Patch Panel Management

[Liam]

Hi all.

 

I really want to rethink the way i have the documentation for patch panels and switch configs.

 

Does anyone knows of any good software, or have any templates or suggestions?

 

thanks

[tobiasclarity]

Hi all.

 

I really want to rethink the way i have the documentation for patch panels and switch configs.

 

Does anyone knows of any good software, or have any templates or suggestions?

 

thanks

 

You could maybe try and do it in Visio, how are you currently doing it?

[Liam]

You could maybe try and do it in Visio, how are you currently doing it?

 

Good old excel . Might give Visio a whirl actually been playing with it lately

[tobiasclarity]

Good old excel . Might give Visio a whirl actually been playing with it lately

 

I did a quick google search just to confirm what i thought but there are actually some good templates for it as well you can get

[Kingstech]

Could you post a link to a couple of templates please?

[glennda]

gliffy seems pretty good for network diagrams,

 

As for patch panels my preferred method is

 

patch panel

48 port switch

patch panel

patch panel

48 port switch

patch panel

etc

 

you can then use 0.25 or 0.3m cables to connect it all up.

[Michael]

Coloured patch cables matching your documentation can certainly help also.

[SpuffMonkey]

gliffy seems pretty good for network diagrams,

 

As for patch panels my preferred method is

 

patch panel

48 port switch

patch panel

patch panel

48 port switch

patch panel

etc

 

you can then use 0.25 or 0.3m cables to connect it all up.

 

Ditto to this - it makes it a lot easier to manage and much tidier.

[pete]

We dump switch configs to the wiki and annotate where it's not obvious why something is a certain way, or the config doesn't have the ability to give human-readable "names*" to interfaces/trunks/whatever.

 

i.e "iDRAC SERVERNAME IPADDRESS" or "R25 Uplink"

[sjatkn]

gliffy seems pretty good for network diagrams,

 

As for patch panels my preferred method is

 

patch panel

48 port switch

patch panel

patch panel

48 port switch

patch panel

etc

 

you can then use 0.25 or 0.3m cables to connect it all up.

 

That's my preferred method also, though I often use 24 port switches.

[glennda]

That's my preferred method also, though I often use 24 port switches.

 

Granted, it depends on the density obviously for an IT suite where all ports are patched then a 48 port, if its an office area where say 1 in 5 are patched then 24 port.

[Gibson335]

We are in the midst of a thorough LAN ID discovery. Using a Fluke device to discover data point to switch connectivity, we've found that a simple spreadsheet, detailing Device/Data Point/Location/Switch Port/Patch Panel Port/LAN-VLAN works a treat. We have one sheet containing the full list, and then a separate sheet for every switch.