Download implementing and managing networks

Network+ Guide to Networks
Third Edition
Chapter 15:
Implementing and Managing Networks
Objectives
Describe the elements and benefits of project
management
Manage a network implementation project
Understand network management and the
importance of base lining to assess a
network’s health
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Objectives (continued)
Plan and follow regular hardware and
software maintenance routines
Describe the steps involved in upgrading
network software and hardware
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Project Management
• Project Management
• Is the practice of managing resources, staff, budget,
timelines, and other variables to achieve a specific
goal within given bounds
• Project management attempts to answer at least the
following questions in roughly the following order:
• Is the proposed project feasible?
• What needs must the project address?
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Project Management (continued)
• What are the project’s goals? (What are the standards
for success?)
• What tasks are required to meet the goals?
• How long should tasks take, and in what order should
they be undertaken?
• What resources are required to accomplish the tasks,
and how much will they cost?
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Project Management (continued)
• Who will be involved and what skills must they
possess?
• How will staff communicate with others about the
project?
• After completion, did the project meet the stated need?
• A project can be divided into four phases
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Project Management (continued)
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Determining Project Feasibility
• Before committing money and time to a
project, you must decide whether the
proposed project is possible and whether it’s
feasible
• Feasibility study outlines the costs and
benefits of the project and attempts to
predict whether it will result in a favorable
outcome
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Determining Project Feasibility
(continued)
• Feasibility study might consist of rough
estimates for the following:
• Costs of equipment, connectivity, consulting
services
• Required staff time for project participation,
training, and evaluation
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Determining Project Feasibility
(continued)
• Duration of project
• Decrease in productivity due to disruption
versus increase in future productivity due to
better network and client performance
• A conclusion that addresses whether the
costs (equipment, staff, decreased
productivity) justify the benefits (increased
ongoing productivity)
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Determining Project Feasibility
(continued)
• Often, organizations hire business consultants to help
them develop a feasibility study
• Advantage to outsourcing this work is that consultants
do not make the same assumptions that internal staff
might make when weighing the costs and benefits of
a proposed project
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Assessing Needs
• Needs assessment is the process of
clarifying the reasons and objectives
underlying a proposed change
• Involves interviewing users and comparing
perceptions to factual data
• May involve analyzing network baseline data
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Assessing Needs (continued)
• A needs assessment may address the
following questions:
• Is the expressed need valid, or does it mask a
different need?
• Can the need be resolved?
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Assessing Needs (continued)
• Is the need important enough to allocate resources to
its resolution? Will
• Meeting the need have a measurable effect on
productivity?
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Assessing Needs (continued)
• If fulfilled, will the need result in additional needs? Will
fulfilling the need satisfy other needs?
• Do users affected by the need agree that change is a
good answer? What kind of resolution will satisfy
them?
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Assessing Needs (continued)
• A network’s needs and requirements should
be investigated as they relate to:
• Users
• Network performance
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Assessing Needs (continued)
• Availability
• Scalability
• Integration
• Security
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Setting Project Goals
• Project goals help keep a project on track
• Evaluating whether a project was successful
• A popular technique for setting project goals
is to begin with a broad goal, then narrow it
down into specific goals that contribute to
the larger goal
• Project goals should be attainable
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Setting Project Goals (continued)
• Feasibility study should help determine
whether you can achieve the project goals
within the given time, budgetary, and
resource constraints
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Setting Project Goals (continued)
• If project goals are not attainable from the
outset, you risk losing backing from project
participants, users, and the managers who
agree with the project’s goals and who will
strive to help you achieve them
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Setting Project Goals (continued)
• Managers and others who oversee resource
allocation are called sponsors
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Project Planning
• Project plan organizes the details of a
managed project
• Small projects may take the form of a simple text or
spreadsheet document
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Project Planning (continued)
• Larger projects, however, you typically take
advantage of project management software such as
Microsoft Project or PrimaVera Project Planner
• Project management software facilitates project
planning by providing a framework for inputting tasks,
timelines, resource assignments (identifying which
staff are responsible for each task), completion dates,
and so on
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Project Planning (continued)
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Tasks and Timelines
• Project should be divided into specific tasks
• Break larger tasks into smaller subtasks
• Identify tasks, you can assign a duration,
start date, and finish date to each task and
subtask in the project plan
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Tasks and Timelines (continued)
• Designate milestones, task priority, and how
the timeline might change depending on
resource availability or dependencies
• A Gantt chart is a popular method for
depicting when projects begin and end along
a horizontal timeline
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Tasks and Timelines (continued)
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Communication
• Communication is necessary to ensure that
all participants understand the project’s
goals
• It helps keep a project’s budget and timeline
on track, encourage teamwork, avoid
duplicate efforts, and allows learning from
previous mistakes
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Communication (continued)
• Project manager is responsible for
facilitating regular, effective communication
among project participants
• Project managers must ensure consistent
communication with all project stakeholders
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Communication (continued)
• A stakeholder is any person who is affected
by the project; for example, in the Wyndham
School District upgrade project, stakeholders
include:
• Teachers
• Administrators
• Technical staff
• Students, because students are also network users
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Contingency Planning
• Unforeseen circumstances
• Contingency planning
• Pilot Network
• The following tips will help you create a more
realistic and useful pilot network:
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Contingency Planning (continued)
• Include at least one of each type of device
(whether a critical router or a client
workstation) that might be affected by the
change
• Use the same transmission methods and
speeds as employed on your network
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Contingency Planning (continued)
• Try to emulate the number of segments,
protocols, and addressing schemes in your
network.
