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Subject: | RE: [nv-l] NetView and DNS -- you using it? (was Re: RES: [nv-l] /etc/hosts) |
From: | "Barr, Scott" <Scott_Barr@csgsystems.com> |
Date: | Tue, 18 Feb 2003 13:11:35 -0600 |
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Thread-topic: | [nv-l] NetView and DNS -- you using it? (was Re: RES: [nv-l] /etc/hosts) |
Okay,
it's not a strict requirement. HOWEVER, let's discuss for a moment the impact of
NOT having one.
First
of all, if you have a small environment (all your devices in one building for
instance, maybe 100 nodes) You certainly could get by without DNS. No question
there. But once your environment is beyond the "let's go look at the box"
proximity range, you must rely on others to tell you about new devices. If the
device address changes, they must inform you. If you use a strict seed file
discovery, then DNS isn't a real necessity but if you use ANY wildcard in your
seedfile, you are in essence saying I want to know about all the devices in
these subnets. Assuming you want to know about these devices, and assuming your
discovery loads up a segment with 20-30-40 nodes, they will be nothing but green
boxes. You won't know the owner, the purpose, or the type of device. HOWEVER,
this can all be avoided if you use DNS, because when people put a new device on
the floor, according to network management standards (you DO have a standards
doc RIGHT?) they need to notify the DNS administrator of a new box. If they have
notified the DNS guy, and you have discovered the box, and your naming
convention is suitable, you will know what the device is and a good idea of who
owns it even if you do not have SNMP access to the device. For instance, a
device showing up on a subnet called branch1-router is a helluva lot more
informative than 10.1.1.1 green box. If other boxes on the segment are labled
ntserver-email and ntserver-dhcp and ntserver-wins then you know the function of
the devices on the network (email dhcp and wins). You know the operating system
and function of the device and that will enable you to pin down the owner of the
device for any further questions about it.
Why
would you want to use wildcard discovery? Well that's easy. I recently updated
my seed file to include 1.3.6.1.4.1.42.* (Solaris). Low and behold when I ran
discovery we found a box that had two interfaces, one in a DMZ, the other in a
development network totally bypassing our firewall. If the box did not have a
name in DNS, I would have spent countless hours trying to figure out what it
was. The fact that they had it in DNS and it had a Solaris type name on it, led
me to the administrator of the box who promplty apologized profusely for
bypassing all company security guidelines.
The
point is, DNS is a BENEFIT to your company. It helps with discovery, it helps
with security and if the names are adminstered by someone else, it makes your
job easier. One guy maintains the DNS and everybody in your company will have to
go to him to advise him of new boxes or removed boxes.
And
don't start with this stuff about "our organization doesn't work like that...."
or "politics prevents us from using it...." These are issues that are founded
solely on lack of management support for systems/event management. Make them set
standards. Make them live by standards. I've worked a long time for some of the
biggest bureaucratic corporations, and they found it easier to deploy DNS than
deal with me. Go fight the good fight. I'll get off my soap box now. Go spend the
50 cents and get DNS. This is 2003 for goodness
sake.
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