NIC Teaming Preparation Items

Preparation Items
NOTE: This is a critical preparation work in order for the NIC Teaming to be successful. DO NOT proceed to any NIC Teaming if any of the below 3 pre-requisites are satisfied.

1. Ensure that Local Admin Account password is obtained and verified on each server. It is a contingency plan against failure to logon to domain due to NIC configuration error.	_____
2. Capture all server current IP configurations before the change.	_____
3. Ensure that the Secondary NIC to be teamed is switch-enabled and functional. Things to check: network cable need to be plugged in, switch port need to be activated and NIC interface need to be enabled.	_____

Adding and configuring NICs in a team
      Before a NIC is teamed, verify the following: The NICs must be DHCP enabled and the DNS server address must be left blank.
NOTE: The teaming utility becomes unstable if static IP addresses, subnets, and DNS addresses are set before teaming.

1.Duplex and speed settings must be set to use the default values (Auto)	_____
2.Open the HP Network Teaming utility. Highlight the NICs to team. Click Team.	_____
3.The Team Properties dialog box appears. Select one of the following methods: · If you will be using Fault Tolerant NIC teaming, select Fault Tolerant. Under Redundancy Control, select Smart Switch.	_____
4.Click OK to accept the team properties.	_____
5.Click OK in the HP Network Teaming and Configuration Properties dialog box to apply the changes.	_____
6.Click Yes when prompted to apply all configuration changes. Wait while the adapters are configured. This process could take several seconds.	_____
7.Click OK. An HP Load Balancing Team icon is now displayed in the HP Network Teaming and Configuration dialog box	_____
8.Click Yes to reboot now.	_____

Renaming the teamed connection
       The assigned name for the new NIC team connection is “Local Area Connection X,” where X represents the next available connection number generated by the system. HP recommends changing this name to a more meaningful name, such as “NIC Team.” To change the name of the connection:

1.From the desktop, right-click the My Network Places icon, and then click Properties.	_____
2.Move the cursor over each connection icon to view the pop up box of the icon’s name. Locate HP Network Teaming Virtual Miniport.	_____
3.Right-click the connection icon for HP Network Teaming Virtual Miniport, and then click Rename. Enter a name that is more descriptive than “Local Area Connection X,” such as “NIC Team.” For SQL server – to be maintained as PUBLIC For WFE – to be named as PUBLIC	_____

Configuring the TCP/IP protocol on the new team
      After teaming the NICs, a new virtual network adapter for the team is automatically created. However, by default, the new adapter is set to DHCP. To manually configure the IP address, perform the following steps. To enter the TCP/IP address information for the team:

1.From the desktop, go to the Network and Dial up Connections window, and then click Properties. Right-click the NIC Team icon, and then select Properties.	_____
2. Use the arrows and the scroll bar on the right of the screen to scroll through the Components list.	_____
3. Click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and then click Properties. NOTE: If a NIC is teamed, do not modify the TCP/IP settings for the individual NIC ports.	_____
4.Repopulate the following IP address information on the General tab for: IP address Subnet mask Default gateway Preferred DNS server Alternate DNS server	_____
5.Click Advanced.	_____
6.Click the DNS tab and uncheck the Register this connection’s addresses in DNS checkbox.	_____
7.Click the WINS tab and type the primary and secondary WINS server addresses in order of use.	_____
8.Close the windows and Exit.	_____
9.If you receive this warning message, Multiple default gateways are intended to provide redundancy to a single network …Do you want to save this configuration?, then click Yes.	_____
10.Click OK. The Ethernet Team should be working.	_____

Checking the status of the NIC team
      This is the post NIC Teaming implementation check items.

1.To check the status of the Ethernet Team, open the HP Network Teaming utility. The Configuration Properties window is displayed, showing the teamed NICs.	_____
2.To verify that the NIC Teaming is functioning as expected, plug out one of the cable physically. The network connectivity should be un-interrupted.	_____

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Clean-up Tool (FindFile)

       Management of information stored on our network drives is important for many reasons but a major reason is cost control. By nature, our storage continues to grow and many users acknowledge that some stored information is old or has little value. These unneeded files can be either deleted or archived, resulting in significant reductions in business unit expense. A complete storage review can be time consuming but even a cursory review could easily result in significant annual savings. Below are three search methods that can use to reduce your network storage.

• Size - largest files first. You can significantly reduce your storage by identifying and eliminating only a few files.
• Date - oldest files. These files may no longer be needed.
• Type - Certain file types are known to be large in size such as BMP, JPG and MP3 files.

