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Ernest Eng
This chapter describes a client/server messaging management implementation aligned with emerging E-mail standards and user requirements for operational, configuration, administration, and network management.
Electronic messaging is rapidly emerging as one of the key enablers to business productivity today. Businesses depend on fast, reliable messaging throughput to support mission-critical applications such as E-mail, electronic commerce, workflow automation, and group scheduling. Failures such as lost messages and delayed response times can represent considerable cost to the organization in the form of lost business opportunities and reduced productivity.
From the administrators standpoint, such failures are difficult to pinpoint and guard against. Although many commercial network management products are available to manage layers 1 to 3 of the enterprise network bridges, routers, and hubs very few help with the management of distributed applications such as messaging and directory services. To date, message management products have been largely proprietary in nature because there are few industry standards for managing messaging services and directories.
This chapter looks at one potential client/server management implementation designed to improve the reliability and manageability of electronic messaging while reducing the costs of maintaining the messaging infrastructure.
Enterprises are making sizable investments in scalable, extensible messaging systems to accommodate internal growth as well as to connect to the networks of external customers, suppliers, and trading partners. Increasingly, they are running a wide range of message switches, gateways, and directory services that require continuous uptime, monitoring, and upkeep.
Exhibit 1. Costs of Managing Enterprise Messaging.
However, managing these distributed messaging systems from a single, centralized administrative control system is difficult and costly. Exhibit 1 summarizes the findings of one major Fortune 500 corporation that estimates that it spends approximately $40 per user, per year to acquire messaging hardware and software vs. $200 to $300 per user, per year in operating costs to manage and administer the messaging network.
The challenges in managing complex, enterprisewide messaging systems stem from:
The need for a resident administrator at each major site can significantly increase the cost of managing large-scale messaging systems. In addition to being on call to deal with system failures or changes in system configuration, administrators also have to master a wide range of platforms and technologies to keep the overall system functional. This accounts for the high levels of ongoing expenses in training as well as in development of complex internal procedures for managing the messaging network across different departments and dissimilar platforms. Lost messages or server downtime can be expensive from an administrative standpoint. In conjunction with this administrative cost, there is also a potential loss of revenue or business opportunity because of such failures.
The JIF of IFIP Working Group 6.5 and 6.6 Electronic Mail Management Group were formed to examine the overall problem of E-mail management. The IETF has developed RFC 1566, also known as the Mail and Directory Madman MIB, which defines a class of managed objects that can be used by any E-mail vendor. The Madman MIB is geared to the management of Internet messaging and therefore lacks the ability to model some of the more complex features present in X.400-based messaging systems.
The EMA is working on a framework for messaging management that accommodates multivendor messaging systems. Although the EMA work leverages the IFIP work and is aligned with the Madman MIB definitions, its efforts are broader in scope because it also addresses message tracing, as well as standardizing a set of tasks for message management across a multivendor environment. The EMA work currently represents the best hope for industrywide adoption of message management standards.
The EMA has characterized user requirements for messaging management into four major categories: operational, configuration, administration, and network management.
Operational Management. Operational management deals with finding outages and fixing them before users notice, and with providing routine maintenance to keep the system healthy. Operational management answers questions such as:
Configuration Management. Configuration deals with managing the addition or deletion of components in the messaging system. It includes such tasks as dynamic updating of message routing tables, discovering and depicting messaging system components, and starting and stopping messaging system components across the network.
Administration Management. Administration provides a means for managing subscribers, distribution lists, and accounting information. It includes facilities for security administration, restricting service on the basis of originator, recipient, or type of message as well as detecting attempted security breaches. The administration system must also be able to generate reports on messaging system usage for billing, accounting, and chargeback.
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