Sunday, October 21, 2012

Basics of Network Administration


This article is based on few other articles in the below URL's:


OSI Model:

Open System Interconnect Model (OSI Model) is a way of sub-dividing a communication system into smaller parts called layers. A set of similar functions are grouped into a layer.  A layer provides service to upper layer while requesting from the lower layer. OSI Model is an effort for Standardization by OSI Organization.

Host Layer
Data
7. Application
Network Process to Application


6. Presentation
Data Representation, encryption and decryption, convert machine dependent code to machine independent code.


5. Session
Inter-host Communication
Media Layers
Segments
4. Transport
End-to-end connections and reliability, flow control

Packet/Datagram
3. Network
Path Determination and Logical addressing.

Frame
2. Data Link
Physical Addressing

Bit
1. Physical
Media, Signal and Binary Transmission

TCP/IP Introduction:

In mid 1970, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) became interested in developing packet-switched communication between research institutes in USA. The result of this is the Internet Protocol Suite (IP Suite) of which TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and IP (Internet Protocol) are best known.

The most wide spread implementation is IPV4. Though much development has been done for IPV6, there are no wide scale implementations done for the same.

Internet Protocols:

Internet protocols are used between interconnected networks (LAN & WAN).  Following is an illustration of the OSI reference model with list of Internet Protocol Suite protocol mappings.



Network Layer:

IP is the primary Layer 3 protocol in the TCP/IP suite which provides logical addressing for communication across. IP also provides fragmentation and reassembly of datagrams along with error handling.

Addressing:

An IP address is 32 bits in length, which is divided into two or three parts. First part is the network address, second part is (if present) designates subnet network, and third part is related to Host.

Class A: 0 to 127
Mask: 255.0.0.0

Class B: 128 to 191
Mask: 255.255.0.0

Class C: 192 to 2223 small network
Mask: 255.255.255.0

Class D: 224  to 239
Class E: 240 to 255

ARP (Address Resolution Protocol):

Is a network layer protocol which associates the physical address to a  IP (Logical) address. Now an ARP creates a table known as ARP table that maps the IP address to hardware address.

ICMP:

ICMP performs number of tasks within an IP network, principal task to report back the failures to the source datagram. It provides services like " Echo, reply, redirect,.."

The Transport Layer:

The Internet transport layer is implemented by TCP (Transport Control Protocol) and UDP ( User Datagram Protocol). TCP is connection oriented and UDP is connectionless protocol.

TCP :

TCP provides full duplex, acknowledged, and flow controlled service to upper layer protocols.

UDP:

UDP  is much simpler than TCP and is useful in situations where reliability mechanism is not necessary.

Upper Layer Protocols:

The Internet Protocol suite includes many upper layer protocols representing wide variety applications, including network management, mail, distributed file services, terminal emulations:

Application
Protocols
WWW browser
HTTP (TCP port 80)
HTTPS (TCP Port 443)
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is used by Web browsers and servers to transfer the files that make up web pages.

File transfer
FTP (TCP ports 20 and 21)
The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) provides a way to move files between computer systems. Telnet allows virtual terminal emulation.

Terminal emulation
Telnet (TCP port 23)
The Telnet protocol provides terminal emulation services over a reliable TCP stream. The Telnet protocol also specifies how a client and server should negotiate the use of certain features and options.

Electronic mail
SMTP (TCP port 25), POP3 (TCP port 110), IMAP4 (TCP port 143)
The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is used to transfer electronic mail between mail servers, and is used by mail clients to send mail. Mail clients do not generally use SMTP to receive mail. Instead, they use either the Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) or the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP); this will be discussed in greater detail later in this chapter.

Network management
SNMP (UDP port 161)
The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is a network management protocol used for reporting anomalous network conditions and setting network threshold values.

Distributed file services
NFS, XDR, RPC (UDP port 111), X Windows (UDP ports 6000-6063)
X Windows is a popular protocol that permits intelligent terminals to communicate with remote computers as if they were directly attached. Network file system (NFS), external data representation (XDR), and remote-procedure call (RPC) combine to allow transparent access to remote network resources.



Additional important Ports: NNTP 119, LDAP 389, DNS 53, DHCP 67

General IP Troubleshooting Suggestions:

Because TCP/IP does not store the path information in its packets, it is possible to have working path for packet from the source to destination, but not have working path in the opposite direction (Vice versa). We might have to perform the troubleshooting from both source and destination to determine the issue:

PING stands for Packet Internet Gopher, is based on the ICMP protocol. It sends packets to the destination and if reply is received only if there is a proper communication.


Start with PING < IP>, PING <Hostname>

  1. If PING <IP> fails, then we have work further on troubleshooting the local connectivity issues.
  2. If PING <Address/Hostname> fails, then we have to work further on Domain Name Server problems.
  3. If PING <IP> and PING <address> are successful then the issue might be with Upper layer protocols.


Local Connectivity Issues:

Check for Configuration Problems:

Check Hostname command: One point worth mentioning is that the hostname utility is not tied into the operation of DNS or other formal mechanisms for identifying a host. It simply displays what the administrator has set it to show.
Hostname will return fully qualified name and hostname -s will return only local name.

Based on your OS you can issue IPCONFIG / IFCONFIG to print the configuration details. Examine the details carefully.

If you see the IP Address as empty you have to check the whether node receives IP address from DHCP or BOOTP. Try configuring using a static IP.

ISOLATE issue with Duplicate IP: Disconnect the device and ping the IP, if it is successful then there is another device with the same IP.

Check Physical Cable and NIC:

NIC will usually have the Tx and Rx lights to indicate they are functional. Check whether appropriate cable is used etc.

Network Connectivity :

Traceroute is a route utility, very useful to be able to check the specific route taken by data between two devices.

Tracert/traceroute/traceroute6

Netstat program is very simple in concept, to show information about the operation of TCP/IP device.

Troubleshooting Domain Name Server Problems:

It is possible that IP Connectivity works but DNS name resolution fails. The above command is successful if the IP address is displayed.

Nslookup  <fully.qualified.domain>

Upper Layer Protocol Connectivity:

To troubleshoot an upper-layer connectivity issues, you should understand how it works.

What Protocol does the application use? (TCP, UDP, ICMP ..)
What TCP/UDP Port does it?
Move the client outside of the firewall or address translation device.
Capture network trace at the clients LAN and compare with the trace.

TCP/IP Configuration Utilities (ipconfig, winipcfg and ifconfig)
TCP/IP Host Name Utility (hostname)
TCP/IP Network Status Utility (netstat)
TCP/IP Communication Verification Utility (ping/ping6)
TCP/IP Route Tracing Utility (traceroute/tracert/traceroute6)
TCP/IP DNS Name Resolution and Information Lookup Utilities (nslookup, host and dig)
TCP/IP Address Resolution Protocol Utility (arp)

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