Hello everyone..
I have been a little lazy in posting on the Forum. But I have now a
couple of questions regarding the network design stuff. I know that this might not be
the right place to post, since antionline is a network security forum, not a network
design discussion forum (And since I'll always consider myself a newbie so I 'll post my
question here in Newbies Question :) ). But antionline has played such a massive role in
my learning, that I want to share these questions as well with antionline community.
People like MsMittens, Memory, HTRegz,The3ntropy, NullDevice, gore, Cybr1d and nihil
have been such a great source of learning and inspiration. Now wont make my text more
lengthy and boring, coming to the issue.
Scenario is that I have a gigabit backbone,and I have tologically divide it in three
sections. And everything has to be in a LAN, connected to each othr
i) MainFrame Apps
ii) Unix OS for scientific apps
iii) Novell Netware and Microsoft Windows hybrid environment for commercial
apps.
Well here goes the questions for network design.
1) I have to incorporate an IBM mainframe OS OS390 that is being used for legacy
customer applications (SAP, General Ledger accounting, etc.) Now many confusions.One
issue is that how would I interface an individual computer (running Windows/Linux) to
IBM mainframe. I have been able to figure out some controllers, but not clear with the
issue yet.Please let me know how can I interface computers (not dumb terminals) with
Mainframe. And how would I then interface all the traffic coming from the MainFrame to
my backbone of the network. Would there be something in-between main frame and
Gigabit backbone (any special switch or intermediary device).
2) Second issue is Remote storage and Manipulation of Applications in a Centralised
way. All applications used in-house and remotely are provided by and supported from
headquarters through the pvt. Network. Now this is replication and coherency issue. The
other region which would be manipulating applications and storing it in a centralised
way, would be countries apart but in the same continent. What solution should be
provided in order to have a centralised application servers, with clients in far away
countries. Another Confusion????
3) Third issue is to provide the travelling employers remote connectivity to the
headquarter's network for corporate email server and remote logon facility. How would I
do that. Should I be lookin for RAS(remote access server) and VPN thing? I am looking
over this closely. Any suggestions??
4) Another important issue is providing internet connectivity to the organisation,
considering the fact that they would like to have VOIP, Video Confrencing, Centralised
application server (accessed by clients in many countries), remote logons etc. Do you
guys think that T-1 lines would do the trick? What type of routers would I require for
VOIP and video confrencing. Any Recomendations??
5) They are using Frame Relay at the moment with FRAD's, Do you guys think that they
should be upgraded to ATM for cost affective and effcient improvement,since ATM with
VBR(variable Bit Rate ) seems to be good choice for vedio confrencing and audio
Confrencing?
6) What issues at Client's end should be considered keeping all the scenario in mind?
7) For remote administration I am looking into Telnet and SSH Servers and I guess it
would be good enough?
8) Security is something which I really learned from Antionline? I have considered
following things for security that I am going to deploy in this network design..
Intrusion Detection System, HoneyPots, Sniffers, AntiViruses ,FireWalls and use of
cryptography for important messages. did I left anything else.Any other
recommendations would be appreciated.
9) I am working on Disaster Recovery Planning? Maybe coming up with more confusions
:)
I guess its apretty lengthy post and I must terminate it. A word of thanx for all those
who read this thread. I already appreciate their effort and expect a reply with helpful
links and piece of advice.
Thank you antionliner's
Please help me out with these confusions, so that I might be able to contribute to the
community with all my knowledge that I gathered from Gurus.
Ommy