Most network management tools provide a way to group devices and interfaces based on a variety of information, including descriptions, addresses, and names. I've been thinking about how to use the descriptions in both devices and interfaces to enable the automatic grouping mechanisms to help manage...

Do you run a network with a high level of redundancy? If so, how susceptible is your network to the "second failure" syndrome? This is where a first failure occurred, but it wasn't noticed until the second failure took out the redundant link or node. Basic checks can often detect when an...

Networks use the same devices in many different roles, so configuration validation based on device type isn't sufficient. There are some configuration things that can be checked across all the devices of a certain type in your network, such as checking the syslog and NTP configuration, or verifying...