       FileFind is a tool that can help you with all three of these search methods. FileFind is an Excel spreadsheet with macros that assists in managing your disk storage. Below are instructions for using this tool. Should you have problems, please contact your local IT group.
Note: Secure and efficient storage of data is critical to our business. The data belongs to Company and, as a steward of portions of that data, the storage space on the servers is there for your use. However, it is expected that each user be accountable for their own data storage or that of their group.

       Company highly recommends that you not store business data on your C: drive. Data stored in this manner is not secure, is not backed up, is difficult to share, and in many cases conflicts with company information protection guidelines.


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Server Room Temperature Recommendation

       Server Room Temperature: Computer and networking equipment is designed to operate within a fairly narrow temperature range. To ensure reliable operation and the longest possible life from components you need to ensure that the temperature stays within that band.


       Even a few degrees too hot can blow a server chip.
       The cost of a catastrophic server failure can be considerable. Think how much money you would lose if your servers went down. There is the cost of replacement, but think also of lost e-commerce business, lost customer details, wasted staff time, and all the other associated costs.

What temperature is right?
       General recommendations suggest that you should not go below 10°C (50°F) or above

28°C (82°F). Although this seems a wide range these are the extremes and it is far more common to keep the ambient temperature around 20-21°C (68-71°F). For a variety of reasons this can sometimes be a tall order.
How do you maintain the right temperature?
       Purpose built server rooms are well insulated for fire precaution reasons and air conditioning is essential. In many companies however the maintenance of the air conditioning is separate from the running of the servers. If the air conditioning fails you might not be the first to know. You may even be the last.

       Even if everything is working the temperature may fluctuate during the day, from season to season, and there is always the possibility of localized hot-spots around equipment giving off lots of heat.

       Don’t be tempted to think that just because you have an air conditioning unit that is up to the job that you are safe. People working in the server room sometimes switch the air conditioning off and forget to turn it on again. Sometimes they leave doors open. Servers run hotter at some times of the day than at others, air conditioning systems sometimes run at lower power at night etc.

       What if it’s night time, your air conditioning is running at low power, and your webserver suddenly starts to work hard because the west coast has woken up? Now your machine heats up and your air conditioning can’t cool it enough. Exactly this scenario has been know to happen. Many intermittent faults and slow downs can be traced to overheating.

        Replacing old equipment can introduce a new set of problems. Newer machines run faster and often run hotter as well, increasing the burden on the air conditioning systems even more. If you’ve recently introduced new servers or modern switches, it might be time to examining your air conditioning unit to make sure it can still keep up.

       Another thing to look out for is the scenario where you turn up the air conditioning unit during the day, in order to ensure the right environment in your server room, but then don’t switch it down during the night or weekends. During the day there might be a lot of activity into and out of the server room. The server room door being opened all of the time lets warmer air into the server room thus necessitating the air conditioning system to be turned up high. At night and at the weekend, without the same level of activity, you may be running up large energy bills for no reason.

How are you going to monitor the temperature?
       You need to monitor the temperature in your server room all of the time, especially at night and weekends when nobody is around. A number of systems are available for this purpose, the Temperature Monitor range from OPENXTRA offer good products at reasonable prices. You need to measure temperatures at different points in the room to get an idea of where the hot spots might be. You need temperature measurement to be automated and reliable, so a network attached device is ideal. The device must support alarms, via a number of different methods like email or SMS. You should be able to set the system up and then be alerted when something is wrong.


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Benefits of Server Virtualization

       Server individualization is the concept of treating a physical server as multiple logical servers. How does that help? Let’s have a look.

       Virtual servers reduce your costs. Virtualization causes you to buy less hardware thereby saving you money. Also the operating costs are reduced with virtualization.

       Virtualization makes the servers stable and reduces downtimes considerably thereby making servers and the websites hosted on them available at all times. It ensures high availability and delivers prompt disaster recovery thereby offering you business continuity.

       Virtualization of servers lets you utilize the resources to the fullest. With automation and better utilization of available resources, virtualization increases the efficiency of the server. 

       In virtualization, a physical server is partitioned into multiple logicals and these logicals are independent of one another. As they don’t interfere with others, they promise increased security. This is the reason virtual private servers are often used as sandboxes or honeypots. 

       Another benefit of server virtualization is that it helps save space in your data centers as the number of physical servers is much less than the number of servers that are being used. 

