Documenting the Planning and Network Design Process

After you’ve determined what needs to be tested to ensure that your network design is working correctly, you need to create detailed descriptions of how each test should be performed. This is crucial in order to ensure that all necessary functions have been properly tested. Documenting the test process becomes even more vital when multiple individuals or teams are using the test lab resources, because you need to keep track of how one test may have affected others being run concurrently or later. For each test that you wish to perform in the lab, be sure to identify the following:

• The prerequisites for the test to function: how to prepare the lab for the specific test

• The specific action or change that you will be testing

• The individual steps required to implement the installation, change, or troubleshooting step

• The expected result of the test

• What rollback actions to take (if any) if the test fails

• What subsequent actions to take if the test succeeds

You should document the layout and initial configuration of the test lab itself, using both text documents and diagrams where applicable. Both of these, but especially the diagrams, should be posted in a prominent location so that users of the lab will be aware of any design changes that you have implemented. This information will also improve the efficiency of the test process itself, since the testers will know where to locate each component or server to which they require access.

Finally, remember to periodically test your lab equipment to determine what effects testing has had on it. A computer that has undergone many changes and upgrades throughout the course of the testing process will certainly behave differently than a computer that has been newly installed, even with an identical configuration. You should refresh the disk images on your lab machines periodically using disk-imaging software such as Symantec Ghost or Microsoft’s Remote Installation Services (RIS) to be certain that your test machines are offering a fair representation of the systems that you are attempting to analyze.

Importance of Documentation

The importance of documenting your computing environment after you have deployed a new network design such as Windows Server 2003 cannot be overemphasized. As you move through the network design and testing processes, you should also keep detailed documentation of each design, product, or vendor decision that you make, including your reasons for choosing one alternative over another. Personnel changes can occur without warning, and a well-maintained design document will quickly answer the question of “Why did we choose Vendor X over Vendor Y?” when it is posed by the new Vice President of IT who just started last week. Knowing that Vendor Y’s product proved incompatible after several hours of troubleshooting will save you from needing to waste time by repeating portions of the design process.

Because of the effects that ongoing changes can have in a production environment, many organizations use test equipment to test every patch and service pack that is released by their product vendors, so that any potential problems or bugs can be intercepted before the patch is applied globally. Whatever method you use to roll out ongoing updates and changes, you should include detailed documentation, not only of what update was rolled out on a given date, but also of how the change was applied to client machines or other devices on your network.

Creating the Planning and Design Document

When documenting both your test lab and your overall network design, there are a number of items that need to be discussed. Although maintaining network documentation is often relegated to a backseat behind the numerous fires that we must put out on a daily basis as network administrators, comprehensive records in this area will actually help you in whatever troubleshooting issues come up after the new network is placed into production. Include configuration information about the following components of your final network design (although a complete list is limited only by the amount of time you have in the day!):

• Windows Server 2003 domain structure information, including DNS hierarchy and replication information, AD hierarchy information (site configuration, forest, domains, and OUs), and GPO settings and where they are applied within the AD hierarchy

  Exam Warning

  Be sure to include information about Enforce and Block Inheritance flags in Group Policy implementation. These affect how GPOs are inherited throughout the AD infrastructure.

• Trust relationships, both transitive and explicitly defined

• Network connectivity hardware (switches, routers, firewalls, and other LAN and WAN connectivity devices)

• Client computer configuration, both hardware and software

• Line-of-business application inventory and configuration

• Backup, restore, and disaster recovery procedures