0.2. Organization

There are 12 chapters and 2 appendixes in this book. The book begins with individual network hosts, discusses network connections next, and then considers networks as a whole.

It is unlikely that every chapter in the book will be of equal interest to you. The following outline will give you an overview of the book so you can select the chapters of greatest interest and either skim or skip over the rest.

Chapter 1, "Network Management and Troubleshooting"

This chapter attempts to describe network management and troubleshooting in an administrative context. It discusses the need for network analysis and probing tools, their appropriate and inappropriate uses, professionalism in general, documentation practices, and the economic ramifications of troubleshooting. If you are familiar with the general aspects of network administration, you may want to skip this chapter.

Chapter 2, "Host Configurations"

Chapter 2, "Host Configurations" is a review of tools and techniques used to configure or determine the configuration of a networked host. The primary focus is on built-in utilities. If you are well versed in Unix system administration, you can safely skip this chapter.

Chapter 3, "Connectivity Testing"

Chapter 3, "Connectivity Testing" describes tools and techniques to test basic point-to-point and end-to-end network connectivity. It begins with a brief discussion of cabling. A discussion of ping, ping variants, and problems with ping follows. Even if you are very familiar with ping, you may want to skim over the discussion of the ping variants.

Chapter 4, "Path Characteristics"

This chapter focuses on assessing the nature and quality of end-to-end connections. After a discussion of traceroute, a tool for decomposing a path into individual links, the primary focus is on tools that measure link performance. This chapter covers some lesser known tools, so even a seasoned network administrator may find a few useful tools and tricks.

Chapter 5, "Packet Capture"

This chapter describes tools and techniques for capturing traffic on a network, primarily tcpdump and ethereal, although a number of other utilities are briefly mentioned. Using this chapter requires the greatest understanding of Internet protocols. But, in my opinion, this is the most important chapter in the book. Skip it at your own risk.

Chapter 6, "Device Discovery and Mapping"

This chapter begins with a general discussion of management tools. It then focuses on a few tools, such as nmap and arpwatch, that are useful in piecing together information about a network. After a brief discussion of network management extensions provided for Perl and Tcl/Tk, it concludes with a discussion of route and network discovery using tkined.

Chapter 7, "Device Monitoring with SNMP"

Chapter 7, "Device Monitoring with SNMP" focuses on device monitoring. It begins with a brief review of SNMP. Next, a discussion of NET SNMP (formerly UCD SNMP) demonstrates the basics of SNMP. The chapter continues with a brief description of using scotty to collect SNMP information. Finally, it describes additional features of tkined, including network monitoring. In one sense, this chapter is a hands-on tutorial for using SNMP. If you are not familiar with SNMP, you will definitely want to read this chapter.

Chapter 8, "Performance Measurement Tools"

This chapter is concerned with monitoring and measuring network behavior over time. The stars of this chapter are ntop and mrtg. I also briefly describe using SNMP tools to retrieve RMON data. This chapter assumes that you have a thorough knowledge of SNMP. If you don't, go back and read Chapter 7, "Device Monitoring with SNMP".

Chapter 9, "Testing Connectivity Protocols"

This chapter describes several types of tools for examining the behavior of low-level connectivity protocols, protocols at the data link and network levels, including tools for custom packet generation and load testing. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of emulation and simulation tools. You probably will not use these tools frequently and can safely skim this chapter the first time through.

Chapter 10, "Application-Level Tools"

Chapter 10, "Application-Level Tools" looks at several of the more common application-level protocols and describes tools that may be useful when you are faced with a problem with one of these protocols. Unless you currently face an application-level problem, you can skim this chapter for now.

Chapter 11, "Miscellaneous Tools"

This chapter describes a number of different tools that are not really network troubleshooting or management tools but rather are tools that can ease your life as a network administrator. You'll want to read the sections in this chapter that discuss tools you aren't already familiar with.

Chapter 12, "Troubleshooting Strategies"

When dealing with a complex problem, no single tool is likely to meet all your needs. This last chapter attempts to show how the different tools can be used together to troubleshoot and analyze performance. No new tools are introduced in this chapter.

Arguably, this chapter should have come at the beginning of the book. I included it at the end so that I could name specific tools without too many forward references. If you are familiar with general troubleshooting techniques, you can safely skip this chapter. Alternately, if you need a quick review of troubleshooting techniques and don't mind references to tools you aren't familiar with, you might jump ahead to this chapter.

Appendix A, "Software Sources"

This appendix begins with a brief discussion of installing software and general software sources. This discussion is followed by an alphabetical listing of those tools mentioned in this book, with Internet addresses when feasible. Beware, many of the URLs in this section will be out of date by the time you read this. Nonetheless, these URLs will at least give you a starting point on where to begin looking.

Appendix B, "Resources and References"

This appendix begins with a discussion of different sources of information. Next, it discusses books by topic, followed by an alphabetical listing of those books mentioned in this book.

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