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Managing Agent Platforms with the Simple Network Management Protocol. Brian Remick Thesis Defense August 27, 2014. The Big Picture. Overview. Background Motivation Network Management / SNMP AgentSNMP Agent Patterns Summary. Background. Agent
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Managing Agent Platforms with theSimple Network ManagementProtocol Brian Remick Thesis Defense August 27, 2014
Overview • Background • Motivation • Network Management / SNMP • AgentSNMP • Agent Patterns • Summary
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
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).
Network Management • Basic Goals • Manage resources of vastly different types in a standard way. • Must be scalable, flexible. • Non-intrusive (as much as possible).
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
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
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
AgentSNMP – MIB Browser • Simple access to proxy agent interface. • Manipulate individual values in the MIB via SNMP. • Minimal polling, threshold, graphing support. • No customization.
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
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.
Management Patterns (Client/Server) Server Server
Management Patterns (Migration) Server “Proxy” Agent
Management Patterns 30 clients 15 clients
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
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.