Chapter 1 – Introduction to Network

Maintenance
Objectives

• Describe network maintenance tasks

• Explain the difference between proactive and
reactive network maintenance.
• Describe well-known network maintenance
models.
• Identify common maintenance procedures.
• Describe tools required for network
maintenance.

Chapter 1
 Maintenance Tasks
•Device installation and maintenance: Includes tasks such as
installing devices and software and creating and backing up
configurations and software.

•Failure response: Includes tasks such as supporting users

that experience network problems, troubleshooting device
or link failures, replacing equipment, and restoring backups.

•Network performance: Includes tasks such as capacity

planning, performance tuning, and usage monitoring.

•Business procedures: Includes tasks such as documenting,

compliance auditing, and service level agreement (SLA)
management.

•Security: Includes tasks such as following and implementing

security procedures and security.
Chapter 1
 Interrupt Driven Maintenance
•The most basic method of performing network
maintenance, involves responding to problems as
they arise (reactive).
•Disadvantages, including the following:
•Tasks that are beneficial to the long-term health of
the network might be ignored, postponed, or forgotten.
•Tasks might not be executed in order of priority or
urgency, but instead in the order they were requested.
•The network might experience more downtime than
necessary because problems are not prevented.

Chapter 1
 Structured Maintenance
•Structured network maintenance predefines and plans
much of the processes and procedures (proactive).

•This proactive approach reduces the frequency and

quantity of problems, and addresses them more
efficiently.

•The structured approach to network maintenance has

some clear benefits over the interrupt-driven approach,
including:

•Reduced network downtime

•More cost-effectiveness
•Better alignment with business objectives
•Higher network security

Chapter 1
 Standards-Based Maintenance
Methodologies
•Several well-known network maintenance
methodologies have been defined by a variety of
organisations:

1. IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)

2. FCAPS
3. Telecommunications Management Network
(TMN)
4. Cisco Lifecycle Services

•The choice of maintenance methodology will

determine the type and variety of maintenance
tools required.

Chapter 1
 Maintenance Procedures & Tools
•Fault management: network problems are discovered and corrected.
•Configuration management: installation, identification, and
configuration of hardware and services.
•Accounting management: optimally distribute resources among
enterprise subscribers.
•Performance management: managing the overall performance of the
enterprise network.
•Security management: Security management is responsible for
ensuring confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA).

•Upon selection of
a network
maintenance
model, you must
translate the
theoretical model
to practical
procedures

Chapter 1
 Network Maintenance Task
Identification
All network maintenance plans need to include
procedures to perform the following tasks:

• Accommodating adds, moves, and changes.

• Installation and configuration of new devices.
• Replacement of failed devices.
• Backup of device configurations and
software.
• Troubleshooting link and device failures.
• Software upgrading or patching.
• Network monitoring.
• Performance measurement and capacity
planning.
• Writing and updating documentation.
Chapter 1
 Network Maintenance Planning
•You must build processes and procedures for
performing your network maintenance tasks; this
is called network maintenance planning.

•Network maintenance planning includes the

following:
1. Scheduling maintenance
2. Formalizing change-control procedures
3. Establishing network documentation
procedures
4. Establishing effective communication
5. Defining templates/procedures/conventions
– standardisation.
6. Disaster Recovery.
Chapter 1
 Scheduled Maintenance

•The benefits of scheduled maintenance include

the following:

•Network downtime is reduced.

•Long-term maintenance tasks will not be
neglected or forgotten.
•Predictable lead times for change requests.
•Disruptive maintenance tasks can be
scheduled during assigned maintenance
windows, reducing downtime during production
hours.

Chapter 1
 Change Control
•In many companies, change control is formalised and
answers the following types of questions:

1. Which types of change require authorisation and who

is responsible for authorising them?
2. Which changes have to be done during a maintenance
window and which changes can be done immediately?
3. What other actions (such as updating documentation)
need to be taken after a successful change?
4. What conditions allow skipping some of the normal
change procedures and which elements of the
procedures should still be followed?

