Solved: Pro active LAN Management

qwertys21 · ‎05-21-2008

I look after the LAN comprising so many switches. They are all ticking along nicely.

What else can I be doing to be proactive?

For now, we check the logs, check environment.

So what else can I do to improve the network?

Thanks

Wantser1981_2 · ‎05-21-2008

A network admin looking to make themselves work eh?

If you have a network installed that is performing for business needs without the need to constantly faultfind and troubleshoot then I would suggest first of all that you have done your job very well.

The next route to go, I would suggest, is to start to work up the layers of the OSI model. For instance, having done the first bit myself I decided to look at what traffic was traversing and amounts etc etc to see if there were any ways to improve the underlying ifrastructure. NetFlow was a start point to get an idea of what was traversing which then moved on to QoS policies and all that fun jazz.

I would work up at layers and you will find that you dip back down to make changes and tweeks........can of worms though, but great fun to get into optimisation once you have a solid platform.

Andy

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Wantser1981_2 · ‎05-21-2008

Hi,

There are loads on SNMP based monitoring systems out there, Solarwinds Orion, Opmanager but to name a few. IPSLA is a pretty good way to go for monitoring your Cisco devices. The provide monitoring and alerting an the majority of nasty network gremlins (over utilisation of bandwidth/resource etc).

All have a cost attached to them though.

If you really want a conclusive Cisco monitoring tool, CiscoWorks is Cisco's own. Expensive, but in the right hands, will tell you everything you need to know about how your network reacts.

Network monitoring is huge topic though and there are all kinds of different aspect you can monitor.

Look at orion first, its a good starting point.

http://solarwinds.ie/products/orion/

Andy

qwertys21 · ‎05-21-2008

Thanks Andy

Its not monitoring I was actually looking at as we have Ciscoworks working.

I was more after things like what else can we do as Network Administrator aside from monitoring and upgrading software and hardware?

Thanks

Wantser1981_2 · ‎05-21-2008

A network admin looking to make themselves work eh?

If you have a network installed that is performing for business needs without the need to constantly faultfind and troubleshoot then I would suggest first of all that you have done your job very well.

The next route to go, I would suggest, is to start to work up the layers of the OSI model. For instance, having done the first bit myself I decided to look at what traffic was traversing and amounts etc etc to see if there were any ways to improve the underlying ifrastructure. NetFlow was a start point to get an idea of what was traversing which then moved on to QoS policies and all that fun jazz.

I would work up at layers and you will find that you dip back down to make changes and tweeks........can of worms though, but great fun to get into optimisation once you have a solid platform.

Andy

qwertys21 · ‎05-21-2008

Thank you

Cheers