Embedded Management Functionality

It is not always clear when something is best managed through a management application and agent approach, or when it is best embedded in the distributed system itself. For example, name services, routing and time services are not usually implemented through management systems, even though aspects of them will be managed. Name, Time and Route service configuration, performance and errors might all be stored and accessed through a MIB. However, it would be most inefficient to invoke the whole structure of an application to actually build name to address mappings, or to exchange link and node status and calculate the topology, or to carry out clock synchronisation services. These are all low level functions upon which higher level management (and sistributed systems themselves) rest, ratehr than implement!