Troubleshooting Solaris™ Network Performance
Alex Golomshtok
Networks are the bloodstreams of modern computer systems. Today, nearly
all computers are connected to some kind of public or private network, and it
is difficult to imagine a system without at least some sort of networking capabilities.
As computer technology continues to evolve, the distributed computing model gains
more ground, thus increasing the importance of networks. In fact, today most organizations
rely on their own complex networking structures so much that even a short period
of downtime may easily translate into millions of dollars of lost revenues.
Modern-day networks are often monstrously complex, convoluted, and rely on a wide spectrum of technologies. A typical corporate network, for instance, may bring together thousands of computer systems from different hardware vendors, running various operating systems. Monitoring the health of such network is quite a challenge and may be impossible without the proper tools. To satisfy growing demands for reliable management of heterogeneous networks, the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) was developed and adopted as a management standard for TCP/IP-based networking systems. SNMP quickly gained popularity and remains the primary mechanism for carrying out a multitude of network management tasks, such as network performance monitoring, fault management, configuration management, and more.
SNMP
The foundation of SNMP is the database containing the management data, on
which the network management system operates. This database is commonly referred
to as the Management Information Base (MIB). SNMP MIB is essentially a tree-like
collection of objects, each representing a managed resource on a network. A
network management system can monitor the state of these objects by reading
their properties and alter the state by modifying these properties.
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