03-04-2012, 09:23 AM
MGT concepts research
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INTRODUCTION
Today, IT organizations are being pushed and pulled in many directions. Evolving business models create complex technology challenges that IT is being asked to solve. Yet in most organizations, IT resources and headcount remain flat. Additionally, IT use is empowering users, which in turn introduces new devices and risks that IT must manage and balance. But these new consumer devices are powerful tools that can deliver big productivity gains, if harnessed properly.
Background of study
Networks form the backbone of the modern IT and other enterprises. The components are the backbone, the network infrastructure are quite complex and varied with the presence of hundreds or even thousands of mission-critical edge devices such as switches, routers, firewalls and others from dozens of hardware vendors. Enterprises make huge investments on procuring network infrastructure and employ highly skilled professionals to manage and administer the network infrastructure. But often, a few administrators manage a large infrastructure. Managing the network is a challenging task as business continuity directly depends on network availability. Even a few minutes of network outage could have a rippling effect on the revenue stream as critical business services get affected. And as business needs grow, network complexity also grows up exponentially.
Traditional Network Configuration Management Practices:
While carrying out changes, most of the administrators document the proposed changes. They login to each device separately and carry out the change. In case, the configuration changes are not successful, they will turn the configuration to the previous working state by undoing the changes as recorded by them in the documentation
Global Configuration Mode
Enter this mode from the privileged mode by typing configure terminal or (conf t for short). The prompt will change to Routername(config)#. Changes made in this mode change the running config file in DRAM. Use configures memory to change the startup config in NVRAM. Using configure network allows you to change the configuration file on a TFTP server. (Cisco, 2011)
Interfaces Mode
While in global configuration mode you can make changes to individual interfaces with the command Routername(config)#interface ethernet 0 or Routername(config)#int e0 for short, this enters the interface configuration mode for Ethernet port 0 and changes the prompt to look like Routername(config-if)#.(Cisco, 2011)
Advantages of software preventive maintenance
• Reduced production downtime, resulting in fewer software breakdowns.
• Timely, routine repairs circumvent fewer large-scale repairs.
• Reduced cost of repairs by reducing secondary failures. When software fails in service, they usually damage other parts.
• Better quality products as a result of well-maintained software
• Improved safety and quality conditions.
Conclusion
If you are currently grappling with a number of network devices, managed by a team of people then network configuration management may well be worth investigating. If most of your network downtime is caused by people changing configuration of one or more devices, then again network configuration management may well be worth a look. Network configuration management provides the tools to give you an audit trail of changes to your network. It can also make enforcing corporate policy for device configuration much easier.