Part I : Foundations, Approaches, and Tools

Part I: Foundations, Approaches, and Tools

Part I describes how to learn, document, and implement network management on your network. It is mainly for people who are getting started with their network management strategy and would like guidelines on how to assess the current state of the network and its management. It then explains how network managers can effectively implement monitoring and reporting to assist their teams.

The approach we take with Part I is to assume that you have inherited the network, its processes, and its policies in a certain state. You must first learn and document the network in its current state, and then you can investigate the policies and procedures.

This part of the book also helps existing network management teams determine how they can more efficiently work with the processes and tools they already have. Many engineers simply throw tools at the problem of network management only to find out that the tools alone do not improve their organization to understand network performance and react to network faults.

Please note that some of the techniques and approaches recommended in Part I are ideals that network managers should aim for but that may be difficult to attain. The difficulties arise because some of the concepts require customization with different tools and because some are resource-intensive to implement. A discussion of customization is beyond the scope of this book. However, we've provided sufficient detail for you to learn the necessary concepts and to work with your network management tool vendors or experienced network management implementor.