Netcordia Blogs

• Data Center Monitoring

  I've been doing Data Center (DC) design recently and the customers are interested in what to monitor and why it should be monitored. At first, a DC is just another set of edge devices, albeit servers, connected to a set of access switches. But the...

  Published 09-02-2010 10:16 AM
• Top 7 Reasons for Network Automation

  I've written in this blog about various reasons for using network automation but it is time to put them together. Counting down… 7. Performance and SLAs The first thing that network management does is performance monitoring. It's conceptually...

  Published 08-25-2010 3:44 PM
• Device Naming Conventions

  Device naming standards are boring. Why should we even talk about them? When you're in the middle of a network melt-down and you are having problems remembering device names and IP addresses, it isn't boring; it's frustrating. But that's...

  Published 08-09-2010 12:01 PM
• Automated IOS Updates

  You have a lot of switches and routers, more than you care to count. The IOS in each of them is now old and needs updating. You're not looking forward to handling each one with a manual process. What are your options? Well, if you did five of them...

  Published 08-03-2010 10:30 AM
• The Cost of Network Downtime

  I was doing some research on the costs and causes of network downtime and came across a more recent white paper than the information from 2001 that I had previously found. This paper, The Impact of Network Downtime on Business Today , was done in 2007...

  Published 07-28-2010 9:13 AM
• HSRP Preempt Delay

  I learned something new at CiscoLive: hsrp preempt delay and why it should be used. In the Resilient Campus Design session, the presenter discussed factors and configurations that make a network more resilient. HSRP is often used in campus networks as...

  Published 07-23-2010 9:24 AM
• Syslog, SNMP Traps, and UDP Packet Loss

  I was recently checking out a product that does syslog correlation and noticed that it had not reported a couple of events that I could see in syslog-ng's log. I use syslog-ng because it is free, easy to install and configure, performs filtering,...

  Published 07-19-2010 1:56 PM
• CCIE Emeritus

  Cisco announced the CCIE Emeritus program on June 21, 2010. It is a program that has been requested and discussed a number of times at the CCIE NetVet luncheon/reception with John Chambers for several years. Many of the more senior members of the CCIE...

  Published 07-15-2010 2:00 PM
• CiscoLive2010

  CiscoLive 2010 is the premier event for anyone who uses Cisco products. There is a lot to see and people to talk with at this conference. There are Cisco staff who explain their offerings and future direction. And there are Cisco partners who are showing...

  Published 07-12-2010 9:57 AM
• CCDE Written Qualification Exam

  CiscoLive offers me the chance to renew my CCIE every year by allowing attendees to take a free test. It is a great way to get a $350 rebate on the conference fee, available by entering a discount code from your CiscoLive registration. I always schedule...

  Published 07-07-2010 3:30 PM