Defining the Knowledge Base Structure


In the process of baselining your network, you have started to accumulate information for your knowledge base. As you expand the types and extent of network management you implement, you can develop a more extensive knowledge base. Use this chapter as a reference to start out collecting the data you need and expand it as you go along.

After you select the tool(s) you plan on using to implement your knowledge base (see Chapter 9, "Selecting the Tools"), you will want to spend some time designing the structure or schema of this information. Carefully read this chapter and use the guidelines contained here, combined with your knowledge of your network, to define this structure. Here are some tips that may help you to structure your network's knowledge base successfully:

  • Administering your knowledge base will be much simpler if you implement a method of grouping similar objects. You will probably find large groups of devices or objects such as interfaces that you want to monitor and to which you want to assign similar characteristics, such as importance, priority, or what information you want to collect. For example, you might want to put all ports on your switches that are connected to file servers in a group.

  • You may want to be able to relate different views of your network to each other, such as logical views versus physical views. You may want to store information about applications and services as well as devices and ports. Keeping a flexible structure will be important as you go forward with network management because networks are dynamic and changing, and the technology they are based upon is also dynamic and rapidly changing.

  • After you've defined a structure to hold your data, it's time to look into how you will be able to get the information in and out of your knowledge base. The current trend is to make everything available through a Web interface, and it is a trend that we heartily endorse. Web access and the ability to make updates through the Web will allow your network engineers to document changes using lightweight laptops or pretty much any desktop that happens to be close at hand. So, select a tool that allows Web access and build screens that allow users to both view and modify the information in your knowledge base.



Performance and Fault Management
Performance and Fault Management: A Practical Guide to Effectively Managing Cisco Network Devices (Cisco Press Core Series)
ISBN: 1578701805
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 200

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