent group determined in step 1, and
The step 1 includes transmitting a search condition for the agent group from the network management agent to information collection agents distributed on the network; and
The information collection agent that has received the search condition checks the connection status between the specified network management agent and another network management agent through another information collection agent; and
Step 5 in which the information collection agent acquires information on the other network management agent;
Based on the connection status checked in step 4 and the information of the other network management agent acquired in step 5, the information collection agent uses the information of the network management agent that matches the search condition as the search result. And a step 6 of returning the search condition to the network management agent that has transmitted the search condition. The information collection agent is arranged to be one-to-one with the network management agent,
The step 4 is based on the connection status between the information collection agent that has received the search condition and another information collection agent, or the connection status between a specified AS (Autonomous System) on the network and another AS. The network management method according to claim 1, wherein a connection status with the management agent is checked.   In step 4 and step 5, by performing communication using BGP (Border Gateway Protocol), the status of connection with the other network management agent is checked, and information on the other network management agent is acquired. The network management method according to claim 2, wherein: The step 4 estimates the connection status between the designated AS and the other AS from the connection status of the other AS connected with the designated AS with 1 or 2 hops, and connects to the other network management agent. The network management method according to claim 2, wherein the situation is checked.   The step 5 is characterized in that the information of the other network management agents is acquired from a shared database that is installed on the network and collectively manages the information of the network management agents. The network management method according to claim 4. A network management agent that measures and analyzes the network status and manages the network, an information collection agent that collects information about the network management agent status and the network status, and communication using BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) An AS (Autonomous System) comprising a BGP router that performs the above is a network management system distributed on the network,
The information collection agent comprises means for communicating with the BGP router;
Means for analyzing AS-path information acquired from the BGP router and creating inter-AS topology information;
Means for collecting network information other than the AS-path information;
Means for communicating with other information gathering agents;
Means for searching for a network management agent that matches a search condition received from the network management agent;
A network management system comprising: receiving the search condition; and transmitting (returning) a search result to the network management agent.

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