Network Administration

Technical College of Informatics-Akre

NIS. Department
Fourth Stage
2024-2025

Mohammed.G.Saeed
Introduction To Network Administration
Network administration aims to manage, monitor, maintain, secure, and service an organization’s network.
However, the specific tasks and procedures may vary depending on the size and type of an organization.
What does network administration consist of?
Network administration primarily consists of, but isn’t limited to, network monitoring, network management,
and maintaining network quality and security.

Network administration key areas

Networks administration consists of 5 key areas:
1) Fault management: Checks the network to find and fix problems that could impact its performance. It uses
common methods like Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to keep an eye on the network systems.
2) Configuration management : keeps track of the settings and changes made to network devices like
switches, firewalls, hubs, and routers. Unplanned changes can greatly impact the network and may lead to
downtime, so it's important to simplify, monitor, and control configuration changes.
3) Account management :records how much the network is used to bill and predict how much it is used in
different parts of a business. When the business is small, billing may not be important. Watching how it's used
can help you find patterns and places where things aren't working right.
4) Performance management is about keeping services running well for smooth processes. It gathers
different measurements and data to constantly check how well the network is performing, such as
reaction times, packet loss, and how much the links are being used.
5) Security management: Ensures that only approved actions and verified devices and people can
access the network. It uses different areas like managing threats, detecting intrusions, and managing
firewalls. It gathers and studies important network information to find and stop harmful or unwanted
actions.
Essential Skills for a Network
Administrator
Technical Skills: It's important to have a good
understanding of networking protocols like TCP/IP, as
well as gear and software.

Problem-Solving Skills: Administrators can fix

problems quickly and correctly if they know how to
solve them.

Communication Skills: It's important to communicate

clearly with both technical and non-technical people to
work well together.
A network is a collection of interconnected devices that can communicate and share resources, such as data
and applications.

Networking Concepts: LAN, WAN, MAN, WLAN

Types of networks:
Local Area Network (LAN),
Wide Area Network (WAN),
Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), and
Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN).
Understanding these concepts is crucial for
anyone involved in network administration or
IT.
1. Local Area Network (LAN)
Definition:
A LAN is a network that connects computers and devices
in a limited geographical area, such as a home, school, or
office building.
Features:
Geographical Scope: Limited to a small area (typically
within a building).
•Speed: High data transfer rates, often ranging from 100
Mbps to 10 Gbps.
•Ownership: Usually owned, controlled, and managed
by a single organization or individual.
•Technology: Common technologies include Ethernet
and Wi-Fi.
Examples:
•Office networks connecting computers, printers, and
servers.
•Home networks connecting personal devices like
laptops, smartphones, and smart TVs.
2. Wide Area Network (WAN)
Definition:
A WAN is a network that covers a broad area, potentially
spanning cities, countries, or even continents.
Features:
•Geographical Scope: Large distances, can connect multiple
LANs.
•Speed: Generally slower than LANs, with speeds varying
widely based on technology (from a few Kbps to several Gbps).
•Ownership: Often involves multiple organizations and may
use leased telecommunications lines.
•Technology: Technologies include MPLS, VPNs, and satellite
communications.
Examples:
•The Internet is the largest WAN, connecting millions of
networks globally.
•Corporate networks connecting branch offices in different cities
or countries.
3. Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
Definition:
A MAN is a network that covers a larger geographic area than a
LAN but is smaller than a WAN, typically spanning a city or a
large campus.
Features:
•Geographical Scope: Covers a city or a large campus.
•Speed: Generally faster than WANs but can vary; often
between LAN and WAN speeds.
•Ownership: Can be owned by a single organization or consist
of multiple organizations sharing resources.
•Technology: Common technologies include fiber optics and
leased lines.
Examples:
•A city-wide network providing internet access to multiple
institutions.
•A university campus network connecting various buildings and
facilities.
4. Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)
Definition:
A WLAN is a type of LAN that uses wireless communication to
connect devices within a limited area.
Features:
•Geographical Scope: Similar to LAN, but without physical
cables.
•Speed: Varies based on technology, typically ranging from 54
Mbps (802.11g) to several Gbps (Wi-Fi 6).
•Ownership: Usually owned and managed by a single
organization.
•Technology: Utilizes Wi-Fi standards, such as
802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax.
Examples:
•Coffee shops, libraries, and airports offering wireless internet
access.
•Home networks connecting smartphones, tablets, and laptops
without cables.
 Network Virtualization
Network virtualization is the
process of transforming network
functions into software and
disconnecting them from the
hardware they traditionally run on.

