Network Management 14

Question 0

Effective network management leads to

Answer 0

Improved QoS, reduced operating costs and increased revenue. Goal is to make operations more efficient.

Question 1

What is network management

Answer 1

The management of functions such as operation, administration, maintenance, and provisioning of systems on a network using various activities, methods, procedures, and tools.
Operation deals with procedures that allow for the smooth running of the network
Administration involves keeping track of the assignment and utilization of devices on the network
Maintenance involves repairing and upgrading network components and taking necessary measures to ensure that devices are running optimally
Provisioning assigns resources to support a service.

Question 2

What is SNMP

Answer 2

Simple Network Management Protocol
An application layer protocol used to collect information from network devices for diagnostic and maintenance purposes.
Includes two components. Management systems and agent software.
Three versions. SNMPv1. Original
SNMPv2 added several protocol operations and initial security measures
SNMPv3 added security features and remote configuration capabilities. Authentication, privacy, and access control

Question 3

What are network monitoring tools

Answer 3

Can capture traffic, analyze it, create logs, alert you to events you define, monitor different interfaces, such as routers, switches, and servers, indicate areas of traffic congestion, help you construct baselines, determine upgrade and forecast needs, and generate reports for management.

Question 4

What are throughput testers

Answer 4

Are software tools that can be used to measure network throughput and capacity.
They send large data packets from one destination to another and measure the time taken to transfer the packets. Throughout is the. Calculated by dividing the packet size by the time taken.

Question 5

Name some common connectivity utilities used to troubleshoot connectivity issues

Answer 5

Ping, pathping, tracert, netstat

Question 6

Name the three functional categories of network monitoring tools

Answer 6

Status monitoring. Used to gather data related to the status of the network. Tools include ping and nslookup commands

Traffic monitoring. Used to gather data related to the traffic generated in a network. Ping and iptrace in Unix commands can be used as a traffic monitoring tool.

Route monitoring. Used to trace taken by packets and detect routing delays. Tools include tracert and arp commands.

Question 7

Network traffic analysis includes

Answer 7

Identification of the inbound and outbound protocols
Checking whether the protocols acknowledge each other.
Identifying if ports are open and closed
Checking the traffic that pass through a firewall
Checking throughout, threshold limits and overall network performance
Tracing packets on a network
Studying network utilization

Question 8

What is port filtering

Answer 8

A technique of selectively enabling or disabling TCP and UDP ports on computers or network devices.
It ensures that no traffic except the protocol that the admin has chosen to allow can pass through an open port. Works by examining the packets header, source address, destination address, and port number.

Question 9

What is traffic filtering

Answer 9

A method that allows only legitimate traffic through to the network
It blocks unwanted traffic minimizing valuable resource consumption. Traffic is filtered based On Rules that accept or deny based on the source or destination IP address.
Firewalls and servers are most commonly use this method.

Question 10

Activities performed by the network diagnostic tools are

Answer 10

Monitor end to end application respnse time
Analyze network traffic
Manage device performance
Monitor and alert availability, Bandwidth utilization, and health of devices
Provide network diagnostics for troubleshooting and resolving issues
Offer network discovery tools that facilitate IP address management, port mapping and ping sweeps.

Question 11

What is port mapping

Answer 11

Translates address of packets to a new address. The translated packets are then routed based on the routing table.

Question 12

What is ping sweep

Answer 12

Establishes a range of IP addresses to locate active hosts within a given range. Can be performed by using tools such as fping and map.

Question 13

What is a system performance monitor

Answer 13

A software tool that monitors the state of services or daemons, processes and resources on a system.
They track one or more counters which are individual statistics about the operation of different objects on the systems. When a counter value reaches a given threshold it indicates that the object of the counter may be functioning outside acceptable limits.

Question 14

What is the top utility

Answer 14

Most Linux Unix systems provide a cpu usage monitoring tool call too as part of their default installation. Can provide either a static snapshot or a real time display of the processes currently running on a given cpu.

