Network Management

Cisco Networking Academy

Chapter 2

Documentation

Cut sheet diagrams

diagrams that indicate the path of the

physical wiring layout;
the type of cable
the length of each cable
the type of termination for the cable
physical location of each wall plate or
patch panel
labeling scheme for easy identification
of each wire.

Documentation Tools

Microsoft Visio

Physical layout (OSI Layers 1 & 2)

Logical Layout (OSI Layer 3)
Flow Charting
MDF & IDF planning and layout
Network services & application
structure (OSI layers 4-7)
Auto discovery of network topologies

Visio

Internet

Diagraming

Router

Workstation #1

Server
Ethernet

Workstation #2

Laser printer

Devices
Topology
Data Flow

MDF & IDF Layouts

Documentation will
include

Created with Microsoft Visio 2000

Map of location
physical layout of rack
mounts
auxiliary equipment, and
servers
patch panel labels to
identify cable terminations.
Identification and
configuration details of all
equipment located in the
distribution facility

Server & Workstation

Documentation

Each computer should be inventoried and

the following attributes should be logged

TIP
Tools like
msinfo32.exe
on Windows
9x can help
you obtain
this
information.

make and model of computer &serial number,

purchase date and warranty information
hard drives, floppy drives, DVD/CD-ROM drive
Network, sound & other peripheral cards
amount of RAM
IRQ, DMA and Base memory address config
physical location, user, and network identification

IP address

MAC address

Subnet
Topology in this document.

Software configurations

Maintaining a list of current software

in use is important for these reasons

Applications being used may affect the

network performance and design
Increases ability to maintain and
troubleshoot problems
Allows your organization to maintain
license compliance

Maintenance records

Each time you configure a network

device you should keep a record of
it

Updates your inventory

Allows you to troubleshoot a given
configuration, noting changes
Allows you to track time spent on a
particular device or issue

Security measures

A list of user rights and/or

permissions
A logical topology of which networks
connect where

Physical security
Logical (software or rule based) security

ACLs
Packet Filtering through firewalls

User policies

Who gets what, where and when

Administrator implement organizational
policies regarding

Access to data and resources

Usernames & Password standards

Information should be included in

employees (users) documentation

Policies
Acceptable Use statement

Network Security
Measures

Make the network as secure as possible against

unauthorized access
This is done by establishing security policies

minimum password length

maximum password age
unique passwords
Restricted time access by day and/or time

Informing users of the company's network

policies
Establishing physical security of data stores

Data backup and recovery

Tape or Optical backup media

Allows for data recovery

Off site storage

Uninterruptible Power Supplies

(UPS)

Protects against power loss

Data backups (tape and

disk)

Full backup

Incremental

Copies every specified data source

Copies only data that has changed since
any backup (archive bit is cleared)

Differential

Copies only data that has changed since

last full backup (archive bit is not
cleared)

Redundancy (storage
devices)

Redundant Array of Inexpensive

Disks (RAID)

RAID 0 Stripes data across multiple disks, no parity, so

there is no redundancy.
RAID 1 Disk mirroring (disk duplexing) writes data to two
identical partitions on separate hard disks. Disk duplexing
uses two hard disk controller cards
RAID 2 Writes data across multiple hard disks, with error
checking.
RAID 3 Stripes data one byte at a time and has a
dedicated parity drive.
RAID 4 Stripes data one sector at a time and has a
dedicated parity drive.
RAID 5 Stripes data and parity across multiple disks
(require a minimum of 3 drives). By mixing the parity
across all of the disks, a separate parity disk is not
required and yet full data redundancy is achieved.

Physical & Environmental

Damage

Static Electricity

Contaminents

Dusk
Smoke

Temperature and
Humidity

Computer Viruses

Virus

Executable program that "infects"

computer files
Often sent over the Internet as Email
attachments. A Trojan Horse.

Worm

A program that propagates itself across

computer networks

Baselining

TIP
Use Sniffer,
Windows NT
NetMon or
Flukes
LANMeter to
establish
baselines

Establish a baseline
performance for your
network
Used to monitor changes
topology or device location

Peer to Peer Networking

Easy to implement
Inexpensive

Does not require dedicated server

No server software required

No centralized administration or user
account database

May be more difficult to administer

Users have multiple usernames and
passwords

Client/Server Networking

Centralized admin and user

account database
More expensive than Peer to Peer

Dedicated server and software

Dedicated Admin

Single points of failure

Network control and

management

User rights are set by an administrator to

permit or deny access to particular resource
on a network
Groups are a logical grouping of users on the
network.
Profiles will allow a user or admin to
customize the user interface on a computer
and then be able to use that profile at any
computer they connect to the network

Scientific Method for

troubleshooting

Identify network/user problem.

Gather data about
network/user problem.
Analyze data to come up with
a possible solution to the
problem.
Implement solution to network
to attempt correction to the
system.
If the problem isn't resolved,
undo previous changes and
modify data.
Go to step 3

The End