Maybe you've walked into a new network administrator
position only to find that no documentation exists for the network. Or maybe
your boss just called you in and said, “I want you to document our network from
the ground up.” Regardless of the situation, if you have to document a network
that has no existing records, it's hard to know where to start. To help you
figure out your game plan, this article will show you:- How to determine what network information to document.
- How to gather the information you need.
- How to best present that information.
Let's look first at what makes all this effort worthwhile.
Why document?
You may be wondering why you're expected to spend precious time on documentation when you're already swamped with tasks like performing routine maintenance on servers and switches, responding to network problems, planning and performing upgrades, and attending endless meetings. The fact is that there are a number of compelling benefits to having a well-documented network. Your documentation can be:
- An aid to troubleshooting—When something goes wrong, the documentation will serve as a handy reference to guide the troubleshooting effort. It will save time and money.
- An aid to training new personnel—If a new person comes on board, he or she will get up to speed much faster if a printed reference is available. It will save time and money.
- An aid to contractors and consultants—These people are expensive. If they need to know the details of the network infrastructure, they will proceed much faster if documentation is available. That will save the company time and money, which the boss will appreciate very much.
Sounds like a plan
Like any major project, documenting your network will require some planning. It is important to remember that this is primarily a communications project. It is going to be your job to take technical information about a given network and present it to someone less familiar with that network in a way that allows the person to know what you know. During the planning phase, you must decide what to document, where to get the information you need, and how to present it.
What to document?
If you were taking over a network for the first time, what information would you want to know about it? That is what you should document for your network. Provide the information in a form that is both clear and useable and that will be available when those who have the institutional knowledge are not. That is what documentation is all about.
You also need to set the priorities for your documentation. Decide what information you need to record right away and what information can wait until later. You can’t do it all at once.
Although every network has its own unique features, many common elements are candidates for documentation. These include:
- Network topology—This is usually done in the form of a diagram that shows the major network nodes, such as routers, switches, firewalls, and servers, and how they are all interconnected. Normally, printers and workstations are not included.
- Server information—This is all of the information on servers that you will need to manage or administer them, such as name, functions, IP address, disk configuration, OS and service pack, date and place of purchase, warranty, and so forth.
- Router and switch port assignments—This includes detailed information on WAN configuration, VLANs, or even the assignment of a port to a network node via the patch panel.
- Configuration of network services—Network services, such as DNS, WINS, DHCP, and RAS, are critical to the operation of the network. You should describe in detail how they are structured. Although it would be possible to derive that information by inspecting the servers, the point is to save that time by having it documented in an easy-to-decipher format.
- Domain policies and profiles—You can restrict the capabilities of network users with the Policy Editor in Windows NT or with Group Policies in Windows 2000. You can also create roaming profiles that are stored on a server rather than on local machines. This kind of configuration, if used, should be documented.
- Mission-critical applications—You must document how these are maintained, as well as what typically goes wrong with them and how you resolve problems.
- Procedures—This in itself can be a major undertaking. Procedures are basically the means by which we carry out policies, and they can be quite extensive. For instance, a policy can state, “The network shall be secure against unauthorized users.” However, it takes a great deal of effort to implement that policy. There are procedures for the firewall, for network protocols, passwords, physical security, and so forth. You would probably also have procedures for dealing with problems that are reported by users and for routine maintenance of the servers.
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By far he best way to document a network is using netviz software. All data is graphically represented with inbedded information unlike Visio. Spearhead Technologies are the experts in netviz and network auditing and documentaton they can be found a speartec.com
Posted by Chris Knight on Monday, January 06 2003 10:36 PM