Question 15

What is a log file

Answer 15

A record of actions and events performed on an operating system. Three common log files. System, general, and history files

Question 16

Describe system log files

Answer 16

Often predetermined by the os itself and are a record of events logged by the os

Question 17

Describe general log files

Answer 17

A type of system logs that contain information about device changes, installation or I installation of device drivers and any other system changes

Question 18

Describe history log files

Answer 18

Record information such as type of log, the time of event occurrence, the name of the user who was logged on at the time of the event, keywords any id numbers and what category the event belongs to

Question 19

What is syslog

Answer 19

A term used to define the process of logging program messages or data logs. Includes the software or OS that generates, reads, and analyzes log files.

Question 20

What is a protocol analyzer

Answer 20

Also called a network analyzer is a diagnostic software that can examine and display data packets that are being transmitted over a network.
Can examine packets from protocols that operate in the physical, data link, network and transport layers of the OSI model

Question 21

Name the uses for protocol analyzer

Answer 21

Analyzing current network traffic patterns and potential problems
Detecting possible network intrusions
Monitoring network usage for performance analysis
Filtering undesirable network traffic
Launching an eavesdropping attack

Question 22

What is the Unix netstat utility

Answer 22

Can provide a wide range of information including open ports and sockets, packets transmitted on those ports, routing tables, and multicast memberships.

Question 23

What is network adapter promiscuous mode

Answer 23

Enables the station running the analyzer to recognize all packets being sent over the network irrespective of the destination or source.

Question 24

What is network fault tolerance

Answer 24

The ability of a network or system to withstand a foreseeable component failure and continue to provide an acceptable level of service.

Question 25

Network administration covers support functions requires to manage a network. These include

Answer 25

Functions that do not involve performing changes such as configuring and tuning or the running of the actual network. Includes activities such as designing the network, tracking its usage, assigning addresses, planning upgrades to the network, taking service orders from end users and customers, keeping track of network inventory, collecting accounting data, and billing customers.

Question 26

Configuration management addresses

Answer 26

Setting up and changing the configuration of the network and its components.
Involves setting up of parameters for switches and routers.
Three configurations of the network.
The static configuration. The permanent configuration of the network
The current running configuration.
The planned configuration. When the configuration data changes as the network changes.
The arp command facilitates in updating this database. It can discover any new network component having an IP address

Question 27

Common documents that each network administrator should have

Answer 27

Network maps. Provide the location and routing information for network devices. Known as network diagrams
Device information. List the hardware, software, and configuration information for each device in the network.
Utilization statistics. Provide usage logs and reports to measure network utilization and performance.
Policies and procedures. Provide guidelines and the appropriate method for performing network management tasks.

Question 28

What is a physical network diagrams

Answer 28

A diagrammatic representation that depicts all network devices and endpoints connections with one another. Typical depicts routers and switches, servers, workstations, printers, and fax machines, remote access equipment, firewalls, wireless access points, cable management information and CSU/DSU

Question 29

What is a floor plan

Answer 29

Can be part of the physical network diagram. Should include the location of the demarc, wiring closets, and cable runs.

Question 30

What are network wiring schematic or wiring diagrams

Answer 30

A combination of a floor plan and a physical network topology diagram. shows the nodes and network wiring superimposed on a floor plan of the facility with the actual equipment and cables on the schematic in their actual locations.

Question 31

What is IT asset management

Answer 31

The set of management policies that include information about the financial and contractual specifications of all the hardware and software components present in an organizations inventory.

Question 32

What is a logical network diagram

Answer 32

Documents the protocols and applications that control the flow of network traffic. They show how the data should move regardless of physical implementation. Depicts IP address of each network device
The FQDN of a device
Application type of each server
Trust relationships that exist between nodes
The routing topology.

Question 33

Critical hardware and software inventories provide insurance documentation and help determine what you need to rebuild the network

Answer 33

Hardware inventories includes
Standard workstation
Specialty workstation
Basic server
Connectivity hardware
Backup hardware

Software inventory includes 
Operating system 
Productivity and application 
Maintenance utilities
Backup documentation
Overall asset inventory

Question 34

What are network policies

Answer 34

A formalized statement that defines network functions and establishes expectations for users, management and IT personnel. Describes the acceptable use policies of network equipment.

