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Home > Packet Pushers - Weekly Show > Show 250 – How To Document A Network
Podcast: Packet Pushers - Weekly Show
Episode:

Show 250 – How To Document A Network
Category: Technology
Duration: 01:26:29
Publish Date: 2015-08-14 13:51:22
Description:

A favorite topic among network engineers, documentation is a source of both wonder and horror. Network documentation is difficult to get right. How much detail is enough? How old is that diagram, really? Can’t this be automated? Wait, the automated generator spit out *that*?

In this show, the Packet Pushers along with former guest Dominik discuss their documentation experiences, good and bad. What have we gotten right? What have we gotten wrong? What’s been worth the trouble? What was a waste of time? What did we wish we’d documented before we really needed it?

Introductory Chat

  • Why it is a good idea to have a proper documentation.
  • Who are you documenting for? Each audience results in different documentation.
    • For yourself more than anyone else. Perhaps also the person that comes after you.
    • Other IT teams to fit into system and application architecture diagrams.
    • 3rd parties who require technical comprehension to integrate (may require scrubbing).
    • End customers (people consuming your network).
  • What should be documented.
    • Main / HQ network
      • Closets
      • Think middle – out
      • Include all transit devices. If packets flow through it (i.e. not an endpoint), then it s part of the network.
      • Nice to have, hard to maintain.
        • VLAN lists
        • Subnet descriptions
    • Remote sites
    • B2B connections
    • DMZ / proxy architectures (can be complex)
    • Templated/standard configurations
    • Unusual configurations that solve a specific problem

Concepts

    • High Level Documentation — includes all general information applied to all gear
      • Don t include too much detail in a high level diagram
      • You want a general idea of all sites, major network ingress/egress points, and interconnections
    • Low Level Documentation — includes all the specific details
      • Vendor specific
      • Location/site specific
      • Network specific

Documentation Toolbox

  • Self-documentation
    • Interface descriptions
    • Appropriately named objects
    • Junos allows for embedded comments
  • Vector graphic diagram applications
    • Visio
      • Working with Layers in Visio
    • Omnigraffle
    • Scapple
    • http://draw.io
  • Cable Management Tools
    • Every cable with a special number, referenced in a central tool.
    • Vinyl-wrapped cable labels
    • Fiber Mountain’s unique approach
  • Rack Management Tools
    • RackTables
    • Kuwaiba (open source Network Inventory System)
    • RackView
    • APC InfrastruXure Manager
  • Knowledge Database / Wiki
  • IPAM IP Address Management
    • phpipam
    • NIPAP
    • Infoblox
    • 6connect
  • Configuration backup
    • Rancid
    • Oxidized
    • SolarWinds NCM

Interactive Tools

Links

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