Best practices, tips, tricks...lessons learned?

[tech_dude_]

Surely we all have some.We might as well all benefit from each others experiences...

I'll start with some obvious but none-the-less important ones..

1. Have good backups (more important still after point 3).

2. Syslog the logs to a unix/linux box so you can grep them and find stuff with greater ease.

3. When you are just starting out with the Juniper platform (like we are) and your boss gets you a small 2500 to tinker with, and then the boss starts adding a few VIP's and special users to the box...STAND YOUR GROUND and push for a seperate test box. Testing at a seperate URL and with seperate resources will still affect other users, who despite being told this is still a test platform, treat it like it's a production box (and that's why good backups can suddenly be a great thing).

[Jickfoo_]

Dont tell your boss Netconnect will replace your old standard IPSEC VPN.

[df_]

Why wouldn't you tell your boss Network Connect will replace standard IPSEC VPN? It kicks the crap out of IPSEC because it will work in places where they only allow HTTP and HTTPS access out of their network.

[muttbarker_]

Hey df - I am guessing that he was just being sarcastic

[Jickfoo_]

I was 1/2 being sarcastic. 3 years on with Netconnect and we still have our legacy VPN. Netconnect has issues but is still a decent product.

Netconnect actually does use IPSEC or (ESP, basically the same thing) by default. The tunnel will fail over to SSL if needed but the transition is not always smooth and SSL for transport is actually slower.

[muttbarker_]

It will be very interesting to see what the Juniper "unified client" will to replace / overhaul the various offerings that are currently in place from them.