JB Technologies - Success Story
New York City Government Agency Experiencing QOS Production Problems on the Network
JB Technologies unique trouble shooting methodology identifies the
issues impacting Network Connectivity and Performance Degradation in order of
priority!
Challenge:
The New York City Department of Buildings (NYC-DOB) was
experiencing quality of service (QOS) performance and general production
issues. After several weeks of trying to resolve the network performance
issues, the NYC-DOB decided to bring in a network specialist and hired
JB Technologies.
JB Technologies Solution:
Within five hours, JB Technologies performed an intense network analysis deploying our
unique troubleshooting practices and identified the problem. The results and
repair recommendations from the network analysis are detailed below:
A. Production Problems
Issues Impacting Network Connectivity and Performance Degradation in order of priority
-
PIX latency – ICMP ping packets traversing the PIX firewall added
1500-2500msec of latency to packet processing times of the PIX. All ICMP
packets were being logged to the console port even when logging was
disabled.
Recommendation: Identify the cause of PIX latency and reconfigure the PIX. Cause could be due
to this ICMP packet logging or other issue that needs to be identified.
-
SNA Alert TCP/IP Link Lost – The Catalyst 6509 MSFC was logging a message: SNA
Alert E14A3440 not sent Focal point buffer overflow, Alert E14A3440
reports that the DLSW TCP/IP Link Dropped between the DLSW peers. All SNA
traffic from Manhattan rides over this DLSW tunnel, so potentially this
problem could affect all SNA users.
Recommendation: Sniffer Protocol Analysis of the TCP/IP session between the two
DLSW peers would help identify the cause of this problem.
-
Ethernet Errors
-
Manhattan – The default Auto/Auto configuration for the Catalyst and Servers often
times result in speed and duplex mismatches.
Recommendation: All Catalyst switches should have the port speed and duplex “hard coded”
to match the device attached to a particular port
-
Boroughs – Staten Island, Brooklyn and the Bronx all have high error rates on the
Cisco Router Ethernet ports.
Recommendation: Replace Hub based Ethernet Segments with Switching Technology
-
Brooklyn Serial Interface Resets – A large number of interface resets occurred on
the Brooklyn router indicating that a problem exists on the T1 line.
Recommendation: Review T1 CSU/DSU configuration on both ends of Brooklyn T1.
-
Internet Connectivity – Internet Connectivity to sites requiring logging in
was problematic.
Recommendation: Network Analysis of the Internet Design and current performance
should be done. The Border Manager Proxy and site login should be examined.
B. Network Enhancements – future action suggestions after production problems resolved
-
Redundant PIX Firewall – Currently there is 1 PIX firewall active, the failover PIX
was removed from the network due to unexplained behavior and network
connectivity issues.
-
Cisco Cache Engine and Websense URL Filtering – Overall Internet Architecture
should be examined to see if the above products should be incorporated
into the current production network.
-
Network Management – Ciscoworks 2000 features should be fully exploited to manage
the investment DOB has made in its Cisco infrastructure.
Cost Analysis Summary:
|
Their Way:
Troubleshooting Methodology - "Trial and error"
Estimated Cost - $100,000
Man hours wasted - Hundreds
Lost productivity - Immeasurable
Lost "good will" - Immense
Network Downtime – Plenty
|
JB Technologies Way:
Troubleshooting Methodology - Fact Based
Cost - $1,500 (our billing for this project)
Man hours wasted – None
Lost productivity - None
Gained "good will" - Plenty
Network Downtime – Zero
|
Solving the unsolvable, delivering the impossible, implementing tomorrow’s solutions today!
|