campus-wide network infrastructure management

CANHEIT | On the EDGE | June 15-18, 2008 | University of Calgary

Campus-wide Network Infrastructure Management


Network infrastructure management: Challenges

fibre/UTP cables and switch ports use (availability)

wireless coverage and AP specifics

wiring centre / equipment room layout

data centre management


Infrastructure management systems

a.k.a. Cabling management software (CMS), a.k.a. Network modeling software (NMS),a.k.a. Physical Layer Management (PLM)

are meant to store enterprise-wide information on network equipment along with details of cabling usage and availability.


In this presentation:

History, practices, experience

System features and requirements

Comparative analysis of commercially available network modeling systems

Implementation, practical results and challenges in infrastructure management


What this presentation is NOT:

a comprehensive analysis of the PLM systems on the market

an effort in promoting or advocating of any product mentioned


Network infrastructure documentation…

… as we know it


The good…


Convocation Hall to Rothman Centre path CH-Rothman

Location FROM eqipment # Cable # TO equipment

Rm. 142 USER-306 1A STPATCH 1B PAA-0134-01F-01PAA-0134-01F-01 1A 0134F-02B-01F-01(1) 13A F24-0134-02B-04

Rm. 272 F24-0134-02B-04 13B STPATCH 3B F24-0134-02B-01F24-0134-02B-01 3A 0135F-0134-03(3) 3A F24-0135-1BA-03

Rm. 124 F24-0135-1BA-03 3B STPATCH 37B F48-0135-1BA-01F48-0135-1BA-01 37A 0038F-0135-01(37) 37A F48-0038-1BA-01

Rm. 25A F48-0038-1BA-01 37B STPATCH 55B F96-0038-1BA-01F96-0038-1BA-01 55A 0038F-0088-01(7) 7A F24-0088-1BA-01

bsmt F24-0088-1BA-01 7B STPATCH 15B F96-0088-1BA-01F96-0088-1BA-01 15A 0088F-0103-01(15) 15A F96-0103-1BA-01

bsmt NEMA F96-0103-1BA-01 15B STPATCH 61B F96-0103-1BA-01F96-0103-1BA-01 61A 0104F-0103-01(13) 13A F96-0104-1BA-01

bsmt cage F96-0104-1BA-01 13B STPATCH 3B F24-0104-1BA-01F24-0104-1BA-01 3A 0104F-0132-01(3) 3A F24-0132-1BA-03

bsmt rm.14 F24-0132-1BA-03 3B STPATCH 5B F24-0132-1BA-01F24-0132-1BA-01 5A 0006F-0132-01(5) H5 F96-0006-01A-01

rm. 1069 F96-0006-01A-01 61B STPATCH 7B F24-0006-01A-01F24-0006-01A-01 7A 0006F-0033-01(7) 7A F24-0033-1BA-01

rm. 52 F24-0033-1BA-01 7B STPATCH 5B F96-0033-1BA-02F96-0033-1BA-02 5A 0033F-0073-03(5) 17A F96-0073-01A-01

rm. 129A F96-0073-01A-01 17B STPATCH 5B F96-0073-01A-01F96-0073-01A-01 5A 0073F-0078-03(5) 17A F96-0078-03A-02

machine rm. F96-0078-03A-02 17B STPATCH 11B F96-0078-03A-01F96-0078-03A-01 B3 0036F-0078-01(23) 11A F24-0036-GRA-01

Lockers F24-0036-GRA-01 11B STPATCH 65B F96-0036-GRA-01F96-0036-GRA-01 65A 0036F-0009-01(17) 17A F96-0009-1BA-04

The Hub!! F96-0009-1BA-04 17B STPATCH 3B F72-0009-1BA-01F72-0009-1BA-01 A3 0009F-0010-01(3) 15A F24-0010-1BA-01

rm. 3 F24-0010-1BA-01 15B STPATCH 1B F24-0010-1BA-04F24-0010-1BA-04 1A 0010F-A010-01(1) 1A PAA-A010-1BA-01

bsmt PAA-A010-1BA-01 1B STPATCH 1A PAA-A010-01A-01Stage PAA-A010-01A-01 1B STPATCH 1A USER-080

The good…


… the not so good…


… the ugly


Storing infrastructure data:

(pre-PLM time)


Legacy system: IsiCAD - Command


List of system requirements

The goal: to integrate equipment, cable and network management.

Basic

• ability to manage both equipment and cable inventory in compliance with ANSI/TIA/EIA 606 (Administration Standard for the Telecommunications Infrastructure of Commercial Buildings) http://www.cablemgmt.com/tia.htm

• graphic capabilities to represent campus maps and building floor plans along with equipment layout and cable tunnels, conduits, pathways etc.

