RE: Zones

Looks clear and logical.
Does it mean that each object will have additional property: zone id (with
some default value)?

-----Original Message-----
From: Victor Kirhenshtein [mailto:victor_at_opticom.lv]
Sent: 13 ��� 2005 �. 9:52
To: NetXMS Developers talks
Subject: [netxms-dev] Zones

Hi!

In this mail I'll try to summarize my current vision of zoning
functionality.

1. Purpose

In complicated network environments, there may be a case when many
monitored nodes located at remote site, and access to that nodes is only
possible via NAT. Also, internal network addresses on remote site(s) may
overlap with network addresses on central site. Currently, NetXMS server
cannot handle such situations correctly, especially to build a correct
network topology. Thre are simple detection of NAT'ed nodes, which may
help in some situations, but, for example, if many nodes are hidden
beside one real IP, NetXMS will see only one node. To solve this
problems, and allow to effectively monitor remote sites, zoning concept
was involved.

2. Definition

Zone in NetXMS is a group of subnets and subordinated nodes, where each
node and subnet has unique IP address (no NAT'ed addresses, no
overlapping subnets). Zones can be of two types: "active" and "passive".
"Active" zone has it's own monitoring server (called "zone controller"),
which is subordinate to central monitoring server. All data collection
and polling operations performed by zone controller, and then data being
synchronized with central server. "Passive" zone monitored directly from
central monitoring server through one or more external IP addresses. In
that case, thousands of servers can be monitored through just one
external IP address.

3. How system administrator see zones

Just as additional layer in topology tree, like this:

Entire Network
        Zone 0
                Subnet 10.0.0.0/16
                        Node 1
                        Node 2
                Subnet 192.168.1.0/24
                        Node 3
        Zone 1
                Subnet 10.0.0.0/24
                        Node 4
                        Node 5

When adding a node, administrator see zone selection to place node into
appropriate zone, and for passive zones, he should select external IP
address and port used to reach that node.
Server tree remain intact, and nodes from all zones can be mixed here.

Regards,
Victor
Received on Fri May 13 2005 - 10:23:56 EEST