• Implement the same server and client
software and configurations on your pilot
network as found in your current network
(unless they are part of the change you’re
testing)
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Contingency Planning (continued)
• Once you have established the pilot network
• Test it for at least two weeks to verify that its
performance, security, availability, or other
characteristics meet your criteria
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Network Management
• Network management refers to the
assessment, monitoring, and maintenance of
all aspects of a network
• Baselining is the practice of measuring and
recording a network’s current state of
operation
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Baselining
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Baseline assessment should
address the following questions:
• Access method
• Protocols
• Devices
• Operating systems
• Applications
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Performance and Fault
Management
• Performance management (monitoring how
•
well links and devices are keeping up with
the demands placed on them)
Fault management (the detection and
signaling of device, link, or component
faults)
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Performance and Fault
Management (continued)
• To accomplish both performance and fault
management, organizations often use
enterprise-wide network management
software
• Polling
• Network management agent
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Performance and Fault
Management (continued)
• Management information base (MIB) by
definition are where managed objects and
their data are collected
• Agents communicate information about
managed objects via any one of several
Application layer protocols
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Performance and Fault
Management (continued)
• Once data is collected, the network
management program can present an
administrator with several ways to view and
analyze the data
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Network Management
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Network Status
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Network Management (continued)
• One of the most common network
management tools used on WANs is the Multi
Router Traffic Grapher (MRTG)
• MRTG is a command-line program that uses
SNMP to poll devices, collects data in a log
file, then generates HTML-based views of the
data
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Network Management (continued)
• MRTG is freely distributed software originally
written by Tobias Oetiker
• MRTG can be used with UNIX- and Windowsbased operating systems and can collect and
graph data from any type of device that uses
SNMP
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Network Management Graphs
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Asset Management
• A key component in network evaluation is
identifying and tracking the hardware and
software on your network, a process called
asset management
• Asset management is to take an inventory of
each node on the network
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Asset Management (continued)
• Inventory should include the total number of
components on the network, and also each
device’s configuration files, model number,
serial number, location on the network, and
technical support contact
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Software Changes
1. Determine whether the change (whether it be a
patch, revision, or upgrade) is necessary
2. Research the purpose of the change and its
potential effects on other programs
3. Determine whether the change should apply to
some or all users and whether it will be
distributed centrally or machine-by-machine
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Software Changes (continued)
4. If you decide to implement the change, notify
system administrators, help desk personnel,
and users. Schedule the change for
completion during off hours (unless it is an
emergency)
5. Back up the current system or software before
making any modifications
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Software Changes (continued)
6. Prevent users from accessing the system or part
of the system being altered (for example, disable
logons)
7. Keep the upgrade instructions handy and follow
them during installation of the patch or revision
8. Make the change
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Software Changes (continued)
9. Test the system fully after the change
10. If the change was successful, reenable access
to the system and if it was unsuccessful, revert
to the previous version of the software
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Software Changes (continued)
11. Inform system administrators, help desk
personnel, and users when the change is
complete. If you had to reverse it, explain why
12. Record your change in the change
management system.
