Question - What do you use for a "test environment&quot

redwarrior

I'm working on a project for work and thought you guys might be a good resource. I'm trying to come up with some guidelines for adding new network devices to the network as well as some ideas for a "test environment" that we might use for testing hardware before we put it into production. Since I'm rather new to this side of things, I was wondering what everyone else did. Here's what I currently have:

No network device is added to the network until it has gone through the change control process. Before then, it is kept off the production network and can only be attached to the hardware I have kept off the network. I do attach my laptop directly to these devices for tftp'ing new software images, etc.

As far as a "test environment" so far, I have 2 switches, both configured with static IP's and kept off the production network. I also have 1 older router which I can use if I need to. I would like to add 2 ASA firewalls, one 5510, one 5505 to simulate our VPN connections and a wireless access point that will not broadcast its SSID that I can use to test other wireless devices.

Any other ideas?

GT-Rob

Documentation is key. Make sure there is plenty of it on the steps of how things were tested, the expected results of when it goes into production, and possible roll back plans for when it all fails