Systems and Network Infrastructure Integration

IT infrastructures are now essential in all areas and sectors of human activity; they are the cornerstone of any information system. Thus, it is clear that the greatest of care must be given to their design, implementation, security and supervision in order to ensure optimum functionality and better performance. Within this context, Systems and Network Infrastructure Integration presents the methodological and theoretical principles necessary to successfully carry out an integration project for network and systems infrastructures. This book is aimed at anyone interested in the field of networks in general. In particular, it is intended for students of fields relating to networks and computer systems who are called upon to integrate their knowledge and skills, gained throughout their academic study, into a comprehensive project to set up a complete infrastructure, while respecting the necessary specifications.

SAIDA HELALI is a university lecturer in Information Technology (specializing in networks and information systems) at the Institut Supérieur des Etudes Technologiques de Radès (Tunisia). He holds an ACREDITE master's degree (Analysis, Conception and Research in the Domain of Educational Technology Engineering), which was jointly awarded by the Université de Cergy-Pontoise (France), the Université de MONS (Belgium) and the Université de Genève (Switzerland). In 2017, he was chair of the Tunisian branch of the IEEE Education Society and he is also an acting member of AIPU TUNISIE, an international association about university pedagogy.

Preface ix

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION TO PROJECT MANAGEMENT 1

1.1. Introduction 1

1.2. Project management 2

1.3. Project management methods and tools 3

1.3.1. Gantt diagram 5

1.3.2. RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) matrix 5

1.3.3. The concept of specifications 6

1.4. Chapter summary 8

CHAPTER 2. SIMULATING NETWORK ARCHITECTURES WITH GNS3 9

2.1. Introduction 9

2.2. Definition 10

2.3. Introduction to GNS3 11

2.3.1. Functionalities of GNS3 12

2.3.2. Limitations 12

2.3.3. GNS3 installation 12

2.3.4. Getting started with GNS3 13

2.4. Chapter summary 25

CHAPTER 3. GREEN IT 27

3.1. Introduction 27

3.2. Introduction of concept 28

3.3. Green IT trigger factors 29

3.4. Benefits of Green IT 29

3.5. The lifecycle of ICTs 30

3.6. Mechanisms and technical solutions for the implementation of a Green IT infrastructure 31

3.7. Green IT labels and standards 33

3.8. Some examples of Eco-ICTs 34

3.9. Chapter summary 36

CHAPTER 4. DESIGN OF NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURES 37

4.1. Introduction 37

4.2. The founding principles of networks 38

4.2.1. Definition and preliminaries 38

4.2.2. Classification of digital data networks 39

4.2.3. Components of a network 40

4.2.4. Measuring network performance 45

4.2.5. Concepts of collision domain/broadcast domain and VLANs 47

4.3. Methods and models of IT network design 48

4.3.1. Principles of structured engineering 48

4.4. Assessment of needs and choice of equipment 54

4.5. Chapter summary 56

CHAPTER 5. NETWORK SERVICES 57

5.1. Introduction 57

5.2. DHCP service 58

5.2.1. Introduction 58

5.2.2. Operating principle 58

5.2.3. Renewal of lease 62

5.2.4. The concept of a DHCP relay 62

5.3. DNS service 63

5.3.1. Introduction 63

5.3.2. Operating principle 63

5.4. LDAP service 66

5.4.1. Introduction 66

5.4.2. LDAP protocol 67

5.4.3. LDAP directory 68

5.5. E-mail service 70

5.5.1. Introduction 70

5.5.2. Architecture and operating principle. 71

5.5.3. Protocols involved 72

5.6. Web server 73

5.6.1. Introduction 73

5.6.2. Operating principle 73

5.6.3. The principle of virtual hosting 74

5.7. FTP file transfer service 76

5.7.1. Definition 76

5.7.2. Operating principle 77

5.7.3. Types 77

5.8. Chapter summary 78

CHAPTER 6. SYSTEM AND NETWORK SECURITY 79

6.1. Introduction 79

6.2. Definitions, challenges and basic concepts 80

6.3. Threats/attacks 82

6.3.1. Access attacks 82

6.3.2. Modification attacks 83

6.3.3. Saturation attacks 83

6.3.4. Repudiation attacks 83

6.4. Security mechanisms 83

6.4.1. Encryption tools 84

6.4.2. Antivirus programs 84

6.4.3. Firewalls/IDS and IPS 84

6.4.4. VPNs 86

6.4.5. Other means of security 89

6.5. Security management systems: norms and security policies 91

6.5.1. Norms 91

6.5.2. The idea of security policy 92

6.6. Chapter summary 93

CHAPTER 7. VIRTUALIZATION AND CLOUD COMPUTING 95

7.1. Introduction 95

7.2. Virtualization 96

7.2.1. Definition 96

7.2.2. Benefits of virtualization 96

7.2.3. Areas of application 97

7.2.4. Categories of virtualization 100

7.2.5. Limits of virtualization 103

7.3. Cloud computing 103

7.3.1. Definitions 103

7.3.2. Leverage factors and generic principles 104

7.3.3. Architecture models 104

7.3.4. Types of cloud 107

7.3.5. Areas of application 109

7.3.6. Advantages and limitations 110

7.4. Chapter summary 111

CHAPTER 8. QUALITY OF SERVICE AND HIGH AVAILABILITY 113

8.1. Introduction 113

8.2. Quality of service 114

8.2.1. Motivation 114

8.2.2. Definition(s) 115

8.2.3. Objectives of QoS 116

8.2.4. Metrics of QoS 117

8.2.5. General principles of QoS 118

8.2.6. QoS mechanisms 120

8.3. High availability 141

8.3.1. Redundancy in the physical layer 143

8.3.2. Redundancy in the data link layer 143

8.3.3. Redundancy in the network layer 149

8.3.4. Redundancy in the application layer 154

8.4. Chapter summary 156

CHAPTER 9. MONITORING SYSTEMS AND NETWORKS 157

9.1. Introduction 157

9.2. Main concepts of network and service supervision 158

9.2.1. Definition 158

9.2.2. Challenges of monitoring 158

9.2.3. Typology 159

9.3. Monitoring protocols 161

9.3.1. SNMP protocol (Simple Network Management Protocol) 161

9.3.2. WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) 164

9.3.3. WS-Management (Web Services for Management) 164

9.3.4. IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) 164

9.3.5. NetFlow/IPFIX 165

9.3.6. Netconf 165

9.4. Monitoring tools 165

9.4.1. Commercial monitoring solutions (HP OpenView, Tivoli) and software publisher solutions 166

9.4.2. Free monitoring solutions 167

9.5. Chapter summary 171

References 173

Index 179