ISP best practices

Sun Jun 28 22:55:26 UTC 2009

Barry Raveendran Greene wrote:
> The best training available on the Net for a small ISP to learn from the
> best is available ..... At www.nanog.org!
> 
> All the NANOGs are on VOD. Just go to the presentation archive:
> http://www.nanog.org/presentations/archive/. Put in a keyword to search (say
> "BGP Tutorial"), cook some popcorn, and sit back and enjoy the session. 

It helps also to communicate with people.

[speaking in small sp context]

If you know any of the engineers or operators of your upstream, perhaps
ask them questions from time to time. If you really know them (and are
serious about learning) ask them if they can provide you sample config
snips.

Contact the people that run your local IXP. I've found that the
operators of the exchange points are an aggregation point of 'the best
of the best from the best' information, as they generally discuss
solutions with chief engineers of all companies that connect to their
fabric.

IXP ops are a rich source not only of technical information, but also of
industry best practises relating to how other providers might prefer to
be approached, if they like or dislike feedback, and whether they care
to be approached at all.

Don't go bombarding your local IXP op with silly questions, it's just
another decent source of information, as they seem to be like
myself...if you ask a well-thought-out question, you will likely get an
answer (even if it's "I dunno, look over there").

With the books I mentioned earlier in the thread, and that others have
re-mentioned, I prefer:

- read
- lab up current environment
- implement what you read in lab
- test for breakage
- pilot lab findings into production
- update/tighten control features
- implement across network
- watch for inconsistencies, but continue to tighten rules
- read more
- rinse,repeat

Steve

ps. as always, thanks Jon.
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