Using Web-Based Technologies for Network Management Tools

This is a NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA report procured by the Pentagon and made available for public release. It has been reproduced in the best form available to the Pentagon. It is not spiral-bound, but rather assembled with Velobinding in a soft, white linen cover. The Storming Media report number is A603333. The abstract provided by the Pentagon follows: This thesis examines the recent developments in the application of Internet technology to the field of network management. Network management has become increasingly important and even critical for large organizations. The current solutions offered by the main network management vendors are very expensive, demand a lot of training, and have been implemented only in a centralized paradigm of management. New solutions to current network management tools problems may be found in the increasingly popular World Wide Web, Internet tools such as Java, and remote database access through the Internet, as well as an established user interface, which can be easily learned. The main advantage of this paradigm shift is the ability to provide any user in the organization with information about the network, as well as the ability to allow authorized users to handle a network problem from any machine or location. These new methods are examined with regards to the requirements of an ideal network management system, and the feasibility of implementing these methods, given current network configuration. A web-based network management prototype implementing a configuration management tool is described. New network management protocols are also investigated.