network documentation software

Jun 23, 2008 6 Replies

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die.spam 18 years ago

Hi,

Im wondering if anyone can suggest some software for keeping network documentation, we have a few hundred switches and a few thousand vlans and a bunch of service providers and heaps of end user details.

We are currently using a spreadsheet which I want to stay clear of.

I need something with intelligent locking, so two people can't try and modify a device at once, but allows people to modify different things at the same time.

We need to store info like which vlans are on what trunks, which ports access which vlan, service ID's, policy rates, speed and duplex settings, service provider details, end user details, site address, site contacts, vlan ID's, spanning tree root designations..

We based would be good, but we need to be able to pull info quickly.. that is one place where the spreadsheet is good.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks.

Flamer.

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die.spam 18 years ago

I should also mention, that I'm not interesting in a network diagram, (we already have good ones) only in documenting the data

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J.Cottingim 18 years ago

CiscoWorks LMS would provide a solution to most of what you are asking for.

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Stefan Finzel 18 years ago

CiscoWorks is a good choice but requires cisco components. And you have to keep your os images almost up to date. But sometimes e.g. in production areas you are stuck in old os images.

If you are mainly interested in lists, have a look at

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There is a demonstration server at

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with a demonstration for Systems 2007 a German exhibition. This also is in English. Please use systems and sg4all! as login.

J.Cottingim schrieb:

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Stefan Finzel 18 years ago

URL is

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, sorry.

Stefan Finzel schrieb:

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die.spam 18 years ago

Thanks Stefan, that is leaning towards what we are looking for. Just a note also we have some nortel devices on the network too, and in the future we are moving away from cisco so I dont want a cisco package.

I have done more googling and I am thinking now the software doesnt need to be network device specific, I am thinking it may be better to run a database with a web front end, or something similair that is designed for multiple users adding/editing records etc.

I am interested to hear what other people do to keep records like this, particularly those who are on the service provider side.

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Stefan Finzel 18 years ago

Hi,

IndiaWeb/SoftGuard is supporting Cisco/Nortel/Enterasys/HP/... about 135 network component vendors so far.

As it is used by car manufacturer Audi AG in large scale it was intended to use it at Volkswagen AG (VW) too. There a French company presented its product NetExpose. It is more focused to Nortel as former Nortel employees are in the development team. Of cause it also supporting a lot of other vendors.

SIEMENS AG as company and service provider is using a very large database called COMMAND, made by FNT

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. While this is mainly focused on facility management it can be easily extended. But if everything has to be maintained manually you have to spend a lot of man power. We found that 3 to more than 10% of network data are invalid, outdated or erroneous. This rate is very constant dependent on the department over five years now. Therefore SoftGuard is used to keep at the as-is state and to detect inconsistencies to be removed from COMMAND.

All of this tools can be extended to provide you with private tables and are web based.

flamer snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com schrieb:

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