Networking Articles

Article / Updated 01-04-2023

In this article you will learn: What enterprise automation is Why you should implement enterprise automation How enterprise automation will impact businesses in the future What Is Enterprise Automation? Enterprise automation increases efficiency by replacing repetitive, manual, and error-prone business processes with intelligent, automated, and more reliable workflows. Enterprise automation is an ongoing and strategic driver of the digital business landscape that seamlessly connects data, applications, and services with people and their organizations. With enterprise automation, companies remove bottlenecks, improve and accelerate the flow of data, empower IT resources with better productivity, and give non-IT business groups the ability to easily self-serve their data needs – across their enterprise. Why Enterprise Automation? Think about the IT and organizational challenges you face today. You’re experiencing poor agility in certain areas. Meanwhile, the rapid pace of business requires digitalization, cloud adoption, and quick responsiveness. This situation is exactly what you want to aspire to; however, your business processes are sluggish and suffering where data silos persist. Collaboration between teams is more difficult than it should be. Not only is business moving quickly, but the pace of innovation is increasing as well. Your project leaders, your customers, your internal business partners, and your employee expectations are ever increasing. This forces your organization to be more innovative and try new things as you seek to become faster and more efficient. Competitors in your landscape aren’t sitting still. You need to leverage and exploit all the data you can across your enterprise — operational systems, functional applications, and multiple channels of data. All must be harnessed to survive, thrive, and excel in a competitive landscape and to take corporate intelligence to the next level. You recognize that to be agile and responsive, and to achieve these aspirations, you need solutions to be agile and responsive and capable of connecting your entire enterprise, end-to-end. That is what enterprise automation is all about and the inspiration behind Enterprise Automation For Dummies, sponsored by SnapLogic. The Future Is Enterprise Automation Enterprise automation done well uniquely combines data integration, app-to-app integration, and API development and management for API-led integrations and delivery of data services. And, it doesn’t have to be complicated. Easy-to-use, event-driven platforms, augmented with graphical (low-code and no-code) user interfaces and AI-assistance, enables you to get up and running sooner to remove manual burdens and automate business processes. To learn more, download Enterprise Automation For Dummies to gain knowledge of integration principles and pick up insights on how to automate and orchestrate data across your enterprise and empower people. Enterprise Automation For Dummies includes case studies with summaries and achieved success metrics. Download Enterprise Automation For Dummies today and chart your future.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 12-12-2022

The best approach to working with Microsoft Azure can be summarized in three words: “always be learning.” The Azure product development teams release new features every workday, so if you aren’t actively working to stay current, you’ll fall behind, and your career will suffer. This Cheat Sheet offers some essential ingredients in Azure automation. Remember that the Azure portal is all well and good until you’re tasked with deploying 50 virtual machines!

Article / Updated 11-07-2022

Active Directory is part of a storage structure you design that provides organization of objects — like users, computers, groups, and an assortment of other objects — in your IT environment. Before you can implement Active Directory, you have to do some planning. Be sure to complete the following steps before creating domains and organizational units (OUs): Using the DNS namespace, identify and name the root domain. Determine whether a tree or a forest is appropriate for your organization. Determine whether you need additional domains. Consult your requirements and environment to decide which domain model is best for your needs and to decide whether you need additional child domains. Analyze business models and processes to determine which OU model is best for your needs. Determine who will administer each OU and the administrative rights they'll need. Delegate the administrative privileges that the OU administrators need. Diagram the logical Active Directory structure.

Article / Updated 11-07-2022

Active Directory uses a multiple-master model, and usually, domain controllers (DCs) are equal with each other in reading and writing directory information. However, certain roles cannot be distributed across all the DCs, meaning that changes can't take place on more than one domain controller at a time. Some domain controllers, therefore, do assume a single-master operations role — known as operations masters in Active Directory. The five categories of operations master roles are: Schema master (one per forest): Maintains the master copy of the schema. PDC emulator (one per domain): Emulates a primary domain controller for backward compatibility with Windows NT. Domain naming master (one per forest): Tracks object names throughout a forest to ensure that they're unique. Also tracks cross-references to objects in other directories. Infrastructure master (one per domain): Tracks object references among domains and maintains a list of deleted child objects. Relative identifier (RID) master (one per domain): Tracks the assignment of SIDs (security identifiers) throughout the domain. Usually, the first domain controller that you create in the first domain assumes the operations master roles. You can assign these roles to other domain controllers in the domain or forest, but only one domain controller at a time can hold each operation's master role.

Article / Updated 11-07-2022

A resource record is the basic data component in the Domain Name Service (DNS). DNS resource records define not only names and IP addresses but domains, servers, zone, and services as well. This list shows you the most common types of resource records: Type Purpose A Address resource records match an IP address to a host name. CNAME Canonical name resource records associate a nickname to a host name. MX Mail exchange resource records identify mail servers for the specified domain. NS Name server resource records identify servers (other than the SOA server) that contain zone information files. PTR Pointer resource records match a host name to a given IP address. This is the opposite of an Address record, which matches an IP address to the supplied host name. SOA Start of authority resource records specify which server contains the zone file for a domain. SRV Service resource records identify servers that provide special services to the domain.

Article / Updated 11-07-2022

Before you arrange and use Active Directory, you need to install the operating system Windows Server 2008. Start by making certain the hardware you plan to use as domain controllers is able to run the operating system. This list shows you the minimum and recommended hardware levels for Windows Server 2008: Component Requirement Processor 1 GHz (x86 CPU) or 1.4 GHz (x64 CPU) Memory 512MB required; 2GB or higher recommended. Hard Disk 10 GB required. 40 GB or more recommended. Video Super VGA or higher video card and monitor. Hardware Must be on the Windows 2008 Hardware Compatibility List.

Article / Updated 11-07-2022

The range of Active Directory (AD) has expanded in Windows Server 2008 and has become an essential part of many information technology (IT) environments. Active Directory has become an umbrella for a multitude of technologies surpassing what AD was in Windows Server 2000 and 2003. Check out the new uses for Active Directory: Active Directory Domain Services: An X.500-based directory service that provides integrated authentication and authorization services for a Windows computing environment. Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services: A stripped down version of Active Directory Domain Services that focuses on providing just the directory services functionality. Active Directory Federation Services: A Web Services–based technology for providing Web single sign-on authentication services between different organizations. Active Directory Certificate Services: Provides digital certification enrollment and revocation services in the support of a public key infrastructure (PKI). Active Directory Rights Management Services: Provides a solution for managing how users can use documents that they're authorized to access.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 11-07-2022

Whether you're new to Active Directory (AD) or just need a refresher, it'll help you enhance your information technology (IT) environment if you understand how Active Directory has expanded in the Windows 2008 Server, the tasks of the domain controllers, necessary steps to design the logical side of Active Directory, the standard resource records used in the Domain Name Service (DNS), and the hardware required to run the Windows 2008 Server.

Step by Step / Updated 09-30-2022

Amazon does provide the means for using many of its Amazon Web Services (AWS) for free. However, as you look through the list of services, you see that the some expire, others don't. In addition, some have limits and others don't. Those that do have limits don't have the same limits, so you need to watch usage carefully. It's really quite confusing.

Article / Updated 09-30-2022

As a network administrator, the Internet is your best friend for networking resources, solutions, news, and guidance. Here are some websites for you to visit often. To register domains: InterNIC Network Solutions register.com To check your TCP/IP configuration: DNSstuff To see if your email server has been blocklisted: DNSBL.info To stay current in the industry, try these standards organizations: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers International Organization for Standardization Internet Engineering Task Force Internet Society