roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) (04/19/89)
We are in the formative stages of writing a substantial grant
request to improve our computer facilities. I would like part of the
budget to be tools to help manage our network, which currently consists of
an ethernet with about 25 nodes (mostly speaking IP, but some DECNet as
well), broken into 3 segments with repeaters between them, and a Kinetics
FastPath going to an AppleTalk net with about 15 nodes on it. Looking out
a bit further, we have a bridge to another similar ethernet on the other
side of the street which in turn has bridges to another building's ethernet
and to the main campus network. What I want to do is set up the facilities
to efficiently maintain our local bit of the network.
Given a finite but large amount of money (say, anywhere from $5k to
$50k) what equipment would you suggest we need. I'm not so much looking
for specific brands or models, but the type of functionality we should have
on hand to maintain a network of this size and complexity (a half dozen
ethernet and AppleTalk segments spread around 3 or 4 buildings spanning 6
city blocks interconnected with repeaters, bridges, and kboxes with 50-75
hosts of various makes running various operating systems talking IP,
DECNet, and AppleTalk). And, of course, we expect the network to keep
growing in as-yet undefined ways. I do know that many of the leased line
links are going to be replaced by fiber some time in the next year or so.
I already have on my short list some kind of Bit Error Rate Tester
and some kind of hardware ethernet snooper, but don't really know what sort
of features I should be looking for in each. I know that in theory TDRs
are useful for checking cables, but I've never used one and don't really
know how important (or useful) it is to have one.
--
Roy Smith, System Administrator
Public Health Research Institute
{allegra,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy -or- roy@phri.nyu.edu
"The connector is the network"