Administrative Subdivisions

The question of administrative subdivisions deals with matters of size and control. The more hosts and servers that you have in a network, the more complex your management task. You might want to handle such situations by setting up additional administrative divisions. Add networks of a particular class. Divide existing networks into subnets. The decision about setting up administrative subdivisions for your network is determined by the following factors:

• How large is the network?

  A single administrative division can handle a single network of several hundred hosts, all in the same physical location and requiring the same administrative services. However, sometimes you should establish several administrative subdivisions. Subdivisions are particularly useful if you have a small network with subnets and the network is scattered over an extensive geographical area.

• Do users on the network have similar needs?

  For example, you might have a network that is confined to a single building and supports a relatively small number of machines. These machines are divided among a number of subnetworks. Each subnetwork supports groups of users with different needs. In this example, you might use an administrative subdivision for each subnet.