Workshop

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Part IV
In the Trenches
Hour
16 “Beauty is Consistency Deep”: Saving Yourself Trouble
17 Where Do I Start?
18 “Lots of Different People in Your Neighborhood”: In-Depth Application Troubleshooting
19 Internet/Intranet Troubleshooting
20 “Network Troubleshooters Just Wanna Have Fun”
21 “Tell Me About Your Network”: Network Analyzers
22 “Who Watches The Watchmen?”: Network Management Tools
23 “The Network is Slow!”: Getting a Definitive Answer to a Subjective Question
24 Reverse-Engineering Somebody Else’s Network
Hour 16
Beauty Is Consistency Deep: Saving Yourself
Trouble
Network components that are configured consistently—identically, when possible—are a godsend to
busy network troubleshooters. In particular, I’ll discuss three techniques in this hour that will help you
build and maintain as consistent (homogenous in geek speak) a network as possible:
• Manual consistency methods (which rely mostly on personal organization skills combined with
the exploitation of operating system features)
• Hard drive duplication (cloning)
• The use of newer, automated deployment tools
Apart from the obvious benefits of planning once and deploying many times, these consistency
techniques are going to make your troubleshooting life a lot less complex.
In addition, here are four network components that, if kept standardized, can contribute to an easy life as
a troubleshooter:
• Hard drive configuration