Create effective Visio diagrams for network documentation
By Allen V. Rouse MCSE, MCDBA, CCNA, Special to ZDNet Asia
Thursday, November 28, 2002 04:10 PM
Thursday, November 28, 2002 04:10 PM
When we think of network documentation, we tend to think of a written narrative,
a dense tome that even an IT professional is reluctant to dig into. But it
doesn’t have to be that way. Graphic diagrams, created with the aid of Microsoft
Visio, can convey important information quickly and painlessly. Although many IT
pros use Visio, not all of them use it as effectively and consistently as
possible. Thus, I'm going to provide some guidance for using Visio to create
effective network documentation.Why use Visio?
A wide variety of drawing tools can produce digital illustrations, ranging from simple ones, such as the Paint program included in Windows, to sophisticated ones, like Adobe Illustrator. But by far the most useful program for creating graphic documentation of a computer network is Microsoft Visio. Not only does it have the built-in tools needed to graphically display network information, but it's also straightforward and easy to learn. You can show relationships between network devices with a simple, drag-and-drop method that quickly creates a sharp, crisp, professional drawing.
What can you display graphically?
Truly, you are limited only by your imagination in terms of what you can display with Visio. Here are some examples of elements that you can illustrate:
- Network topology
- DMZ configuration
- Systems overview
- Logical relationships
- Rack server diagrams
- Router and switch port assignments
What makes a good graphic display?
To do these kinds of drawings well, you don’t have to be an artist or have a degree in graphic design. But you will need to have some idea of basic best practices for graphic design and visual documentation to communicate information about your network. Let’s take a look at some of these basic principles.
Communicate one idea at a time
Imagine that a company has a new IT manager who wants to see a complete overview of the network. To communicate that information to him, the WAN administrator, the LAN administrator, the backup administrator, and the desktop support supervisor all stand in front of him and simultaneously begin describing their particular aspect of the network. Needless to say, that would not be effective.
And yet probably the biggest mistake that people make in creating graphic network representations is trying to put everything into one drawing. It is the visual equivalent of everyone talking at the same time. Such a drawing often ends up being a confused jumble of information that's hard to sort out. Information in network drawings needs to be communicated just one idea at a time.
How do we do that? By breaking up the drawing into multiple drawings, each of which shows a separate aspect or part of the overall network. Of course, every network is different, so the drawings are going to vary according to the configuration and what you want to depict. But for a large, enterprise network, you might want to have separate drawings for the following:
- WAN connectivity—In this drawing, you might show each of the routers, their locations, how they are connected (frame relay, ISDN, dedicated T1, etc.) and perhaps their connection to a switch for each network segment.
- Network backbone—Here you would illustrate the underlying network backbone at each geographic location.
- Data center—This diagram would break out the details of a data center/server room, showing servers and their connectivity to switches or hubs. In an organization with multiple data centers, you would probably want a separate drawing for each one. If the network is small enough, you might combine the backbone with the data center.
- Printer location—This is often done as a floor plan showing locations of printers and the types of printers available.
By breaking down the network into its components and depicting each one separately, the message comes across loud and clear rather than being swallowed up in a cacophony of details. Of course, you may want to include additional diagrams to the ones listed above, such as network segment details, workstation locations, and wireless topology, if your company has adopted wireless networking.
Hello Sir,
I am Santhosh had been worked as a Visio Developer I had been worked on Visio platfrom from Visio 5.0 to Ms Visio2000
Sir, I am looking for job on Visio. So can you please guid me in this regard.
Thanking you,
Santhosh
Posted by Santhosh Nataraj on Friday, May 14 2004 05:51 PM