week 4
A4 System and network support and management tools
Understand the function of the tools that a system administrator and/or manager can use to support the day-to-day running of the system, including:
• network performance monitoring and management tools, e.g. bandwidth and application monitoring and network scanners
Network monitoring tools let you “see” exactly what is going on on your network. With them, you’ll be able to measure, analyse who and what is consuming bandwidth and drill down deep into network “conversations” to verify that everything is operating normally. Monitor Network Traffic. These tools will help IT support departments to track and monitor assets and equipment remotely and to ensure that they are functioning to the levels expected. These tools will also enable preventative maintenance and downtime for example alert levels on printers notifying administrators that new ink toners needing to be installed soon, this will allow the IT support team to order them in ready for replacements. Another example could be the system alerts for low disk space and for "clean up" protocols to be triggered to empty trash cans on client PC's
• provision of user desktop computing by various means, including server virtualisation with thin client computing and web-based applications
IT systems can be implemented to limit and reduce the need to have multiple pieces of hardware that carry high costs. Companies historically used individual servers to run specific roles within an institution. These servers would deal with users account, websites, printers, telephony, CCTV and more. However, with the advent of virtualisation companies are able to use less hardware by creating virtual servers. This allows companies to share hardware resources, i.e. a computer and share some of the CPU cores, Memory and Hard Disk Drive space to simulate another physical machine.
Due to the use of virtualisation companies are able to create rapid back-ups of the server as it is created in software and if needed create a duplicate version and test new updates on an instance of it to check it works before rolling it out to a live server.
Virtualisation can allow for what is known as "thin clients" where users log in to a very simple device that has little CPU power and memory and use this as a portal to a virtual desktop that has the capability of a high-end PC with lots of memory and CPU speed, this would then allow the company to have reduced costs of running equipment as they are able to only use what they need and share its power when it's needed.
• tools used to create and remotely deploy desktop disk images
The use of remote deployment within organisations is widely used, the capability of sending a piece of software to be installed on to a specific machine from another location is one that all IT technicians love. Historically the installation of software on machines required the use of physical installations media such as CD's DVD's, USB and floppy disks, these would be required to be inserted into the drives and a series of physical mouse button clicks needed to start and configure the installations.
Nowadays this process can be done remotely by sending the preconfigured software over the physical network and having the machine install the software at a specific time and date.
Examples of this sort of software deployment would be Norton Ghost, Windows server 2019
• asset management, including software licences
• remote desktop access and control and administration, including performing updates.
Remote desktop control provides IT support live and instant access to user desktops. The tool can be used to troubleshoot issues that users may be experiencing and or to update settings to machines remotely. Widely used remote desktoping is an effective support tool for IT technicians, giving them the ability to work from outside the physical location of the users and potential clients.
Last Updated
2021-04-20 12:20:52
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A4 System and network support and management tools |
English
Maths
Collect and record data: Questionnaires, Observation, Tally
Organising and Representing data: Drawing tables, charts and graphs
Statistic extracting information: Tables, Diagrams, Charts and Graphs
How 2's Coverage
More Than Just a Minute - Learners assess themselves against key learning points indicating a level of understanding to inform teacher planning.
Product Evidence - Learners to create product evidence to demonstrate understanding
Anonymous Assessment - Learners assess an anonymous piece of work containing deliberate mistakes against given success criteria.
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