Designing Servers to Support Management Processes

Servers supporting management processes should be robust and secure. They have been put in place to collect and process data that is required to maintain the integrity of the network. You should place the servers in physically secure locations where they can run without being interrupted . The operating systems must be secured, and remote access to the servers should be extremely limited. Remember that the management stations have access to all the routers in the network, so the management stations must be very secure.

The sizing of the servers is based on the vendor recommendations. Use the conservative numbers to make sure that there will be enough processing power, memory, and disk space to last well into the future, even as the amount of data collected grows.

The servers need to have redundant access to the network devices. They must be able to collect data even in the event of a router or link failure. Running a network without visibility about its operating condition can be a trying experience.