Chapter 17: Network Configuration

Overview

This chapter applies the design principles from Part II of the book to the process of provisioning and implementing an Enterprise network infrastructure for the case study environment (CME Corp). Specifying the detailed configuration steps for every device in the network would require a book of its own: the focus is on those components that have a direct bearing on Enterprise SBC architecture performance. Emphasis is placed on LAN/WAN transport hardware, essential security parameters to allow Citrix traffic to traverse the network, and bandwidth management relevant to Citrix traffic flows.

To keep things in perspective, network hardware manufacturers tout their products as "five 9s" for reliability (99.999 percent reliable)—but they assume power availability is a perfect 100 percent. Software vendors (including Microsoft and Citrix) cite "five 9s" for availability of their solutions, but again assume the network is 100 percent available. For CME's requirements, whether Enterprise SBC or traditional Client-Server, the network design must come as close as technically and financially possible to that perfect "100-percent" world.

To reiterate from Chapter 6, network design is interdependent on all other infrastructure components—from server services such as DNS and WINS, to IP addressing schemes, to node naming and management practices. The "implementer" must view the Enterprise implementation of server-based computing "wholistically" to ensure success.