ATTN: Foward

This site has moved to it’s new and improved home:

http://blog.humanmodem.com

Textpad

- TextPad

While I still use the Windows Notepad when the quick import and export of information will suffice, TextPad is my tool of choice when I need to do any sort of text manipulation. Before I was strictly focused on network tasks, I used to dabble in web page editing via HTML and PHP. TextPad was priceless as a PHP IDE with it’s ability to import various syntax definitions and implement highly configurable macro capabilities.

And now I’ve found that it is just as valuable of a tool for my current line of work as it was for me then. I can easily pull the configuration files out of a Cisco router or switch and with some pre-recorded macros, create a CSV file with IP route and gateway information. This makes documenting your network such an easy task, it’s made me kick myself for the times I hadn’t created decent documentation. It can also be used as a rough instrument for change control though I prefer another utility for that which I will discuss later on.

In the meantime, if you have not had the pleasure to use this application, please take the time to download it and be amazed.

Thanks,

neteng

RRDtool

-RRDtool

RRD stands for Round Robin Database. This is how the tool operates and can be used to store and graph any kind of time-related data you can plug into it. It’s an offshoot of MRTG which, while useful in it’s day, just isn’t as pretty as RRDtool.

For the network engineering field, data pulled from SNMP is the preferred source. If you’re not familiar with SNMP, get familiar! It can be of great usefulness when trying to extract performance metrics from not only network devices, but host devices as well. You say you want to know if your CPU is being overtaxed during a certain time period? No problem. You say you want to be alerted when a mission-critical link goes down? Piece of cake. In my opinion, SNMP is an absolutle can’t-live-without tool for the network engineer.

I have found RRDtool to be quite invaluable when hard measurements are needed. Our department has plans to use this in order to help justify budgeting. These are the types of things that the bean counters look for and it makes it easier for us to say, “Hey, we need to upgrade this frame relay link. As you can see, capacity is almost maxed out and we’re seeing performance degradation as a result. This could cause our customers to be unhappy, and unhappy customers == unhappy revenue numbers.” The message gets across pretty quickly.

Those of you who have experience with this tool, please share any insight, tips, etc that you might have!

Thanks,

neteng

Hello World

I decided that it was time to put together a blog with posts that I would find helpful as a network engineer/network administrator/systems engineer/systems administrator…etc, etc, etc. I haven’t even attempted to satisfy one of the golden rules in business, which is to determine my competition, because frankly, I don’t care! There might be a million other blogs like this, but I often find myself coming across tools and new methods to increase productivity in this field that I was completely clueless about the days prior and I wanted to share these experiences with you. Sure, you can find most of this stuff by doing a simple google search. But I wanted to add a personal touch and let folks know just how I’ve used the tools and how much they’ve helped. Now I don’t want to paint myself into a corner here because I highly doubt I’ll follow the straight and narrow path of pure network engineering (which is what exactly?). You will see posts concerning other things, but I will attempt to maintain focus on the problems at hand.

I do hope that I will be of some assistance to my guests out there. Whatever feedback and suggestions you may have, I am all ears.

Thank you for the visit,

neteng