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1.5. Host Management

Managing host resources (disk space, memory usage, etc.) is an important part of network management. The distinction between traditional system administration and network management has been disappearing over the last decade, and is now all but gone. As Sun Microsystems puts it, "The network is the computer." If your web server or mail server is down, it doesn't matter whether your routers are running correctly -- you're still going to get calls. The Host Resources MIB (RFC 2790) defines a set of objects to help manage critical aspects of Unix and Windows systems.[6]

[6]Any operating system running an SNMP agent can implement Host Resources; it's not confined to agents running on Unix and Windows systems.

Some of the objects supported by the Host Resources MIB include disk capacity, number of system users, number of running processes, and software currently installed. In today's e-commerce world, more and more people are relying on service-oriented web sites. Making sure your backend servers are functioning properly is as important as monitoring your routers and other communications devices.

Unfortunately, some agent implementations for these platforms do not implement this MIB, since it's not required.

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1.4. The Structure of Management Information and MIBSBook Index1.6. A Brief Introduction to Remote Monitoring
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