Drawing a network map

[rjf2019]

I'm looking to tidy up our cabinets (we have three) as I strongly suspect that there are switches in there that are not actually in use any more, other than that they are connecting to other switches, and also unpatch network points which have either been physically removed from the walls, or have been covered over.

 

I think that my starting point is to really get to grips with what we have in place already, and get it drawn out clearly with everything labelled.

 

At the moment, I have a table in a Word document that matches the cabinets with the type of equipment, model number etc. Does anyone have a better suggestion?

 

And what about when it comes to mapping out which switches currently connect to each other?

[1TF0rward]

I've used Draw.io in the past, maybe worth a look?

[colly72]

I've used Visio in the past, always worked well for me.

[Fazza]

Visio is the best program to do that in. You can even get 'add-ons' (can't remember their proper names) that you can install so instead of a generic switch or server you can insert the actual one (or near-as-dammit) to make your cabinet(s) look better.

[PrimaryNetMan]

Google Drawings is great for this.

[bald_pig]

I use the dude. With a little work you can map out the network, and then connect to snmp to get realtime status info for the devices.

[bald_pig]

Grabbed an example screenshot:

 

I know that switch is down, there was enough spare on the top switch so I moved everything and switched it off

[ITGURU]

Always used visio for this kind of thing - you can get official stencils for components to make it all look good. Use that for network topologies, but then as above, I use 'The Dude' for live monitoring of network links switches, core components etc.

[rjf2019]

Thanks all for your input. I'm going to go with draw.io for my draft for now, as I don't have Visio to hand and it's instantly accessible. I'll certainly bear Visio in mind once I've got my head around this a little more, and am interested to learn about The Dude also. Cheers

[jthompson]

Just to add a couple more [free] options:

Dia Diagram Editor

Graphviz - With this one you construct your diagram as a text file (essentially a list of node to node connections) and the layout gets generated automagically for you. The advantage is that you can create highly complex diagrams and/or generate diagrams programmatically (or semi-programmatically if Excel is your starting point).

[mavhc]

I use inkscape, with more detail in smaller text than you can read when you zoom in, top level, overhead view of school, cabinets dotted around, zoom into a cab, switches etc, zoom in, ports, detail about vlans etc. Notes.

[southhamster]

Libre office draw. Just done ours. There's also a nice set of IT devices shapes available as an add on. Visio would be nice but can't afford it! I've tried a few others but draw has been easiest to use.

[pete]

If you have CDP and/or LLDP enabled on your network hardware, LibreNMS (https://www.librenms.org/) can autodiscover device-to-device connections and generate maps.

[rjf2019]

Thanks again for all of the responses.

 

If anyone has got an example of a network map that they've created it'd be really helpful to see it - mostly in terms of how much detail to include. (Doesn't matter if it's totally out of date.)