PROCEDURES IN MAINTAINING

COMPUTER NETWORK SYSTEM

INFORMATION SHEET 4.2-1

Michael U. Mamitag
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After reading this INFORMATION SHEET, STUDENT(S) MUST be able to:

Plan maintenance schedule

Prepare maintenance procedures according to job requirements.

Michael U. Mamitag
 INTRODUCTION

The network administrator is responsible for

planning, designing, installing, and
evaluating networks and workstations. Very
often the administrator is also involved in
researching purchasing information on
hardware and software acquisitions.

Michael U. Mamitag
 Planning for your network installation is one
of the most important steps. Before you
begin designing the network you need to
identify what your company needs are. This
will help guide you through the process and
make sure you don't overlook any important
details. Here are a few important points that
you should consider when designing your
network.

Michael U. Mamitag
 Network design underlies the performance of your
enterprise IP network.

The network administrator is responsible for planning,

designing, installing, and evaluating networks and
workstations. Very often the administrator is also involved
in researching purchasing information on hardware and
software acquisitions.

Michael U. Mamitag
 Planning for your network installation is one of the most
important steps. Before you begin designing the network you
need to identify what your company needs are. This will help
guide you through the process and make sure you don't
overlook any important details. Here are a few important points
that you should consider when designing your network.
Network design underlies the performance of your enterprise IP
network.

Michael U. Mamitag
 NETWORK TOPOLOGY

Topology is a term that refers the shape

of the network and the layout of cabling
from a bird's eye view, much as a floor
plan identifies the layout of offices and
hallways in a building. See
which network topology is right for your
network.

Michael U. Mamitag
 Physical and logical network design

A physical layout of the network shows the physical

location of and the connections between devices
participating on the network. In such diagrams,
workstations are usually represented with small
computer icons, servers with full tower cases, and
switches and other similar devices are displayed as
small rectangular boxes with their RJ-45 ports in the
front (sometimes, switches are displayed without ports,
depending on the angle at which we are viewing the
network on the page).

Michael U. Mamitag
 A logical layout shows all logical aspects of the network.
This includes logical networks, assigned IP addresses to
various hosts and devices, routing tables and a lot more.
In logical diagrams, there is very little interest in the
actual interfaces and physical cables, so these details are
usually omitted.

Michael U. Mamitag
 A logical layout shows all logical aspects of the network.
This includes logical networks, assigned IP addresses to
various hosts and devices, routing tables and a lot
more. In logical diagrams, there is very little interest in
the actual interfaces and physical cables, so these
details are usually omitted.

Michael U. Mamitag
 GOLDEN RULES OF NETWORK ADMINISTRATION

1. If it isn't broke, don't mess with it!

2. When in doubt -- reboot.
3. Never, ever change anything late in the day.
4. Always be able to undo what you are about to do.
5. If you don't understand it, don't mess with it on a production
system. Use test systems for experimenting.
6. Dedicate a system disk devoted only to the system software. Put
applications on other drives.
7. A project is not done until it's tested by you and by end-users.

Michael U. Mamitag
 8. A project is not done until it's documented.
9. All projects take twice as long as you plan.
10.Use default settings whenever possible.
11.Do not roll out new software without training end users.
Roll out an employee's new application immediately after they
have received training to reinforce what they have learned.
12.If you're fighting fires all the time, find the source.
13.Avoid poor decisions from above.
14.Backup, backup, backup.

Michael U. Mamitag
 COMMON LAN PROBLEMS
Root causes of LAN problems are frequently
caused by one of these three sources:

Physical layer: copper, fiber or wireless

Possible causes:
 Damaged or dirty cabling or terminations
 Excessive signal attenuation
 Insufficient cable bandwidth
 Wireless interference

Michael U. Mamitag
 Network Layer: Ethernet and IP

Possible causes:
 Damaged networking devices
 Incorrect or sub-optimal device configurations
 Authentication and association issues
 Insufficient network bandwidth

Michael U. Mamitag
 Switches and VLANs

Possible causes:
 Excessive utilization
 Too many errors
 Incorrectly assigned VLAN membership
 Traffic priority (CoS/QoS) issues

Michael U. Mamitag
 BEST PRACTICES FOR SUCCESSFUL LAN TROUBLESHOOTING

Procedures

1. Identify the exact issue or problem

2. Recreate the problem if possible

3. Localize and isolate the cause

4. Formulate a plan for solving the problem

5. Implement the plan

6. Test to verify that the problem has been resolved

7. Document the problem and solution

8. Provide feedback to the user

9. Importance of LAN troubleshooting tools and training

Michael U. Mamitag
Michael U. Mamitag