There are lots of posts on "how do I do something for my
customer/organization," which, as such, are not the focus of this
list. I propose we try to get them much more into the spirit of the
list.
The Cisco design methodology is a good place to start. True, someone
with years of design experience knows when to break the rules.
Indeed, my recommended basic methodology isn't exactly the Cisco
sequence, although very close.
I am far more willing to respond to a "how do I do this" query when
someone systematically puts out how they have approached the subject,
and where they are stuck. Believe me, this will help you learn.
Also, it is an art to identify where you are stuck.
In my approach, the basic steps are:
1. Define business requirements, security policy, budget, and
executive perceptions of what is important.
2. Inventory the applications. Where are the clients and servers?
What OS are they running? What do you know about application traffic
patterns? Is there a service level agreement? What problems are
perceived by the users? If possible, take benchmarks.
3a) Define a naming strategy and assign hosts to it.
b) Define an IP addressing strategy, considering physical location, size
of broadcast domains, needs for public address space, etc. Do NOT
get stuck in allocating class A/B/C spaces; the world, outside the
CCNA, is classless. If there is a network in place, take a baseline.
c) Consider the layer 2 addressing scheme. Are there any needs for locally
administered MAC addresses (e.g., SNA?) Do you know frame DLCIs, ATM
NSAPs, etc.? If there are facilities in place, take baselines.
d) Decide where you want to route and where you want to layer 2 switch.
4) Select the networking product features you need. Don't limit yourself
to router/switch software alone if you have any control over the entire
environment; it's often better to do things in application hosts or
network management servers than to force everything into a router.
5) Select the hardware and media you will need to support the features
and network. It's very likely you will bounce back and forth between
steps 4 and 5, trading off hardware and media bandwidth against
software.
6) Verify you have coherent migration, management, and benchmarking
plans and tools.
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