Requirements for Network Management

The term network management generally refers to specific administrative functions and the ability to perform these functions from a centralized computer, often referred to as a management console.

To perform centralized network management, the managing computer must be able to get data from other computers on the network, including the following:

• Network protocol identification and statistics
• Dynamic identification of computers attached to the network (referred to as discovery)
• Hardware and software configuration data
• Computer performance and usage statistics
• Computer event and error messages
• Program and application usage statistics