There are five major elements to the maintenance and management of a

network. They include:

Fault tolerance management
Configuration management
Performance management: The OSI management standard defines the following
types of performance measurements:
1. Quality of Service Analysis (QoS)Quality of service analysis,
which uses management logs, and a model of how objects should
perform are important components of this function.
2. Propagation DelayPropagation delay measures the time between
events: the transmission of a data unit and the arrival of a collision
notification from the remotest device.
3. Resource Waiting TimeResource waiting time measures the
performance of queue lengths, time waiting for a service, time it takes
to complete the service.
4. Response TimeResponse time is the time between the sending of a
request and the acknowledgment or confirmation of receipt.
5. ThroughputThroughput measures the network data that is
successfully transmitted without errors. The throughput is measured
in both directions, to and from a device - traffic that enters the network
through the physical medium as well as traffic that leaves the network
through the medium.
6. WorkloadWorkload specifies requirements for measuring overload
conditions and notification of such conditions. Warnings are set to
indicate that additional workload will be rejected. Conditions for
clearing the rejection warning must also be defined.

Security management
Accounting management

Network maintenance tasks are those tasks which network administrators perform
on a day-to-day basis, allowing for the upkeep of the network. Some of the more
common network the following general activities maintenance tasks include, but are
not limited to,

Installing, replacing or upgrading both hardware and software

Monitoring, tuning and optimizing the network
Documenting the network and maintaining network documentation
Securing the network from both internal and external threats
 Planning for network upgrades, expansions, or enhancements
Scheduling backups and restoring services or the network from backups
Ensuring compliance with legal regulations and corporate policies
Troubleshooting problem reports
Maintaining and updating device configurations

License

software license grants an organization or individual the legal right to use the
software. But a software licensing policy formulated by the vendor also takes
into account other factors like upgrades/updates, support (AMC), software piracy
control, and the manner in which the software can be used. Enterprise
customers look up to a software contract as a means of investment protection
and to ensure support. Vendors have devised their own unique policies to
address such customer concerns
Licenses can be broadly classified into two categories'perpetual' and 'term license.' The
perpetual license has no limitation on the period of usage, as the user owns the license.
The term license has a limited period of validityabout one or two years.

Licenses could be per seat (per desktop) or per server or a combination of both. If a
desktop needs to access multiple servers, per seat license would be more economical,
than a per server license. In fact vendors like Novell are moving from the server-centric
to a user-centric model as it gives customers more flexibility in deploying applications
across multiple servers.
We asked vendors what kind of software licensing policies they offer Indian enterprises.
While some policies might appear to be too harsh, others are customer friendly and take
important things like upgrades and investment protection into consideration.

MICROSOFT
Basically, Microsoft offers three forms of licensing: OEM License, Retail License and
Volume Licensing.
OEM License: For the PC manufacturer who bundles the operating system with the PC.

Retail License: For products that can be bought off the shelf. In this case, the product
comes with a single license.
Volume License: For those whose requirement is large and will spend a minimum of Rs 5
lakh on a specific product.
According to Microsoft India, the most commonly used licensing here is Open Licensing.
With this form of licensing small businesses can start their businesses with minimum Rs
5 lakh, and depending on the requirement, as and when they grow, can qualify for
higher licensing discounts

ADOBE
The maker of image editing and documentation software has three volume licensing
programs.

Transactional Licensing Program: The Adobe Open Options Transactional License Program
(TLP) is for organizations with as few as ten workstations that need volume licensing.
This program is open to corporate, government, education, and small business
customers. TLP covers most Adobe products and is available worldwide. There are no
contracts to sign or records to keep, and there is no need to forecast future software
consumption. The Adobe Open Options TLP evaluates each transaction separately and
applies the appropriate volume discount level.

Contractual Licensing Program: The Adobe Open Options Contractual License Program
(CLP) simplifies software administration through a single licensing agreement that is
effective worldwide. By participating in the CLP, one gets the benefit of a large-purchase
discount, and has the option to spread license fees, and thus expenditure over the
duration of the agreement. Open to corporate, government, education, and small-
business customers, this program covers most Adobe products. CLP is a two-year
contract between Adobe and the customer.

Site Licensing Program: The Adobe Open Options Site License Program (SLP) simplifies
deployment of Adobe Acrobat 5.0 throughout the organization. According to Adobe,
participation in the SLP simplifies software installation with a single site-license serial
number and it reduces compliance risks too. The program's convenient six-month
reporting plan provides easy budgeting and forecastingespecially useful for purchasing
departments. The Adobe Open Options SLP is open to corporate, government, education,
and small business customers worldwide.

AUTODESK
The maker of design software offers three types of licensing policies.

Standalone license: Where the license is to be used on one computer and at one
location.
Network license: Where the license allows the software to be installed on a networkit
could be used through a number of computers. The license is issued based on the
number of users that are allowed access to the network.

For instance, if the network license is for five users, then only five users can access the
software through the server at any point of time.

Student license: Where the license allows for the software to be installed on a single
computer for only education and instruction.

Types of Network devices:

Hubs: networking devices which works at physical layer and hence connect
networking devices physically together. hey act as pathways to direct
electrical signals to travel along. They transmit the information regardless of
the fact if data packet is destined for the device connected or not.

Active Hub: They are smarter than the passive hubs. They not only provide
the path for the data signals infact they regenerate, concentrate and
strengthen the signals before sending them to their destinations. Active hubs
are also termed as repeaters.

Passive Hub: They are more like point contact for the wires to built in the
physical network. They have nothing to do with modifying the signals.

Switches: Switches are the linkage points of an Ethernet network. Just as in

hub, devices in switches are connected to them through twisted pair cabling.
But the difference shows up in the manner both the devices; hub and a
switch treat the data they receive. Hub works by sending the data to all the
ports on the device whereas a switch transfers it only to that port which is
connected to the destination device. A switch does so by having an in-built
learning of the MAC address of the devices connected to it. Since the
transmission of data signals are well defined in a switch hence the network
performance is consequently enhanced.

Bridges: A bridge is a computer networking device that builds the

connection with the other bridge networks which use the same protocol. It
works at the Data Link layer of the OSI Model and connects the different
networks together and develops communication between them. It connects
two local-area networks; two physical LANs into larger logical LAN or two
segments of the same LAN that use the same protocol.
 Routers: Routers are network layer devices and are particularly identified as
Layer- 3 devices of the OSI Model. They process logical addressing
information in the Network header of a packet such as IP Addresses. Router
is used to create larger complex networks by complex traffic routing. It has
the ability to connect dissimilar LANs on the same protocol. It also has the
ability to limit the flow of broadcasts

Gateways: Gateway is a device which is used to connect multiple networks

and passes packets from one packet to the other network. Acting as the
gateway between different networking systems or computer programs, a
gateway is a device which forms a link between them. It allows the
computer programs, either on the same computer or on different computers
to share information across the network through protocols. A router is also a
gateway, since it interprets data from one network protocol to another.