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Patches
• A general rule, upgrading or patching
software according to a vendor’s
recommendations is a good idea and can
often prevent network problems
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Patches (continued)
• Patches is a correction, improvement, or
enhancement to a particular piece of a
software program
• Differs from a revision or software upgrade in that it
changes only part of a software program, leaving
most of the code untouched
• Are often distributed at no charge by software
vendors in an attempt to fix a bug in their code or to
add slightly more functionality
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Client Upgrades
• Software upgrade is a major change to a
software package’s existing code
• An upgrade to the client program replaces
the existing client program
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Client Upgrades (continued)
• Upgrades are designed to add functionality
and fix bugs in the previous version of the
client
• A client upgrade may be transparent to
users, or it may completely change the
appearance of the network logon interface
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Application Upgrades
• Application upgrades, apply to software
shared by clients on the network
• Back up the current software before
upgrading it
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Application Upgrades (continued)
•
Prevent users from accessing the software
during the implementation
• Keep users and system administrators
informed of all changes.
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Network Operating System
Upgrades
• Most Critical
• Involves significant, potentially drastic,
changes to the way your servers and clients
operate
• Have a project plan covering the upgrade
procedure
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Network Operating System
Upgrades (continued)
• How will the upgrade affect user IDs, groups,
rights, and policies?
• How will the upgrade affect file, printer, and
directory access, applications or client
interactions on the server?
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Network Operating System
Upgrades (continued)
• How will the upgrade affect configuration
files, protocols, and services running on the
server?
• How will the upgrade affect the server’s
interaction with other devices on the
network?
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Network Operating System
Upgrades (continued)
• How accurately can you test the upgrade
software in a simulated environment?
• How can you take advantage of the new
operating system to make your system more
efficient?
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Network Operating System
Upgrades (continued)
• What is your technical support arrangement
with the operating system’s manufacturer if
you need help in the midst of the upgrade?
• Have you allotted enough time to perform the
upgrade? (For example, would it be more
appropriate to do it over a weekend rather
than overnight?)
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Network Operating System
Upgrades (continued)
• Have you ensured that the users, help desk
personnel, and system administrators
• Understand how the upgrade will affect their
daily operations and support burdens?
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Network Operating System
Upgrades (continued)
• The following steps demonstrate how careful
planning and a methodical process can help
you accomplish an NOS upgrade
• Research
• Proposal
• Evaluation
• Training
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Network Operating System
Upgrades (continued)
• Pre-implementation
• Implementation
• Post-implementation
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Reversing a Software Upgrade
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Hardware and Physical Plant
Changes
• Determine whether the change is necessary
• Research the upgrade’s potential effects on
other devices, functions, and users
• Notify system administrators, help desk
personnel, and users, and schedule it during
off-hours (unless it is an emergency)
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Hardware and Physical Plant
Changes (continued)
• Back up and print the hardware’s
configuration
• Prevent users from accessing the system or
the part of the system that you are changing
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Hardware and Physical Plant
Changes (continued)
• Keep the installation instructions and
hardware documentation handy
• Implement the change and test the hardware
fully
• If the change was successful, re-enable
access to the device and If it was
unsuccessful, isolate the device or reinsert
the old device, if possible
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Hardware and Physical Plant
Changes (continued)
• Inform system administrators, help desk
personnel, and users when the change is
complete. If it was not successful, explain
why
• Record your change in the change
management system
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Adding or Upgrading Equipment
• Networked workstation is the simplest device
to add
• Networked printer is easy to add to your
network and is slightly more complex than
adding a networked workstation
• HUB (4-64 users)
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Adding or Upgrading Equipment
• Servers are more complex and need a great
deal of prior planning
• Switches and Routers are more complex
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Adding or Upgrading Equipment
(continued)
• Cabling upgrades may require significant
planning and time to implement, depending
on the size of your network
• Backbone upgrade is the most
comprehensive and complex upgrade
involving a network
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Adding or Upgrading Equipment
(continued)
• Reversing Hardware Changes
• Provide a way to reverse the hardware upgrade and
reinstall the old hardware if necessary
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Summary
• Describe the elements and benefits of project
management
• Manage a network implementation project
• Base-lining to assess a network’s health
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Summary (continued)
• Hardware and software maintenance routines
• Steps involved in upgrading network
software and hardware
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