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Administrative Domain

Administrative Domain is a part of administrative division of Managed Object. It answers to the question: "Who is responsible for Managed Object?". Another synonym for Administrative Domain is Area of Responsibility.

Administrative Domains are hierarchical by nature. Management functions may be delegated to underlying branches. Consider example:

graph TD
    West --> Branch1
    West --> Branch2
    East --> Branch3
    East --> Branch4

Group West delegates management function to branches Branch1 and Branch2 while group East - to Branch3 and Branch4 accordingly. Note that East and West is not obliged to delegate all their objects to underlying branches. Some of objects may remain on direct East and West maintenance

Managed Object Access

NOC limits access to Managed Objects on per-administrative domain basis. User or Group may be granted to zero-or-more Administrative Domains. Granting access to Administrative Domain means that User gets access to Managed Objects of Administrative Domain and all of its descendants.

Access Limiting means User will get access to appropriate Managed Objects, their Cards, Configs, Alarms and Reports.

Consider example:

graph TD
    style West fill:#0f0,stroke-width:4px
    style Branch1 fill:#0f0
    style Branch2 fill:#0f0
    West --> Branch1
    West --> Branch2
    East --> Branch3
    East --> Branch4

Granting access to West automatically grants access to Branch1 and Branch2 as well.

Best Practices

Though you mileage may vary, consider several common practices

Single Administrative Domain

graph TD
    Default

Single administrative domain is good start for small installation where all management functions carried by single department

Functional Division

graph TD
    Transport
    IT
    Telephony

If network is maintained by several functional departments, they are may be represented as Administrative Domains. Such scheme considers IT need no knowledge about Transport and vise-versa

Regional Division

graph TD
    West --> Branch1
    West --> Branch2
    East --> Branch3
    East --> Branch4

Administrative Domain reflects organizational branch structure. Regional branches are responsible for their parts of network, while their head branches fully remains control over branches and own infrastructures.

Sometimes top-level Administrative Domain makes sense if head office has own infrastructure and wish to remain control on over all network.

Regional 2

If HQ has own infrastructure but not controls all network following scheme is possible

graph TD
    HQ
    West --> Branch1
    West --> Branch2
    East --> Branch3
    East --> Branch4

You always has option to grant access to HQ and West and East to user when necessary

Regional-Functional division

Following scheme considers each regional branch has separate divisions for parts of their networks

graph TD
    W/Transport[Transport]
    W/IT[IT]
    E/Transport[Transport]
    E/IT[IT]
    1/Transport[Transport]
    1/IT[IT]
    2/Transport[Transport]
    2/IT[IT]
    3/Transport[Transport]
    3/IT[IT]
    4/Transport[Transport]
    4/IT[IT]
    West --> Branch1
    West --> Branch2
    West --> W/Transport
    West --> W/IT
    East --> Branch3
    East --> Branch4
    East --> E/Transport
    East --> E/IT
    Branch1 --> 1/Transport
    Branch1 --> 1/IT
    Branch2 --> 2/Transport
    Branch2 --> 2/IT
    Branch3 --> 3/Transport
    Branch3 --> 3/IT
    Branch4 --> 4/Transport
    Branch4 --> 4/IT

Functional-Regional Division

Following scheme differs from previous in fact that appropriate regional structural departments are managed by appropriate structural departments, not by regional branches

graph TD
    Transport
    IT
    T/West[West]
    T/East[East]
    T/Branch1[Branch1]
    T/Branch2[Branch2]
    T/Branch3[Branch3]
    T/Branch4[Branch4]
    IT/West[West]
    IT/East[East]
    IT/Branch1[Branch1]
    IT/Branch2[Branch2]
    IT/Branch3[Branch3]
    IT/Branch4[Branch4]
    Transport --> T/West
    Transport --> T/East
    T/West --> T/Branch1
    T/West --> T/Branch2
    T/East --> T/Branch3
    T/East --> T/Branch4
    IT --> IT/West
    IT --> IT/East
    IT/West --> IT/Branch1
    IT/West --> IT/Branch2
    IT/East --> IT/Branch3
    IT/East --> IT/Branch4