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Network Baseline

M

Mak

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 14, 2005
Messages
150
I have just taken over control of a new network, and I want to take a network baseline so that in the case of future issues with the network, I have something to reference. Network is entirely Cisco/VMware/Windows.

What should I include in a baseline to have the best picture of the "healthy" network?
 
One of the key things to have is network configuration backup and change notification. Usually if something was working then breaks it's usually caused by human error so the ability to see the difference in config changes from day to day and roll back to previous state is valuable.

If unix savvy check out the free Rancid:
http://www.shrubbery.net/rancid/

Commercial CatTools for Windows:
http://www.solarwinds.com/kiwi-cattools.aspx

Looks like they came out with an enhancement to CatTools called Network Configuration Manager that adds real-time change notification:
http://www.solarwinds.com/network-configuration-manager.aspx
 
Mak said:
I have just taken over control of a new network, and I want to take a network baseline so that in the case of future issues with the network, I have something to reference. Network is entirely Cisco/VMware/Windows.

What should I include in a baseline to have the best picture of the "healthy" network?
Click to expand...

Number of support calls per hour * number of things currently on fire = network health index.
 
We currently run Solarwinds. I use that for hosts/devices up/down and NetFlow.

I have completed full network diagrams. I'm curious if anyone captures a healthy "traffic flow" to see what the network is doing/baselining or if that will end up being more trouble than it is worth.

I guess I am looking for the best way to have a comparison. For example, when the Supervisors on our 4500 switches were rebooted, we saw intermittent dropped connections for about a week. However, coming into the situation, I didn't have a baseline to compare to see any abnormalities.
 
NetFlow has limited use for troubleshooting since it only shows basic incremental counter stats between two problem nodes but it doesn't tell you if the packets are successful two-way communication or just one-sided failed retries. You need full packet header stats and payload visibility and the ability to pull up data from the past. This is where NetVCR, GigaStor, Infinistream, etc. type live 24/7 packet recording appliances help tremendously. Deploy them at the core and access layers to have full visibility.
 
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