Functionality of control unit 22 may be implemented as one or more processing units in fixed or programmable digital logic circuitry. Such digital logic circuitry may include one or more microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or any other equivalent integrated or discrete logic circuitry, as well as any combination of such components. When implemented as programmable logic circuitry, control unit 22 may further include one or more computer readable storage media storing hardware or firmware instructions to be executed by processing unit(s) of control unit 22.

Control unit 22 executes management module 24 to manage various network devices, e.g., network devices 14A-14G of FIG. 1. Management includes, for example, configuring the network devices according to instructions received from a user (e.g., administrators 12 of FIG. 1) and providing the user with the ability to submit instructions via user interface 36 to configure the network devices. In some examples, management module 24 is a software process such as a management daemon or management application. In this example, management module 24 further includes configuration module 26.

Management module 24 is configured to receive configuration instructions for a set of managed network devices from a user via user interface 36, such as administrators 12. One example is the first activation configuration described above with respect to network management system 10. Over time, the user may update the configuration instructions, e.g., to add new services, remove existing services, or modify existing services performed by the managed devices.