Network Topology Diagram
By Dmitriy Y. Stepanov
Network Topology Diagram
The process of network diagram creation is well-known for the most network
administrators. In this article, we will try to answer the question: why an IT
manager must know the network topology and always should have it in front of
his eyes. Also, we will review all the process of the network topology discovery
and network diagram creation using the specialized software.
First of all, it is worth to mention, that the choice of network hardware and
software used in a company depends on the network topology. But the topology,
in its turn, depends on the company's needs and requirements. Thus, the
competent network topology increases the efficiency of all the organization and
allows you not to distract your colleagues if one of the LAN components falls out.
In addition, the intimate knowledge of the network topology allows the IT
manager to evaluate its bottlenecks, and to plan further connections of the
network devices and PCs better.
Apart from everything else, the system administrator has to detect and
recover any network failure as fast as possible. But if the company's network
is complex and consists of dozens or hundreds PCs, servers, switches, printers,
and other devices, it is not always possible to understand what the problem
is and where to go to recover the failure. With the network diagram you always
could view and try to understand where the defective device is, on which floor,
in which office, etc.
But what if you are a newbie in the organization or have been sent by
outsourcing company to solve specified problems? In this case, discovering and
building the network diagram topology can take more than an hour, and if the
network is rather complex, this procedure can take even a few days. Are there
any instruments that allow drawing the network diagram effortlessly? If there
are switches supporting the SNMP protocol on the network, the system
administrator can use the specialized network discovery software that is
available on the market. This software allows creating network diagrams
automatically. All the process will take a few steps:
1. Install the network diagrammer program on the admin's PC.
2. Scan your entire network in order to detect all the network devices. If
your switches support the SNMP protocol, the program will detect connections
between devices automatically.
3. If some connections between devices have not been detected because
of some reasons (for instance, the existing security policy does not allow
using the SNMP protocol on some devices), the system administrator can
complete and draw the diagram manually using the internal diagram editor.
Also, he is able to arrange devices by groups as they arranged by the rooms
and offices in the company's building, draw areas, and add necessary labels.
The network topology diagram is ready. All the devices that are connected
to the LAN, and links between them are located on the map.
So, the network mapping process takes three steps only, but these 3 steps
can help you to improve your LAN reliability, your employees and the entire
organization. Creating a network topology diagram will save system
administrator's nerves and time, allowing him to solve more important issues
related to the network operation, such as, optimizing and upgrading the system,
analyzing the LAN structure, maintaining the technical documentation, etc.
Dmitriy Stepanov,
10-Strike Software
(10-Strike Software is a Russian company.)
Spiceworks
headquartered in Austin, Texas, displays an interactive free network diagram of how
your devices relate to each other (layer-3 routers supported). You can manually add,
edit, move and resize devices to exactly reflect your network, and even choose filters
and views to display the device details you care most about in your network map!
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