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Setting up a Small Office Network?
A not-so-anonymous Anonymous Coward asks: "I am embarking on a startup with some business contacts. I'm the only tech-guy in the group so I'll be the one to set up the network for our small office of 5-7 people. I've spent the last 15 years immersed in the development end of things (numerical analysis software and parallel computing codes). The downside of this is that I'm quite naive when it comes to networking: there's always been someone else taking care of revision control, backups, security, servers, etc., even purchasing stuff and running cable. What advice would you give someone who isn't afraid to roll up his sleeves, but is starting from ground zero on setting up a small office network? Can you recommend any books that are up-to-date and practical (e.g. "howto")?"
As far as I can tell the Dummies series jumped the shark about five years ago. It's a great idea, and used to be executed quite well, but lately they seem to be publishing a lot of trash in an effort to expand their titles and franchise as fast as possible. I think they still do a good job of organizing the material, but the content is often a rehashed help guide with no elucidating exposition. It's usually incomplete, and occasionally out and out wrong.
I can't speak to Networking for Dummies specifically, but several disappointments in recent years lead me to discount the worth of the Dummies books.
Not to threadjack, but I'd be interested in anyone else's experiences with these. Care to confirm my observations, or should I just switch to a better brand of crack?
- Ask them what they are trying to accomplish. Never ask a client "What do you need?", but rather "What are you trying to do?" If you ask them what they need, they'll answer in terms of what they think is or is not available. To get real out-of-the-box thinking, ask them what they are trying to accomplish and you'll get a better picture of what really needs to be done.
- Go research the problem. This is where it's easy to jump the gun, mainly because we think that people want immediate satisfaction. Many people will tell you that they want it "right now", but they'll usually be willing to wait for the right solution to a problem. Tell them up front, "I can give you a half-assed solution now or a complete solution with a little more work." (Usually I try to word this a little more diplomatically
:-)
- Once you have a solution or two in hand, meet with the folks who need to make the decision as to what the next steps are going to be. Keep the meeting short and sweet, and use your new found expertise to guide them down the path that you think that they should be on. Don't give them a million options. Just say, "I think we should do it this way and here's how this solution is going to help you get the job done". Don't walk away from the meeting without either a decision to move forward or a timeline on when a decision will be made.
- Deliver a solution in the time frame that you said you would. Nothing will kill your reputation like not delivering on time. Make sure to budget enough time to get the job done. If something unforeseen comes up, tell your client what's happening and your strategy for getting an answer. Whatever you do, get rid of the unknown variables as quickly as possible. If you're unsure of something and wait until the end of the project, it is sure to bite you in the ass. If you get rid of the unknowns up front, you'll have time to react when one becomes a problem, and it's always easier to renegotiate a delivery date earlier in the cycle rather than later.
Whatever you do, do all your projects that way that you'd like them done if you were responsible for them. Assume that your client is intelligent and capable of understanding the concepts that are key to their business. Don't go too far into any detail unless they ask.If you don't want crime to pay, let the government run it.
If you have the IRT, then place the jacketed wires between the dual cutter so that the end goes a little PAST the little stop. Squeeze down until you hear the first click, and spin the IRT around once or so. Pull. It won't be a super clean cut, but it will do just fine.
.02.
Now split the wires and order them (I always do T568A standards since that's what I was originally taught 10+ years ago when I was a desktop support monkey, but T568B is fine too.) Just don't be stupid and order the wires straight since you'll screw up the whole point of an UTP cable.
Anyways, once you have things ordered, clip off the ends of the wires so that everything is nice and even (which is why you strip off more then you're supposed to in the first step).
Put the RJ45 end on and crimp.
Anyways, YMMV... my
-Aaron
P.S. I forgot to say how much I *hate* making cables. I'd rather be poked with a stick.
Assuming you are starting from scratch :
Buy one brand of hardware, and one model of machine for everybody. Get all the same server model, all the same video card in every machine and the same network card in every machine. Personally I am a Dell fanboy, but only because I have been using them forever and am good at navigating their support site for drivers. This makes system maintenance and repairs very easy, no esoteric crap to worry about (one set of drivers, one system gold disk image to restore from, and one set of spare parts.)
Amen to the guy that said document EVERYTHING. I have seen some of the most freaky undocument hacks this side of the moon - every day was an adventure in discovery (I once saw an extension cord with the ends hacked off used as part of an ARCnet network, spliced to the coax on each side using electrical tape!)
Amen to the guy that said hire a guy that knows what he is doing to come in and set it up. Shadow him and every other breath you take should make the sound 'why' so you know what everything is when he is gone.
GigE is cheap enough for you to use now. Enjoy.
Get LCD monitors and good keyboards / mice. I cringe today watching a $60k / year employee hampered by a $3 keyboard and a old 15" CRT.
PowerQuest Drive Image Professional, or Ghost. I prefer PQDI, but I hear Ghost is good too.
Servers get at least three partitions : OS partition, Applications partition, and Data partition. Once you have a DriveImage of the OS and Apps partitions, you really only need current backups (daily) of the data.
I have no clue how you are going to back up 500G of data each night, but something tells me it isn't going to be by burning it to DVD.
Even if it is just a closet - put your servers in their own room with dedicated power lines and dedicated cooling. It is going to get loud in there, so plan on sitting elsewhere.
Resist the urge to buy one-off items because they are cheap. The $300 one-off computer that some kid built in his garage is going to cost you way more than the difference it would have cost going with a single standardized platform - over the life of the machine.
One person can maintain 300 machines if they are all exact clones of each other. If every machine is unique it would take you 5-6 people keeping the same network fully operational. At $65k apiece fully loaded salary that's a third of a million dollars more per year to support the same 300 machines. At four year turnover on computers, you are talking about an EXTRA $4,000 per computer to save $200 total on purchase price.
The first line of defense in computers is the users. All the firewalls in the world won't stop a (virus / worm / trojan) if your dumb-ass accountant double clicks on a file attachment he gets in email from his golfing buddy, titled I_Love_You.doc.vbs. Knowledge is power.
Build it and design it as if you were going to have 1000 users.
If you wouldn't have a network of 1000 users all using their first name as their user id, why do it at the onset with the original 15?
If you wouldn't let all 1000 users surf porn from work, why do it with the original 15?
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
An excellent book is "The Practice of System and Network Administration" by Thomas A. Limoncelli, Christine Hogan. (ISBN: 0201702711) It is theory not necessarily platform specific. It is focused at unix, but can be applied in a windoze environment. I wish I had read that book years ago. It really does a good job of summarizing all the best practices. It's all the things they don't teach in school. http://www.everythingsysadmin.com/aboutbook.html There are links to reviews there. The average customer review on amazon is 4.5/5.
As far as pulling cable and doing the physical grunt work..make sure you do structured wiring otherwise you end up with a rats nest of wire. Over plan everything. Don't forget the simple stuff, have a dedicated circuit or two for the server(s) and network equipment with adequate UPS protection. Make sure the room is adequately ventialated and physically secure. Make sure you have room to grow, so when you need more equipment you have room for it or can easily make room for it.