High Availability Networking with Cisco

By Vincent C. Jones

Keeping a network continuously available despite the many potential hazards that can shut it down is a job that network implementors and technical managers struggle with every day. High Availability... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0201704552
• ISBN13: 9780201704556
• Release Date: December 2000
• Publisher: Addison Wesley Longman
• Length: 664 Pages
• Weight: 2.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Essential for 24x7 infrastructure strategies

This book is an important addition to the body of knowledge of high availability in general and network availability in particular. Do not let the title mislead you, this book is not about high availability for Cisco - it uses that product family for examples. The information provided in this excellent book can be effectively applied to any vendor-specific or multi-vendor network architecture. I am not going to rehash the table of contents or the lengthly editorial review - I am going to jump into why I like this book and what I think makes it so valuable.First, no 24x7 system is a true highly available information resource unless you can access it. Try as I may, I cannot think of a single company that does not employ a network as the base infrastructure for their information systems. This book provides information necessary to create a foundation for high-availability and 24x7 operations.Second, the book is a catalog of high availability designs that will fit within any network architecture, regardless of complexity, products used or geographical scope. No matter what your network currently looks like you will find out what it takes to transform it into a reliable, resilient 24x7 network. The author has provided a design strategy for every conceivable situation and network configuration, and thoroughly discusses the underlying technical issues. This is where the "Cisco" part of the title comes in - he uses that particular product family as examples for achieving high availability designs for each scenario.Third, the disaster recovery section in the book is well thought out and shows that the author has a lot of knowledge and experience in business continuity planning and disaster recovery. This section alone is worth the price of the book. This book is, in my opinion, essential reading for network architects, consultants and integrators, and operations managers who are seeking a total solution to high-availability solutions. What I would love to see is a follow-on book that provides the design information reformatted as design patterns. This would be an invaluable resource for experienced network architects and consultants.

Tackles the Tough Topics

This book is a fantastic, practical, detailed, readable reference for a huge range of very important networking topics relating to increasing the up-time of networks. It gives sample configurations for Cisco routers (with some reference to Bay/Nortel routers as well) in many environments (ISP connection, firewall, hub-and-spoke architecture, load-sharing, and so on), and provides supurb discussions of the decisions and trade-offs in the many ways of designing high-availablility networks. Difficult network problems, such as enabling backup data links for routers where the primary WAN interface fails "silently" (without a change in the interface status) are clearly addressed, with several detailed solutions presented, discussing the advantages, disadvantages and restrictions of each. There are none of those frustrating issues left for us to work out on our own, this is a tutorial book with all the answers, not a college textbook with questions. Redundant network components, including dual LAN adapters, LAN adapters with built-in dual ports, dual switches, routers with dual WAN interfaces, dual routers, dual DNS servers, dual firewalls, dual ISPs, and dual locations are all examined, showing what has to be done to actually get increased availability. Even though I likely won't be implementing these myself, I now know what I can ask of those who are configuring my routers, and I know how to look at network designs with a better knowledge about reliability and failure modes.

Network Design/Engineering - Must have !

Any network engineer who is responsible for designing, building and maintaining networks will find this book useful. The author shares valuable design scenarios applicable for any environment. There seems to be a shortage of quality network engineering books covering proper network design. THIS BOOK CLOSES THE GAP!

High Availability Networking

Outstanding! This book details all the aspects of HA design. No handwaving here, discussions include tradeoffs, gotchas, and alternatives for resilent infrastructure, complete with working examples and explanations. A great cookbook that's a must-have.

From the Author

I wrote this book for professionals who are already skilled in network design and looking for a thorough analysis of what it takes to step up to a higher level of availability. It details the many different ways a network can fail and what you can, and can't, do about each. As you can see from the table of contents, the coverage ranges from calculating what your network availability currently is to the critical role of network management.Along the way, I discuss such topics as supporting hosts with multiple interfaces, LANs with multiple routers, dial backup in nontrivial topologies, Internet connectivity, redundant firewalls, IBM SNA with DLSw, and more. But I don't limit the discussion to theory and handwaving. Example implementations with functional Cisco router configurations show how the theory can be mapped into working solutions, along with some of the techniques which must be used to get around the limitations of real-world products.