Unix® System Management Primer Plus

Network Monitoring

At some point in their careers, system administrators must put on their network engineer hats. Some people are quite skilled at network design and router configuration, while some are network neophytes, skilled at system administration but clueless when confronted with a failing T1 circuit (a circuit is just another name for a network connection). At the very least, a system administrator should understand the networks that connect machines within the Unix system for which they are responsible and monitor the availability of those networks.

In Chapter 4, “Testing Your Systems,” you learned about system testing using the example of Nearest Integer Bank; here, the same example illustrates the system monitoring process. Figure ...