Chapter 1
 Network Documentation
•Typical elements of network documentation include the
following:
1. Network drawings: Diagrams of the physical and logical
structure of the network.
2. Connection documentation: Lists of all relevant physical
connections, such as patches, connections to service
providers, and power circuits.
3. Equipment lists: Lists of all devices, part numbers, serial
numbers, installed software versions, (if applicable)
software. Licenses, warranty/service information.
4. IP address administration: Lists of the IP subnets scheme
and all IP addresses in use.
5. Configurations: A set of all current device configurations
or even an archive that contains all previous configurations.
6. Design documentation: This is a document describing the
motivation behind certain implementation choices.

Chapter 1
 Effective Communication

•Communication is vital both during troubleshooting

and technical support and afterward.

•During troubleshooting, certain questions must be

answered, such as the following:

1. Who is making changes and when?

2. How does the change affect others?
3. What are the results of tests that were done,
and what conclusions can be drawn?

Chapter 1
 Standardisation
•One of the ways to streamline processes and make sure
that tasks are executed in a consistent manner is to
define and document procedures; this is called
standardization.

•Defining and using templates is an effective method of

network documentation, and it helps in creating a
consistent network maintenance process:

1. Are logging and debug time stamps set to local time or

coordinated universal time (UTC)?

2. Should access lists end with an explicit "deny any"?

3. In an IP subnet, is the first or the last valid IP

address allocated to the local gateway?
Chapter 1
 Disaster Recovery
•The quicker you can replace failed devices and restore
functionality, the quicker your network will be running
again. To replace a failed device, you need the following
items:

1. Replacement hardware.
2. The current software version for the device.
3. The current configuration for the device.
4. The tools to transfer the software and configuration
to the device.
5. Licenses (if applicable).
6. Knowledge of the procedures to install software,
configurations, and licenses.

•Missing any of the listed items severely affects the time

it takes to replace the device.
Chapter 1
Fundamental Tools & Applications

Chapter 1
 Cisco Log Severity Levels

Syslog Level and Name Definition Example

0 LOG_EMERG A panic condition normally Cisco IOS software could
broadcast to all users not load
1 LOG_ALERT A condition that should be Temperature too high
corrected immediately, such as a
corrupted system database
2 LOG_CRIT Critical conditions; for example, Unable to allocate memory
hard device errors
3 LOG_ERR Errors Invalid memory size
4 LOG_WARNING Warning messages Crypto operation failed
5 LOG_NOTICE Conditions that are not error Interface changed state,
conditions but should possibly be up or down
handled specially
6 LOG_INFO Informational messages Packet denied by ACL
7 LOG_DEBUG Messages that contain Packet type invalid
information that is normally used
only when debugging a program

Chapter 1
 Configure Logging
Syslog Server
10.2.2.6

R3

Log to R3 memory:
R3(config)#logging buffered 16384
R3(config)#logging console warning
R3#sh logging

Log to Syslog server:

R3(config)#logging 10.2.2.6
R3(config)#logging trap informational
R3(config)#logging source-interface loopback 0
R3(config)#logging on
R3(config) #service timestamps log datetime Chapter 1
 Network Time Protocol (NTP)
• Many features in a computer network depend on time
synchronisation, such as accurate time information in syslog
messages, certificate-based authentication in VPNs, ACLs with
time range configuration, and key rollover in routing protocol
authentication (EIGRP and RIP).
• Most Cisco routers have two clocks: a battery-powered system
calendar in the hardware and a software-based system clock -
These two clocks are managed separately.
• When a router with a system calendar is initialised or rebooted,
the system clock is set based on the time in the internal battery-
powered system calendar.
• The system clock can then be set manually or by using the
Network Time Protocol (NTP) - an Internet protocol used to
synchronise the clocks of network connected devices to some
time reference.
• NTP is an Internet standard protocol currently at v3 and
specified in RFC 1305. Chapter 1
 NTP Configuration
•NTP is extremely efficient; no more than one packet per minute is
necessary to synchronise two machines to within 1mS of one another.

