Mapování topologie pro službu SBF

Mgr. Vladimír Varga

Bachelor's thesis

Topology discovery for SBF service

Abstract:

The aim of my thesis is to design and implement an application that will create a list of endpoints and switches in the network. Project MetaCentrum deals with the virtualization of physical resources and the creation of distributed computing infrastructure. As the number of resources grows, hardware maintenance is more difficult, especially if the resources are geographically distributed. This is the main reason for the implementation of such a program like epsdd. The first chapter of the bachelor thesis is devoted to a description of the environment in which developed application will be exercised and to which the application will adapt. The generated output has to be in a valid XML format. It will be used as an input for the existing virtual cluster maintenance system - VirtCloud. The output is going to describe current view of topology, so it can be used for network management. It works on layer 2 so it should work on most of subnetworks, therefore it can be interesting for SolarWinds Systems too. The second chapter describes protocols that are used to obtain information about neighbouring devices, on a data layer (layer 2) of ISO-OSI network model. The advantage of these protocols is that devices can learn about neighbours even if they are using different protocols of network layer (layer 3). There are network discovery protocols from various vendors, but we use only two of them. The first option is a possibility to use LLDP (link layer discovery protocol), which is a one way protocol. Information from this protocol is sent only from the source to neighbouring devices, so devices are not able to request these data from neighbours. By the source we understand some device connected to a network, which sends LLDP messages periodically. On the reception of an LLDP message the received data is stored in the LLDP main information base (MIB) and is accessible through the SNMP protocol. Data sent through LLDP can be a system name, location, platform, capability and lots more. The second option is the use of the CDP (Cisco discovery protocol), developed by a company called Cisco Systems, supported by Cisco Systems devices. It is an equivalent to the LLDP and there are only little differences in the form of messages. Cisco messages are stored in a CDP MIB, which can be accessed through SNMP. Most of devices, which support LLDP, support CDP too. The problem is we have to deal with network devices which do not support network discovery protocols i.e., Force10 S2410. There is another MIB where the data about connected devices is stored and which is supported by all switches. It is the qBridge MIB. There is a data stored fromMAC address table. From this MIB we can acquire only that port to which device is connected and its MAC address. Therefore, we need an XML file where these devices are stored and MAC address of a device will be the primary key for searching. The structure of this file is described in chapter 3.2.1. The third chapter describes solutions to some problems, used literature and the implemented application requirements. Description of the input and output program files can be found there and are described in the appendix B by the document type definition1 (DTD). The fourth chapter describes architecture of the program. As I wrote above, we need this program to run in the background on more platforms (Windows, Linux). We need to implement a deamon for Linux and a Windows Service for Windows. This leads us to divide the project into two parts. The first is the static library epsddLib and the second is the main function. The source code for mapping devices is the same for both Linux andWindows, therefore it is packed in the library. The difference is in the main.cpp files and in the way each of them is built. There are make files for Linux and solution files forWindows Microsoft Visual Studio 10. Once the program starts it is able to use threads. Every one thread handles one switch at the moment. This is implemented to achi

Abstract:

eve better performance on fast network. With the usage of threads it is necessary to synchronize some fractions of the code, which are described in next part of this chapter. The discovery of switch is divided into three sections. Every section handles data gathered from different MIB and those sections are described in the last parts of current chapter. The last chapter describes the process of testing the implemented program. The testing was performed in the SITOLA laboratory. Configurations of switches and endpoints, input files and generated output files are shown there. Next testing was performed in the laboratory of the company SolarWinds Systems. In this case we didn’t configure connected switches and endoints so we can see behavior of the application. There are shown some interesting cuttings from the input and output files. In the appendix A, one can find the whole files from the tests.

Abstract:

Cieľom práce je navrhnúť a implementovať aplikáciu, ktorá vytvorí zoznam koncových zariadení a prepínačov. Projekt MetaCentrum, sa zaoberá virtualizáciou fyzických zdrojov a tvorbou národného gridového prostredia. Prvá časť práce je venovaná popisu prostredia, v ktorom bude vytvorená aplikácia uplatnená a čomu bude nutné aplikáciu prispôsobiť. V druhej časti sú popísané protokoly slúžiace na získavanie informácií o susedných zariadeniach. Nasledujúce dve časti obsahujú popis implementovanej aplikácie, jej požiadavky na nastavenie siete a rozbor zložitejších úsekov programu. Posledná časť obsahuje názornú ukážku konfigurácie podsiete a výstup programu epsdd pri detekcii tejto siete.

Keywords

CDP, LLDP, objavovanie topológie, prepínač, protokol, SNMP, VirtCloud, VLAN, dátová vrstva (2. vrstva) ISO OSI modelu

Language used: Slovak

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 3. 1. 2012

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 22. 6. 2012
• Supervisor: doc. RNDr. Petr Holub, Ph.D.
• Reader: Ing. David Pluháček

Masaryk University

Faculty of Informatics

Bachelor programme / field:
Informatics / Programmable Technical Structures