Ten Big Network Mistakes

Chapter 27 Ten Networking Commandments In This Chapter 䊳 Backing up and cleaning up hard drives 䊳 Scheduling downtime for maintenance 䊳 Keeping spare parts 䊳 Training users 䊳 Recording your network configuration B lessed is the network manager who walks not in the counsel of the igno- rant, nor stands in the way of the oblivious, nor sits in the seat of the greenhorn, but delights in the Law of the Network and meditates on this Law day and night.” — Networks 1:1 And so it came to pass that these Ten Networking Commandments were passed down from generation to generation, to be worn as frontlets between the computer geeks’ eyes taped on the bridges of their broken glasses and written upon their doorposts. Obey these commandments, and it shall go well with you, with your children, and with your children’s children. I. Thou Shalt Back Up Thy Hard Drive Religiously Prayer is a good thing, but when it comes to protecting the data on your net- work, nothing beats a well-thought-out schedule of backups followed reli- giously. If this were an actual network Bible, a footnote here would refer you back to related verses in Chapter 15. II. Thou Shalt Protect Thy Network from Infidels Remember Colonel Flagg from MASH, who hid in trashcans looking for Commies? You don’t exactly want to become him, but on the other hand, you don’t want to ignore the possibility of getting zapped by a virus or your net- work being invaded by hackers. Make sure that your Internet connection is properly secured with a firewall, and do not allow any Internet access that circumvents your security. To counter virus threats, use network-aware antivirus software to ensure that every user on your network has up-to-date virus protection. And teach your users so they will know how to avoid those virus threats that manage to sneak past your virus protection. III. Thou Shalt Keepeth Thy Network Drive Pure and Cleanse It of Old Files Don’t wait until your 200GB network drive is down to just one cluster of free space before you think about cleaning it up. Set up a routine schedule for disk housekeeping, where you wade through the files and directories on the network disk to remove old junk. IV. Thou Shalt Not Tinker with Thine Network Configuration Unless Thou Knowest What Thou Art Doing Networks are finicky things. After yours is up and running, don’t mess around with it unless you know what you’re doing. It may be tempting to log in to your firewall router to see if you can’t tweak some of its settings to squeeze another ounce of performance out of it. But unless you know what you’re doing, be careful Be especially careful if you think you do know what you’re doing. It’s the people who think they know what they’re doing — and think no more about it — who get themselves into trouble 362 Part VI: The Part of Tens V. Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Network Network envy is a common malady among network managers. If your network is humming along fine at 100 Mbps, don’t covet your neighbor’s 1000Mbps net- work. If you run NetWare 6, resist the urge to upgrade to 6.5 unless you have a really good reason. And if you run Windows 2000 Server, fantasizing about Windows Server 2003 is a venial sin. You’re especially susceptible to network envy if you’re a gadget freak. There’s always a better switch to be had or some fancy network-protocol gizmo to lust after. Don’t give in to these base urges Resist the devil, and he will flee VI. Thou Shalt Schedule Downtime before Working upon Thy Network As a courtesy, try to give your users plenty of advance notice before you take down the network to work on it. Obviously, you can’t predict when random problems strike. But if you know you’re going to patch the server on Thursday morning, you earn points if you tell everyone about the inconvenience two days before rather than two minutes before. You’ll earn even more points if you patch the server Saturday morning. Tell your boss you’ll take next Thursday morning off to make up for it. VII. Thou Shalt Keep an Adequate Supply of Spare Parts There’s no reason that your network should be down for two days just because a cable breaks. Always make sure that you have at least a minimal supply of network spare parts on hand. As luck would have it, Chapter 28 suggests ten things you should keep in your closet. 363

Chapter 27: Ten Networking Commandments