•A stratum 1 time server typically has a radio or atomic clock directly

attached to the server; a stratum 2 time server receives the time via NTP
from a stratum 1 time server, etc, etc.

•A machine that runs NTP automatically chooses the machine with the
lowest stratum number to communicate with via NTP as the machine’s time
source.

Source(config)#ntp master 5
Source(config)#ntp source loopback 0
Source(config)#clock timezone cet -1

Intermediate(config)#ntp server 172.16.0.1

Intermediate(config)#ntp source loopback 0
Intermediate(config)#ntp update-calendar
Chapter 1
 Implementing Backup & Restore
Client
Facilities FTP Server

Fa0/1 R1 Fa0/2
10.1.50.1
•More-secure protocols such as FTP, SCP, and HTTP or HTTPS can be used as
a means of transferring configurations and software.

•To use any of these more-secure protocols, the username and password must
be provided to authenticate to the server.

•The username and password are specified by placing the username and
password as username:password@ before the server name or IP address in
the URL:

R1# copy startup-config ftp://backup:[email protected]/R1-test.cfg

Address or name of remote host [10.1.50.1]?
Destination filename [R1-test.cfg]?
Writing R1-test.cfg !
2323 bytes copied in 0.268 secs (8668 bytes/sec)

Chapter 1
 Username & Password Configuration
Client FTP Server

Fa0/1 R1 Fa0/2
10.1.50.1
•The username and password can be specified in the
configuration, instead of on the command line, for the FTP, HTTP,
and HTTPS protocols:

R1(config)# ip ftp username backup

R1(config)# ip ftp password san-fran
R1(config)# ip http client username backup
R1(config)# ip http client password 0 san-fran
R1(config)# exit

R1# copy startup-config ftp://10.1.50.1/R1-test.cfg

Address or name of remote host [10.1.50.1]?
Destination filename [R1-test.cfg]?
Writing R1-test.cfg !
2323 bytes copied in 0.304 secs (7641 bytes/sec) Chapter 1
 Configuration Archive
Client FTP Server

Fa0/1 R1 Fa0/2
10.1.50.1
•The configuration archiving feature, part of the Configuration Replace
and Configuration Rollback feature can be used to create local or remote
configuration archives.
R1(config)# archive
R1(config-archive)# path flash:/config-archive/$h-config
R1(config-archive)# write-memory
R1(config-archive)# time-period 10080
•Verify the presence of the archived configuration files by
using the show archive command:
R1# show archive
There are currently 2 archive configurations saved.
The next archive file will be named flash:/config-archive/RO1-config-3
Archive # Name
1 flash:/config-archive/RO1-config-1
2 flash:/config-archive/RO1-config-2 Chapter 1
 Configure Replace
•The configure replace command enables you to replace the
currently running configuration on the router with a saved
configuration without the need to reload:
R1# configure terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
R1(config)# hostname TEST
TEST(config)#
TEST# configure replace flash:config-archive/RO1-config-5 list
This will apply all necessary additions and deletions to replace the current running
configuration with the contents of the specified configuration file, which is
assumed to be a complete configuration, not a partialconfiguration. Enter Y if you
are sure you want to proceed. ? [no]: yes
!Pass 1
!List of Commands:
no hostname TEST
hostname R1
end
Total number of passes: 1
Rollback Done
R1#
Chapter 1
 Chapter 1 – Introduction to Network
Maintenance
Objectives

• Describe network maintenance tasks

• Explain the difference between proactive and
reactive network maintenance.
• Describe well-known network maintenance
models.
• Identify common maintenance procedures.
• Describe tools required for network
maintenance.

Chapter 1
 Any
Questions?

Chapter 1