• Industrial strength multi-user ODBC relational database as a repository to all information pertinent to the network infrastructure

• scalability (should not impose any limits to inventory database expansion or shrinkage)

• well-developed standard GUI with options to be customized by user

• multiple users with concurrent access

http://www.cablemgmt.com/tia.htm


the system should be capable of being used with or without CAD files or a mixture of both

the system should import and export CAD files supporting both the latest AutoCAD file formats (.DWG and .DXF)

avoid the necessity to have a CAD application present or any CAD experience to use the system (CAD systems are typically very complex)

CAD graphics capabilities



the application should have a full and open Application Programming Interface (API)

the GUI is customizable by the user

the system is capable of defining any number of item types (i.e., patch panel, faceplate, workstation or port)

the system should be capable of creating a custom property window for each type of item with any number of user-defined fields for recording data about an item

User Interface



Desirable extras

• SNMP-based network auto-discovery and auto-mapping

• Means of documenting wireless infrastructure

• Integration with other operational support systems such as help desk (e.g., Remedy ARS) and logical network managers (e.g. Spectrum, HP Open View)

• Web interface

• Ability to look up and retrieve data from any third-party database or file over a TCP/IP network



Comparative analysisof infrastructure modeling systems:

Cambio Networks Inc. COMMAND 5.1 – a legacy system U of T used, along with netRunner - a new product run on Windows rather then UNIX platform

Command 5.0 version adopted by Pinacl, an UK company

A. The legacy system


B. A class of products that are meant mainly for equipment inventory management.

N/A - ClickNet 4.0 from ClickNet Software Corp.

http://www.netsuite.com/: NetSuite from NetSuite Development Corp.


http://www.netsuite.com/


C. A number of products specifically designed and profiled for telecommunication industry (with special emphasis on WAN facilities management).

Cable-Master from Angeles Group, Inc.

http://www.architel.com/: Objectel from Architel Systems Corp.

http://www.xiox.com/: FMS for Windows by XIOX Corp.


http://www.architel.com/

http://www.xiox.com/


D. GIS-focused or fully functional AM/FM/GIS products - expensive. Still some of them should be considered viable choice for the campus NMS

http://www.enghouse.com/ : CableCAD and GeoNet from Enghouse Systems Ltd. Also they recently announced a number of industry applications (NetWORKS, etc.) worth attention. Markham, Ont. based.

CX-P21-CM from Cadix International, Inc.

http://www.adc.com/ : FiberBase 4.0 - fibre network management software from ADC Telecommunications.

http://www.cadtel.com/: SpatialBASE - network documentation and engineering tool


http://www.enghouse.com/

http://www.adc.com/

http://www.cadtel.com/


E. A class of NMS products integrated with common office tools like MS Office, Visio and AutoCAD. Most come with hardware based means for circuit analysis.

http://www.uwo.ca/its/projects/archive/docit.html/ - docIT product distributed in Canada by CMS International. Was implemented by University of Western Ontario (CANHEIT 2003 presentation)

http://www.itracs.com/ - (former Cablesoft product called Crimp) by now developed into iTRACS v7.0

http://www.systimax.com/ - iPatch System Manager Software; like the above product is a part of a complex cable management system

http://www.rittech.com/ - RiT PatchView is a physical layer management solution. Allows to monitor mission critical connections and all networked devices


http://www.itracs.com/

http://www.systimax.com/

http://www.rittech.com/


Products in this intermediate list were assessed and compared regarding the following system requirements

Basic

cost effectiveness (complex issue to be defined and discussed separately),

functionality: comprehensive infrastructure support including horizontal systems, backbone/riser systems and campus systems,

"open concept" design (a simple scripting engine for customization and additional functionality),

quality 24x7x365 technical support

Desirable add-ons

cable test result storage and management,

cable lengths calculation,

circuit information,

cable path information,

Moves, Adds and Changes management,

multi-floor designs.


The ‘shortlist’ was comprised of A, D and E groups:

PatchView (RiT Technologies)

docIT (CMS Intl.)

iTRACS (Cablesoft)

NetWORKS (Enghouse)

iPatch (Systimax)


The shortlist of CMS was comprised of A, D and E groups from the above and be read as follows:

PatchView (RiT Technologies)

iTRACS (Cablesoft)

iPatch (Systimax)


Implementation


VWC – Virtual Wiring Centre


Case study: Campus security network (U of T police)


Implementation notes

Defining infrastructure model: time consuming but pays in the end

Porting data from legacy systems: CSV files vs. SQL programming/scripting

Customizing infrastructure model: a big effort (schema, datastores, graphic, equipment templates etc)

Training users: a good investment


Conclusions

A robust long term infrastructure management plan is a serious investment, $30-100k

For large infrastructure inventories, cost-effective management system are end-to-end architectures: termination hardware, connectivity monitoring tools, cabling management software. This appears to be a global industry trend.

Buying from partner companies: VAR benefits vs. product becoming too ‘vendor specific’

Best available PLM products tend to “runtime” (as opposed to authoring) or integrate common applications under one umbrella, thus minimizing proprietary code and TCO.

A centralized service model seems to be a good solution for large institution. UTCNS is ready to offer infrastructure management services to other departments.


Thank You

Vladimir Kouptchinski

Ph. 416 978-5448

[email protected]

campus-wide network infrastructure management

Documents