What a Network Admin does on a daily basis can vary quite a bit from one company to another. Even the same job with the same company may have a lot of variation over time.
I will explain the average Network Admin does but first here are the ways that 2 people with the same job title might have very different workloads.
Variation from one company to another.
- Different companies will assign network duties differently.
- Some companies have a network team and the job duties of maintaining the network may be divided in a way that gives each team member certain specialties.
- Some companies will have different networking job titles. They may have a Jr. Network Admin doing all the basic configs, swapping out the physical network gear, and doing low level troubleshooting. They may also have a Network Engineer doing all the planning, designing, and working with the vendors and the company's decision makers.
- Other companies will only have one or possible only have one staff member that does all the network jobs.
- Varies Over Time.
- There are many different stages to building and maintaining a network. At any given time a company may be heavily focused on a certain project.
- Changing the design or configuration of the current network.
- Implementing new network or security policies or protocols.
- Expanding, or contracting the network by adding or removing remote sites.
Flexible Schedule
Before I talk about what a Network Admin does it is important to know that one thing most Network jobs have in common is that they need to be available more that 40 hours per week. Network problems can occur at any time and there needs to be a Network Admin available 24/7 to address these problems.
Pretty much every Network Admin spends a large amount of time in the on-call rotation and for certain events will be called even if they are not on-call.
Many people are relying on a company's network from employees to customers so uptime is mission critical.
Plan And Design Networks
Often it will be the Network Engineers and Network Architects that plan and design the network but not every company has a Network Engineer or Architect. Many companies only have Network Admins and they may bring in a network Engineer as a consultant if they are planning a big network change.
Whether or not a Network Engineer is in charge of making this change they will to some extent include the Network Admins in the process for several reasons.
- So that the Network Admins understand how the changes will effect them.
- To get feedback from the Admins. They are the "boots on the ground" and will have valuable insight as to what need to be taken into consideration during planning.
- To give the Admins some experience in network design. Today's Network Admins are tomorrow's Network Engineers. This is how they get the experience they need.
Build Out Networks
When a new site is added to a network the equipment needs to be configured and installed. This equipment almost always includes includes routers and switches but could also include any number of other devices such as Firewalls, Analog Telephone Adapters (ATA), Wireless Access Points (WAP), CCTV Security, etc.
Configure New Devices
When building a network for a new site all the network equipment needs to be configured. There are several way to do this:
- Configuring by hand from the comand line one device at a time
- Configuring devices with a GUI if the device has a GUI option and it is enabled.
- By installing a pre-built config file. One file can be used to configure many devices with only the few device specific changes needing to be made to each config file.
- Using network automation tools such as Ansible or Nornir. These allow you to make changes to many devices at once without having to make a config file for every device.
Install Hardware
Network hardware is usually installed onto a network rack in a Data Closet. Cables go from the wall ports at people desks to patch panels in the Data Closet. Each port in the patch pannel is then individually plugged into a switch port.
A building could have dosens or even hundreds of wallports so this means that there are a lot of wires in the Network rack. They should neatly run to their location and either the cables should be lable on both ends or there should be a map that you can refer to to know wallport goes to which switch port.
Installing network hardware requires attention to detail and everything must be thoroughly tested after it is installed.
Monitor Network
Monitoring the network is a big part of being a Network Admin. You need to know about problems as soon as they happen so that they can be resolved quickly.
Setup And Updating Monitoring Tools
Network monitoring tools need to be to be configured to every network device that you want to monitor you will probably also want to monitor specific router and switch ports that connect to key infrastructure. This can be a service that pings each object and when the object doesn't respond for a certain amount of time it triggers an alert.
Changes to these monitoring tools need to be made along side changes to the network. As network equipment is added or removed changes to your monitoring tools need to reflect that.
Networks need to be monitored for:
- Monitor Connectivity - All network sites and the network equipment at those site should be monitored. If a switch goes down it your monitoring tools should send you an alarm even if it doesn't cause an outage. You may have redundant systems that can route traffic through a backup switch but you still need to know that the primary switch is down.
- Monitor Traffic - Keeping and eye on traffic trends will help you:
- Lets you know where you to increase or decrease you network resources.
- Allows you to detect anomalies (attacks).
- Gives you insight on possible network misuse by employees. Watching TV at work or downloading movies, etc.
- Gain insights on inefficient business practices that could be improved.
- Monitor For Threats -
- You need to have visibility about malware infections and trends.
- You need to be able to see attacks and attack trends, even if they are stopped.
- You need to have eyes on how much data is leaving your network, how it is leaving, and once again the trends about how this data is leaving.
Maintain Network Devices
Updates And Patches
Network equipment needs to be updated regularly. This includes:
- Updating operating systems and firmware.
- Implementing changes to the network as decided by your companies Change Control Board.
Replace Broken Hardware
Network equipment does break and or get software corruption. More or less often deepening on the size of you environment, how the network is implemented, and the type of equipment that is used.
Equipment will need to be:
- Repaired - Sometime you can repair network equipment but often you cannot.
- Sent back to the vendor per your Return Merchandice Agreement (RMA).
- Re-imaged - Often network equipments software becomes corrupt and needs to be re-imaged to get it back to its factory default state.
- Replaced - Broken network equipment that is no longer covered under your RMA will need to be replaced. Also all network equipment will need to be replaced every 5-10 years.
Make Changes To The Network
Most company networks are constantly changing.
- Networks Grow And Shrink
- Companies are usually adding new sites or removing one that are no longer useful.
- Improve The Network. - Adding new network equipment, protocols, or software to make the network either more efficient or more secure.
- Modernize The Network
Troubleshooting Network Problems
Networks have an endless amount of problems and a Network Admin will spend a large amount of their time solving these problems.
Common problems for Network Admin
Most networking problems have to do with connectivity.
- No internet connection
- No network connection
- No VPN connection
- Slow connection
- No phone connection - Most companies use IP phones which are often implemented, at least on some part, by the network team.
- Intermittent connection - Can connect sometimes but not other times.
- Selective connection - Can connect to some websites or can connect to to some network resources
- Equipment down - Routers, Switches, Load Balancers, VPN Concentrators, Firewalls, etc.
Tools Network Admins Use To Solve Problems
- Logs - Network devices keep logs and matching the events in these logs with the times associated with the problem is a common way to solve network problems.
- Sniffers - Capturing network traffic so that you can see each packet in the process of 2 devices trying to communicate will show you where the communication failed.
- Probes - Toner probes will help track down the path that a physical cable runs. This ensures that you have physical connectivity between 2 devices.
Wrapping Up
Although there is no "typical day" for a Network Admin, the things that are common for all Network Admins is:
- They need to have attention to detail.
- They need to clearly document their work so that some one else can see what they have done and why. This includes:
- labeling your physical equipment
- documenting your configurations,
- commenting your configurations in and giving your interfaces descriptions
- mapping out the network.
- They need to be available after hours.
- They need to be able to find the "needle in the haystack" when going through logs or configurations to find whats wrong.
Networks are the foundation that the IT department is built on and everyone relies on it. Network problems are stressful as many people are counting on the Network Admin to get the up and running again. The work of a network admin has a profound effect on the organization and the people who work for it. Being a Network Admin is very engaging and satisfying.