The software still consumes the

hardware’s resources, but is a
separate entity that can be changed,
moved, and segmented while the
hardware remains the same.
Network virtualization simplifies life for network administrators ? by making it easier to move
workloads, modify policies and applications, and avoid complex and time-consuming
reconfigurations when performing these tasks. In addition, customers and business people
need instant access to various content, services, and information.
Key Components of Network Virtualization
1.Virtual Network Interfaces (vNICs)
1. Just like physical network interface cards (NICs), virtual NICs are assigned to virtual
machines (VMs) or containers, enabling them to communicate over the network.
2.Virtual Switches (vSwitches)
1. Software-based switches that allow communication between virtual machines within the same
host or across different hosts.
2. Examples: VMware vSwitch, Open vSwitch (OVS), Cisco Nexus 1000V.
3.Virtual Routers and Firewalls
1. Software-defined routers and firewalls that enable routing and security policies within
virtualized networks.
2. Examples: VMware NSX, Cisco ACI, Palo Alto VM-Series.
4.Overlay Networks & Tunneling Protocols
1. Virtual networks often use encapsulation (e.g., VXLAN, GRE, or NVGRE) to create isolated
communication channels over a shared physical network.
2. VXLAN (Virtual Extensible LAN) is widely used to extend Layer 2 networks across data
centers.
simple network virtualization diagram. It includes VMs, a virtual switch, a router, a firewall, an overlay
network, and a physical network
Why Virtualization ?
• Each physical hardware for each server

• High Cost
• Power consumption
• Down Time of a server
• Machine Crashing
• High Infrastructure
• Less Utilization of resource
Server Administration
The process of managing and maintaining servers to ensure optimal performance, security, and
availability.
Server virtualization in general terms lets you take a
single physical device and install (and run at the
same time) two or more OS environments that are
potentially different and have different identities,
application stacks, and so on

Server virtualization is a technology for partitioning

one physical server into multiple virtual servers. Each
of these virtual servers can run its own operating
system and applications, and perform as if it is an
individual server.
Server Virtualization Types
There are three methods to virtualize the server:
1. Full virtualization (Hardware Emulation)
2. Para-virtualization
3. Operating System (OS) virtualization.
While all the three modes have one physical server acting as host and the virtual servers as guests,
each of the methods allocates server resources differently to the virtual space.

Full virtualization
➢ Full virtualization uses a special kind of software called a hypervisor.
➢ The hypervisor interacts directly with the physical server's CPU and disk space.
➢ It serves as a platform for the virtual servers' OSs.
➢ The hypervisor keeps each virtual server completely independent and unaware of the other virtual
servers running on the physical machine.
➢ Each guest server runs on its own OS .
Para virtualization
➢ The para-virtualization approach is a little different.
➢ Unlike the full virtualization technique, the guest servers in a para-virtualization system are aware
of one another.
➢ A para-virtualization hypervisor doesn't need as much processing power to manage the guest OSs,
because each OS is already aware of the demands the other Oss are placing on the physical server.
➢ The entire system works together as a team.
Operating System (OS) virtualization
➢ An OS-level virtualization approach
doesn't use a hypervisor at all.
➢ Instead, the virtualization capability is
part of the host OS, which performs all
the functions of a fully virtualized
hypervisor.
➢ The biggest limitation of this approach
is that all the guest servers must run the
same OS.
➢ Because all the guest operating systems
must be the same, this is called a
homogeneous environment.
Difference Between Server Administration & Network Administration
Feature Server Administration Network Administration
Installing and managing OS (Windows
Managing routers, switches, firewalls,
Key Responsibilities Server, Linux), configuring services (web,
VLANs, and wireless networks
database, email servers).
Ensuring server applications, storage, and Maintaining network integrity,
Primary Focus
computing resources are optimized. troubleshooting connectivity issues,
Active Directory, VMware, Hyper-V, IIS,
Cisco IOS, Wireshark, PRTG, Nagios,
Common Tools Apache, MySQL, PowerShell, Bash
pfSense, VLAN & VPN configurations.
scripting.
Security User authentication, firewall rules, system Network security, intrusion detection,
Management updates, configuring firewalls, encryption,
Setting up and maintaining mail servers, Configuring LAN/WAN, monitoring traffic,
Examples of Work
database servers, and cloud infrastructure. preventing cyber threats,
Focuses on computers/servers and Focuses on network devices and data
Simple Terms
software configurations. communication.
 Advantages Of Virtualization? Limitations Of Virtualization

1.Cheaper implementation
1. Performance
2. Business doesn’t stop

2. Complicate (More Complex)

3. Higher availability and uptime

4. Speedy installations 3. Not supported by all applications

5. Corporate directives (Company Standard)