Re: New Job

[Neal C <nealcor () gmail com>]

Hello all. I would like to send a thank you before hand for the
response's and suggestions I am to recv from this email.

After month's of searching, I have been hired into a job position as
the Network Administrator. The company currently has a very bad setup
of there Network infrastructure and has hired me to come in, asses the
damage, and design a network, no matter the budget, that would help to
keep and grow them for the future.

I have very little experience (on the job training) with designing a
network. I am a new graduate of Technical college, where I graduated
with all A's, and did very well on my Capstone with designing/building
a Network infrastructure.
I have 5 to 6 years in the IT field, N+, A+, Solaris 10, Linux+, and
the AS degree in Computer Network Systems;CCNA-pending. My experience
comes from designing/building PC/Laptops, remote desktop support, and
my most pervious position was System Database admin on Solairs/Unix
platform;Telnet,SSH,VNC,VPN, VT100 Terminal..etc to remote clients.

What I ask from you expert's is this.

Help!! I would like to be pointed in a direction that may help to
guide me in creating a "beginners" style network.
Are there any basic/template designs available?

There are a list of things I know we need.

1. A new Web Server.
2. File server
3. FTP server
4. Application server
5. Cisco routers.
6. A wall mount rack.
--
***********************************************************************

You have a huge job in front of you. Especially if you have to start
with cabling etc. You will need to audit what you already have in
place. Maybe you need to find a service company that can help you with
the process. I would also take some time to understand what the
company does and what are their goals. If they for example are looking
to open many new offices then perhaps you need to think about ways to
perhaps deal with this eg ctirix and and so on. Scoping the project
has been mentioned and is very important. You will want management to
understand what you can and cant achieve and in what time frames. The
last thing you want is to go through is the whole project and thinking
you achieved a desired result and this is far away from what
management perceive to be a good result.

Again get to know your organisation. Proposing say a linux desktop may
be too much of an ask if everyone is comfortable with windows or in
your area it is difficult to get support for a certain system/product.
You may have to stage the project. Identify what are the core needs of
your business. Sometimes this comes down to a handful of apps. Having
something work which is antiquated may be more important than changing
to the newest version of something. If you are not pressed for time
you could look at implementing systems which are close to best of
breed. Perhaps a more comprehensive/expensive
backup/recovery/archival/life cycle management system might be
warranted if you need to be running 24x7 or have governance issues
such as sarbannes. Maybe a security audit is required as well and
rollout of new boxes might need to be inline with hardening in mind.
You may have a web server but maybe a content management server is
appropriate if you change the website frequently.

You could also look at implementing systems tools that may save you
time in the whole process. If you currently have to spend large
amounts of time removing viruses then perhaps content filtering
systems are needed. Likewise if you are to be installing large amounts
of software maybe automation solutions like SMS\Zenworks maybe
benefitial. These can often have a large return on investment if you
can send down a change/program to 100 machines and not have to visit a
single workstation. You will really know you are achieving things if
you can  make major changes to the infrastructure with very little
impact to the working of the business. Don't forget that it is the
business continuity that is paying your wage. I have seen experienced
engineers kill a process on a production box which then downed a
server and caused data corruption to a billing system.  This could
have been avoided if this was conducted in a lunch hour/after hours.
Also try and have a plan B or C or a rollback path if something goes
wrong. You may need to run parallel systems or a test environment
before you implement major changes. (VMware/Virtual Server may assist
with this). There is no substitute for good planning. Consider your
options when selecting hardware. Maybe Cisco is not priced right for
your organisation. Heaps to think about. Be methodical and good luck.