Network Mapping Software

[witch]

I am trying to work out how the network in both my schools is put together - this involves actually trying to find possibly mythical switches, hanging off ladders trying to see what is written on cables (or deciding that the things are completely unlabelled) and working out which are uplinks, downlink, or goodness knows what sort of links.
Both networks have been added to by lots of different companies over the years, and no-one has provided any documentation, and not bothered to label things either.
Does anyone use any free software that is easy to use and which could help me in my quest for network understanding?

Currently I am at least one switch short, unless the whiteboards are catching the internet out of thin air. I just can't find it - I think I have looked in every cupboard in the school - it must be somewhere :x

Any help gratefully received!

[DaveP]

You could try SpiceWorks: Autodiscovers devices on the network. URL:

http://www.spiceworks.com/

[timbo343]

You could try SpiceWorks: Autodiscovers devices on the network. URL:

http://www.spiceworks.com/

The download dont work from them.

[Mr_T]

I guessing it wont be but if you have Cisco or HP kit you can use the "show cdp neighbours" command which will tell you the switches that the switch you are consoled into are connected too.

[DaveP]

You could try SpiceWorks: Autodiscovers devices on the network. URL:

http://www.spiceworks.com/

The download dont work from them.

I have just downloaded it again and it works for me. I can't attach it to this post because it is bigger than 6 Mb.

[edie209]

Tim I just tried and the download worked for me, we are using it here it seems to be quite a good program but the jury's still out. I had an email from them about a week ago informing me of an upgrade coming out in the next weeks. Give it a go it might be just what you want.

Although I don't think it is what you want Witch, there was another program mention here a while back called "The Dude" its listed in the esential software list I think that would be more what you are looking for.

[timbo343]

tut, ill download it again then and see what it does.

T

[timbo343]

ops: that seems to be a bit better, was getting speeds of 7kb when i last downloaded it ops:

[CyberNerd]

http://www.zenoss.com/

Inventory & Configuration

Persistent database of IT inventory and configuration detail stored in a Zope Enterprise Object (ZEO) database.
Auto-discovery

* Network devices & servers
* Device configuration details including interfaces, memory, disk, OS, services, processes, software
* IP address utilization

Scheduling

* Scheduled auto-discovery
* Manual / Ad-hoc configuration discovery

Manual Field Population

* Manual addition of new devices
* Allow for the creation of custom fields
* Search for resources using custom fields

Grouping, Organization, Association, Classification

* Organize devices by logical system
* Associate devices with locations
* Associate devices with operators
* Hierarchical configuration of device properties with inheritance
* Ability to put devices into various "production levels" (e.g. maintenance, decommission, etc...)

Reporting

* Global Inventory
* Change History
* Device Detail

Availability Monitoring

Zenoss provides active monitoring of devices through the execution of simple tests.
Scheduled Availability Tests

* ICMP response testing
* SNMP response testing
* Testing of standard TCP/IP services (HTTP, SMTP, etc...)
* Testing of specified TCP/IP ports with regular expression matching
* Windows service availability testing
* Windows process availability testing
* Linux/Unix process availability testing
* Single URL availability testing
* Support for Nagios Plug-Ins

Dependency Tracking

Intelligently suppress tests and alerts based on layer 3 network dependencies
Event Generation

Generate events based on availability issues
Reporting

* Ping Issues
* SNMP Issues
* SLA Reporting

Performance Monitoring

Zenoss can be used to monitor overall health of network devices, servers, and operating systems.
Collection & Thresholds

* Scheduled collection and storage of SNMP OID values
* Pre-loaded MIBs and new local MIBs
* Ability to set several threshold levels

Event Generation

Generate events with specific severity based on threshold settings
Graphing & Reporting

* Graphing of Trend over time: hourly, weekly, monthly, yearly
* Other Performance Reports

Event Monitoring and Management

Collect information through common event collection protocols.
Event Collection

* Aggregation of events from various sources: availability monitoring, performance monitoring, syslog sources, SNMP trap sources, Windows Event log
* Custom event creation through XML-RPC interface
* Parsing of custom log files

Event Processing

* Ability to build event processing rules through GUI interface
* Automatic event classification
* Automatic event prioritization
* Automatic de-duplication
* Automatic begin/end correlation
* Operator acknowledgment
* Automatic and Manual Archiving

Alerting

* Paging and Email alerts
* Ability to delay alerting based on customize and personalized rules
* Basic escalation rules
* Advanced escalation rules
* System is aware of level three topology to avoid "alarm fatigue"

Reporting

* Ability to view current events and event history
* Inventory of events and event classifications
* Additional Event Reports

Other Features
Dashboards

* Customized Dashboard that summarizes active events by business system and severity
* Read-only Dashboard for other groups in company

Web Portal

* Secure web-based portal/console
* Rich AJAX-Enabled user interface
* Role-based permissions
* Personalized queries
* Personalized views

Operations

* Heartbeat monitoring for Zenoss internal components
* Automatic event archiving
* Automate check for updated software versions

[maniac]

I use 3 com network mapper, which produces quite a good network diagram. It's not always 100% accurate with relative positioning of switches, but is generally accurate with the number of switches a particular node travels through.

If it finds managed switches it will tell you the IP number, and it will tell you the details of every workstation, printer or other device it finds.

I'm in the same situation, our network is not mapped or documented in anyway. we've got a fibre patch pannel with 12 duplex fibres comining into it, but no idea where each one goes! I also know a lot of our cabinets are linked to each other with fibre links (most of which aren't used) but again I know these aren't documented. Cabling in this place has been done by at least 5 different companies to varying standards, and we have no less than 13 wiring cabinets throughout the building! Nitemare!

Mike.

[SpuffMonkey]

The Dude is pretty cool too!

http://www.mikrotik.com/thedude.php

[witch]

Wow!
You certainly get a lot of answers on Edugeek.
I shall try some/all of your suggestions and see if I can work out what goes where!
Thanks

Sarah