Today's networks are complicated. Here's how to avoid LAN meltdowns that grind your users to a halt.

Most of us think of the network as a single
entity that can be managed, coached, and coaxed as needed. That's
certainly the goal, and even the theme of Sun's latest advertising
campaign. In reality, any network is a loosely managed team of
components, spanning wiring closets, configuration files, and
applications that use or abuse resources. It's rare that a single point
of failure can be identified easily, or that the same element fails
repeatedly. Failures in one part of the infrastructure affect
applications or services several logical layers away, masking the true
source of the problem. Physical plant problems ripple upstream,
disrupting name or file services. When one player fails, the whole team
goes south.

As businesses become more dependent on the correct operation of
networks for groupware, Internet, intranet, and e-mail capabilities,
network reliability will become another buzzword adored by analysts and
touted by vendors. We'll look at the issues underlying network
reliability, including but not limited to
network performance and traffic control.

We'll examine physical access and security
problems, bandwidth allocation, configuration files, and
service dependencies.

From there it's on to application exposures, such as unduly long network latency or resending lost requests. We'll conclude with some suggested metrics and measurement techniques, designed to help you demonstrate that you have your network team under
control.

Go team! Yeah team! An end-to-end approach

How do you take a team approach to network reliability? Instead of
focusing on the individual components, look at how they interact and
form an end-to-end system, and examine the relationships of network
devices and subsystems to higher level services. Taking the team
analogy a step further, define some ideal attributes for a reliable,
well-built network:

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