Best Practices for Network Configuration

Network configuration is a method of assigning network settings, flows, policies, and controls. It is done both in physical as well as a virtual network, but now mostly virtual network is being followed as the physical network devices have now been replaced by software which have removed manual configuration needs.

The network configuration has a significant role in supporting the traffic flow through a network and improving the security and stability of the network. There are numerous benefits that businesses can enjoy by using network configuration tools and management systems. The article will cover some essential tips for network configuration and their benefits.

Standard Configuration for Classification of Devices

Many network problems arise because of incorrect network configurations, which are generally overlooked. Minor network configuration mistakes may lead to a relatively higher loss; therefore, it is suggested to create a standard network configuration for the classification of each device, be it a router, WAN switch, LAN switch, or ATM switch.

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Issues related to network configuration can be fixed by focussing on network configuration management. It notifies the administrator about any configuration changes that are made to network devices do not contradict a pre-existing configuration rule set. It saves the businesses from major security leaks as unauthorized changes can prove harmful to the businesses. If you have standard network configuration and management, you will be allowed to trace what changes have been made by whom.

Maintain Configurations both previous and current.

Maintain the configuration that is running currently for all the devices and few versions that are previously running (minimum 3- 5 are suggested). Maintaining current and previous versions helps the administrator with troubleshooting tasks and allows a healthy comparison with the network administrators’ configurations.

CoverTel Telecommunications Group has been providing network configuration managers and tools in Australia for many years now. They are all qualified as per Australian Standards for Occupational Health & Safety, Environmental Management, and Quality Management.

Change Management rules to be defined.

It is essential for the administrators to monitor the changes made to network configuration, and it is possible to do this by using configuration management tools. There are convenient change management options where you can decide who will be notified as and when an unauthorized network configuration authorization is detected. You can select the notification to be sent to those responsible for change management because it also provides a roll-back option.

You can receive notifications via Email, SNMP Traps, or generating Trouble Tickets. You may use the function to notify the change management team whenever a change is detected in the running configuration, Startup configuration, or both. Put in simple words, define the change management rules as per your needs and network requirements.

Schedule and Automate Tasks

Administrators who have many devices carrying out various operations such as backup, upload, download, etc., may become monotonous if done manually. You can set the execution of any such tasks in the future timeline, including options that have to be performed regularly. You can schedule many tasks for future execution periodically or as a one-time run, such as configuration backup, compliance check for devices (Individual or group), report generation, and more.

The tasks that are related to backups of current network or startup configuration, etc., can be automated. It will reduce the time and labour put in if done manually and reduce the probability of errors. It has been seen that human errors and not power glitches mostly cause network outages.

Ensure that you test the program when automating the tasks, especially when doing it on a larger scale. Automating tasks will help you manage configuration changes covering all your devices and simplify any network compliance by placing unauthorized change detection, audit- configurations, etc.

Label the Configurations

It is natural for any network configurations to change depending on the need of the businesses and their services. Hence, it is important to use network configuration management as it will allow you to save all the previous network configurations you can even label them. As the number of configuration versions increases, it will be hard for you to remember each configuration; therefore, you can put a unique tag on each version and look for it accordingly as and when needed.

Role-based access control.

Network configurations have sensitive files that should not be open to everyone in the work environment to safeguard the usage of the product and information; therefore, it becomes essential to secure the network configuration and access role-wise only. You can use the network configuration manager to give role-based access to employees in three roles- Administrator, Operator, and Power User.

Final Words

Network configuration monitoring notifies the administrator of any potential threats, issues arising in the configuration due to unauthorized changes and allows you to correct the action by tracing the changes happening.