[dba-Tech] Network drawing and admin tool

Hi Bobby

So you are the only one drawing network diagrams without pen and paper??
Anyway, with some help from Experts-Exchange:

  http://www.experts-exchange.com/Networking/Network_Management/Network_Operations/Q_25097664.html

I decided to follow your advice after I had located this site:

  http://www.visguy.com 

and the sub area:

  http://www.visguy.com/category/visio-content/shapes/network/ 

and indeed this page with:

  "Oblique Connectors For Your 3D Diagrams"
  http://www.visguy.com/2007/10/29/oblique-connectors-for-your-3d-diagrams/ 

and read this mandatory article:

  "Show IP addresses and other information on your Visio network diagrams"
  http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/visio/HA101515431033.aspx?pid=CH100986851033

I should note that one free tool with lots of excellent features is available:
  
  Network Notepad 
  http://www.networknotepad.com/

Thanks for the tip!

/gustav


>>> bheid at sc.rr.com 31-01-2010 02:49 >>>
I don't know if this is still the case, but there was something with Visio
where it could document your network.  Not sure if it was an add-in or
something native to Visio.

Bobby

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com 
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gustav Brock
Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 7:02 AM
To: dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com 
Subject: [dba-Tech] Network drawing and admin tool

Hi all

Can anyone recommend a good tool to create _and_ maintain a drawing of
networks including IP addresses, host- and usernames, passwords, etc?

We are about reconfiguring our network and, though tiny compared to a
enterprise network, I've found that with two geographic locations, virtual
servers, internal/external/remote backup systems with configurations and
schedules, admin remote desktop access, LogMeIn accounts, multiple spam
filters and mail servers, database servers, ftp server, inside/outside IP
addresses, etc., and remote web access for the users to much of this, it's
becoming a mess.

Ideally I would like to have a drawing I can hand to a skilled techie and
he/she would in 10 minutes be able to have a clear idea what to do to
perform some task, where to look for log files, where to locate backup
configurations for routers, etc.

For example, VMware sports an internal or virtual network on a physical
machine which can have a quite specific configuration if the virtual servers
are for outside access. Most tools I've seen through the years deal with
network and physical machines and are not easy to use for virtual machines
(which always runs on a physical machine you also need to control).

Another example: SOHO routers have these days a web interface but how do you
document the setup of such routers? Sometimes you have a quite convoluted
system of port redirections and firewall configuration. To make prints of
these pages looks somewhat old-fashioned to me.

/gustav