Question 35

Name the components of a network policy

Answer 35

Policy statement outline the plan for individual components
Standards define how to measure the level of adherence to the policy
Guidelines are recommendations or best practices for how to meet the policy standard.
Procedures are step by step instructions that detail how to implement components.

Question 36

Legal compliance requirements and regulations

Answer 36

All organizations must consider their legal obligations, rights, liabilities, and limitations when creating policies. Information security practices must comply with legal requirements

Question 37

What is a network baseline

Answer 37

A record of a systems performance statistics under normal operating conditions.
Documents the networks current performance level and provides a quantitative basis for identifying abnormal or unacceptable performance.

Question 38

The network baseline process consists of eight steps

Answer 38

Evaluate the network 
Design tests 
Schedule tests. When and how frequently tests run
Run tests. 
Document results 
Analyze data 
Repeat tests
Upgrade as needed

Question 39

QoS is

Answer 39

Quality of service
A set of parameters that controls the quality provided to different types of network traffic.
Parameters include the maximum amount of delay, signal loss and noise that can be accommodated for a particular type of network traffic, bandwidth, priority and CPU usage for a specific steam of data.
Both the transmitter and receiver enter into an agreement called the Service Level Agreement SLA which describes remedial measures or penalties to be incurred by an ISP in the event that the ISP fails to provide the QoS promised

Question 40

Why is there a need for QoS

Answer 40

Real time multimedia applications can compensate for some amount of packet loss but are very sensitive toward delays in data delivery
FTP and Telnet are very sensitive to packet loss but tolerant to delays in data delivery
An optimum usage of bandwidth becomes very critical while dealing with multimedia applications.
Low bandwidth may result in bad quality transmission of real time applications.
Parameters were developed to prioritize bandwidth allocation for real time applications on networks and guarantee a specific QoS

Question 41

QoS parameters on a network

Answer 41

Bandwidth. The average number of bits of data that can be transmitted from a source to a destination over the network in one second
Latency. Lag or delay is the time difference between transmission of a signal and when it is received
Jitter. Is the variability over time in latency between sequentially transmitted data packets. Represents inconsistency in packet delivery
Packet loss. The number of packets that are lost or damaged during transmission.
Echo. A reflected sound, a distinct repetition of the original sound caused by splices and improper terminations in the network

Question 42

What is traffic shaping

Answer 42

Also known as bandwidth shaping
A mechanism in QoS for introducing some amount of delay in traffic that exceeds an Administratively defined rate.
Smooths down traffic bursts that occur when the transmitter sends packets at a rate higher than the capacity of the receiver. Does not packets and is implemented only on the outbound interface of a device

Question 43

What is traffic policing

Answer 43

The method of governing and regulating a flow of packets in conforming with the standards specified in the SLA. Packets not conforming are wither dropped or marked to a lower precedence value

Question 44

What is load balancing

Answer 44

A network performance optimization tool that divides work among the devices on a network.
More resources are available and data is processed faster. The devices in the network perform at their optimum efficiency.

Question 45

Cluster servers is another way to create load balancing. How?

Answer 45

A main server in the cluster determines which server will provide the data processing.

Question 46

Load balancers is another way to create load balancing.

Answer 46

A stand alone network devices that perform load balancing as their primary function.

Question 47

What is high availability

Answer 47

A rating that expresses how closely systems approach the goal of providing data availability 100% of the time while maintaining a high level of system performance.
Usually rated as a percentage that shows the proportion of uptime to total time.

Question 48

Whats a caching engine

Answer 48

An application or service that Stores or indexes data in order to provide faster responses to requests for that data.
Useful for responding for frequently used data.

Question 49

High bandwidth applications are software programs that requires large amounts of network bandwidth for data transmission. These include

Answer 49

VoIP
HDTV
real time video
Multimedia

Question 50

Various factors that affect the QoS implementation on a network

Answer 50

Packet classification. Each packet coming to a router is classified based on its QoS requirements. Enables the router to process the packet based on its resource requirement

Policing. An application requests the required amount of network resources and must adhere to this request.

Resource allocation. It is the network devices responsibility to appropriately allocate resources to both data and voice packets

Call admission. In case of unavailability of network resources the network can deny the request.