Section 9.2: Ensuring Network Integrity and Availability

Learning Objectives

After completing this section, you should be able to

• identify the characteristics of a network that keeps data safe from loss or damage;
• protect a network from computer viruses;
• explain both network-level and system-level fault-tolerance techniques;
• describe the techniques and strategies for data backup;
• describe the components of a useful disaster recovery plan.

Tasks

• Study Chapter 14 of the TD textbook.
• Complete the hands-on Project 14-1.
• If possible, complete hands-on Project 14-2 and 14-3.

Study Questions

1. What is network integrity?
2. What is network availability?
3. What general guidelines should be followed to protect an enterprise network?
4. What is a computer virus?
5. What types of viruses are commonly seen on computer networks?
6. What characteristics may computer viruses have?
7. What symptoms on the network may indicate a virus infection?
8. What important functions should an antivirus program have to protect a network?
9. What guidelines should be followed for an antivirus policy?
10. What are virus hoaxes?
11. How can a network be made fault-tolerant?
12. What power flaws may occur in a computer network?
13. What are UPS and online-UPS?
14. How can it be decided which UPS is right for a given network?
15. Why does a fully meshed network offer the best fault tolerance?
16. What is a fully redundant system?
17. How can network servers be made fault tolerant?
18. What is server mirroring?
19. What is server clustering?
20. How can storage be made fault tolerant?
21. How does RAID offer fault-tolerant storage?
22. What is network-attached storage?
23. What are storage area networks?
24. What methods can be used to back up data on a network?
25. What questions should be addressed by a good data backup strategy?
26. What are full backup, incremental backup, and differential backup?
27. What other schemes may be used to backup network data?
28. What is disaster recovery?
29. What issues should be addressed by a disaster recovery team?