What is network monitoring?
Monitoring an active communications network to diagnose problems and gather statistics.
What is network management?
The operation, administration, maintenance, and provisioning of networked systems
Why must a network in operation be monitored?
To deliver projected SLAs and meet expectations of management, users, customers, and the wider internet.
What is 99.9% uptime in terms of monthly downtime?
About 45 minutes of downtime per month.
What is baselining?
Understanding what is “normal” for the network such as typical load, jitter, errors, and noise.
Why is baselining important?
It helps detect abnormalities, plan upgrades, and identify problems early.
Why should changes be documented?
To easily trace issues caused by upgrades or configuration changes.
What is the purpose of network accounting?
To track usage of resources and bill customers.
What are the “Big Three” monitoring areas?
Availability, reliability, and performance.
What does Nagios monitor?
Servers, switches, applications, and services for availability.
What does Smokeping measure?
Connection health, round-trip time, latency, and service responsiveness.
What does Cacti monitor?
Traffic, port usage, and system resources like CPU, RAM, disk.
Why is documentation important?
It helps track devices, understand the network layout, and troubleshoot efficiently.
What is the role of a Network Operations Center (NOC)?
It coordinates tasks, monitors network status, handles incidents, and stores documentation.
What are automated network documentation tools?
IPplan, Netdisco, Netdot, and RackTables.
What does IPplan do?
Manages IP addresses and helps with DNS, configuration files, and hardware tracking.
What is Netdisco used for?
Finding device locations, managing switch ports, inventory hardware, and reporting network usage.
What is Netdot?
A tool that handles IP management, topology discovery, device discovery, and documentation.
What’s the difference between active and passive monitoring tools?
Active tools send traffic to test connectivity; passive tools observe existing traffic.
What is SNMP used for?
Collecting data such as throughput, errors, CPU load, and more from network devices.
What is NetFlow used for?
Traffic accounting and identifying traffic flows.
Why is a ticket system important?
To track events, manage incidents, record communication, and escalate issues properly.
What are examples of open-source ticket systems?
RT, Trac, and Redmine.
What is an NIDS (Network Intrusion Detection System)?
A system that detects security threats by monitoring network traffic.