      If we had to list them, what are the top benefits of server virtualization? Here's devided by categories: 

Financial benefits of server virtualization

• Reduction of HW maintenance costs 
• Reduction of LAN/SAN costs
• Reduction of floor spaces costs
• Reduction of power consumption costs

Intangible benefits of server virtualization

• Increased flexibility
• Increased availability
• Increased uptime
• Green IT
• Improved test processes
• Virtual labs
• Allow us to move to the cloud

       Have you experienced virtual servers yet? How has the experience been? Share us when and how you have used virtual servers.

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Benefits of Network Diagram

       A network diagram is essentially a flow chart that includes all of the project elements and how they relate to one another. It is widely used because it is easy to read and not only depicts the sequence of activities in the project, but also shows parallel activities and the links between each activity. Network logic is the collection of activity dependencies that make up a network diagram for a particular project. In other words, certain tasks are dependent on one another to complete the project. This creates a logical stream of events that will lead to completion of the project.


The network diagram lets know the following:

• It is easy to identify the problem that come from the workstation, LAN, WAN, server or application server.
• A network diagram gives a bird-eyes view of a system without having to go into technical details. If well done it will also show who is responsible for which parts.
• Helps us find our critical / non-critical activities. So if we know our critical activities we would like to allocate our critical people on the critical task and medium performing people on the non-critical activities. 
• This also helps us to identify which activities we can run in parallel, thus reducing the total project time.
• Finally, it gives the Project Manager and the team a point of contact; the person capable of creating the network diagram surely has a thorough understating of the system.

The following diagram shown the physical connectivity between the device:

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Batch File Commands - Network Self Test

Network Self test IT Services:
Run the script TestNetwork.CMD, you will see the following screen, which provide menu to test IT network services. perform a ping to a domain or application - this will help identify ... ping commands before the user contact your site admin

Menu 0: IP configuration: Provide overall network configuration detail on your PC.

• For Company (Thai), “Ipv4 Address” should begin with 192.160.xxx.xxx (where x represoen 0-9)

Menu 1: Test network connection to the file server.

• If you can ping to the file server, your O and P drive should be accessible. 
• If you see some “Request timed out.”, there might be a problem on the cable or port connected to the PC.
• If you see all “Request timed out.” but you got the IP address begin with 192.168 in “Menu 0”, the network route to the file server is unreachable.
• Time should be less than 10 ms

Menu 2: Test network connection to the Email (Exchange) server.

• If you can ping to the Email server, you should be able to send and receive email.
• If you see all “Request timed out.” but you got the IP address begin with 192.168 in “Menu 0”, the network route to the email server is unreachable. 
• Time should be less than 10 ms

Menu 3: Test Office Communicator (IM) Server in Singapore.

• If you can ping to the server, you should be able to login and use Office Communicator (chat program).
• If you see all “Request timed out.” but you got the IP address begin with 192.168 in “Menu 0”, the network route to the OC server is unreachable.
• Time vary because the server is in Singapore, however more than 500ms consider high response time. 

Menu 4: Test network connection to the SAP (PC8) Server.

• If you can ping to the PC8 server, you should be able to login and use SAP.
• If you see all “Request timed out.” but you got the IP address begin with 192.168 in “Menu 0”, the network route to the SAP server is unreachable.
• Time vary because the server is in Houston, however more than 1000ms consider high response time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SAMPLE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@echo off
:prompt
title Menu Slect to Auto Check IT Services                                                                by:BoYL@SeR 2011
color 1f
cls
echo.
echo    This is a private system operated for Company (Thailand) Company.
echo    Authorization from Chevron management is required to use this system.
echo    Use by unauthorized person is prohibited.
echo    WARNING: This computer system is accessed by authorized users outside
echo    of Chevron. All security and control procedures must be strictly followed.
echo ________________________________________________________________________________
echo                  Select Number to Auto Check the Internet Connection
echo ________________________________________________________________________________
echo                        0. IP configuration
echo                        1. Ping File Server (THFILESHARE)
echo                        2. Ping Mail Server (THMAILSERVER) 
echo                        3. Ping Office Communicator (SGCOMMUNICATION)
echo                        4. Ping SAP Server (PC8)
echo                        5. Exit
echo.
echo       Response Time Guideline:    Nomal             High
echo         1, 2 (local LAN)           1-10ms       more than 10ms
echo         3 (SG Ehub)              100-300ms      more than 300ms
echo         4 SAP                    300-500ms      more than 500ms
echo ________________________________________________________________________________
echo.
set /p answer=    Select 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 and press Enter
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 DOWNLOAD BAT FILE HERE ┌∩┐(◕_◕)┌∩┐

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