A Monitoring System for the BaBar INFN Computing Cluster

Monitoring large clusters is a challenging problem. It is necessary to observe a large quantity of devices with a reasonably short delay between consecutive observations. The set of monitored devices may include PCs, network switches, tape libraries and other equipments. The monitoring activity should not impact the performances of the system. In this paper we present PerfMC, a monitoring system for large clusters. PerfMC is driven by an XML configuration file, and uses the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) for data collection. SNMP is a standard protocol implemented by many networked equipments, so the tool can be used to monitor a wide range of devices. System administrators can display informations on the status of each device by connecting to a WEB server embedded in PerfMC. The WEB server can produce graphs showing the value of different monitored quantities as a function of time; it can also produce arbitrary XML pages by applying XSL Transformations to an internal XML representation of the cluster's status. XSL Transformations may be used to produce HTML pages which can be displayed by ordinary WEB browsers. PerfMC aims at being relatively easy to configure and operate, and highly efficient. It is currently being used to monitor the Italian Reprocessing farm for the BaBar experiment, which is made of about 200 dual-CPU Linux machines.Comment: Talk from the 2003 Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP03), La Jolla, Ca, USA, March 2003, 10 pages, LaTeX, 4 eps figures. PSN MOET00

VINEA: a policy-based virtual network embedding architecture

Network virtualization has enabled new business models by allowing infrastructure providers to lease or share their physical network. To concurrently run multiple customized virtual network services, such infrastructure providers need to run a virtual network embedding protocol. The virtual network embedding is the (NP-hard) problem of matching constrained virtual networks onto the physical network. We present the design and implementation of a policy-based architecture for the virtual network embedding problem. By policy, we mean a variant aspect of any of the (invariant) embedding mechanisms: resource discovery, virtual network mapping, and allocation on the physical infrastructure. Our architecture adapts to different scenarios by instantiating appropriate policies, and has bounds on embedding efficiency and on convergence embedding time, over a single provider, or across multiple federated providers. The performance of representative novel policy configurations are compared over a prototype implementation. We also present an object model as a foundation for a protocol specification, and we release a testbed to enable users to test their own embedding policies, and to run applications within their virtual networks. The testbed uses a Linux system architecture to reserve virtual node and link capacities.National Science Foundation (CNS-0963974

An Assessment of Practical Hands-On Lab Activities in Network Security Management

With the advancement in technology over the past decades, networks have become increasingly large and complex. In the meantime, cyberattacks have become highly sophisticated making them difficult to detect. These changes make securing a network more challenging than ever before. Hence, it is critical to prepare a comprehensive guide of network security management for students assist them in becoming network security professionals. The objective of this paper is to introduce a variety of techniques related to network security management, such as Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), event management, security policy management, risk management, access control, and remote monitoring. With the usage of these techniques, malicious activities from outsiders and misuse by insiders can be effectively monitored and managed. A network learning environment is proposed for students to practice network security management experiments. In addition, hands-on lab exercises are suggested. These activities will help students become familiar with the operations of network security management and allow them to further apply practical skills to protect networks

Multifaceted Faculty Network Design and Management: Practice and Experience Report

We report on our experience on multidimensional aspects of our faculty's network design and management, including some unique aspects such as campus-wide VLANs and ghosting, security and monitoring, switching and routing, and others. We outline a historical perspective on certain research, design, and development decisions and discuss the network topology, its scalability, and management in detail; the services our network provides, and its evolution. We overview the security aspects of the management as well as data management and automation and the use of the data by other members of the IT group in the faculty.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures, TOC and index; a short version presented at C3S2E'11; v6: more proofreading, index, TOC, reference