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On 19/09/11 13:20, Sean K. Finn wrote:
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<p class="MsoNormal">Hi All,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I was wondering what people are using these
days for network diagramming tools for design / scribbling
network maps for possible layouts instead of using a pen and
napkin?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I want to be able to quickly mud-map
diagrams up without having to heavily invest my time with
Visio or something like that.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Can some of you please volunteer your
favourite network-scribbling tools (Preferable Open
Source/Free but paid ones are appropriate, too, if they cut
the mustard).</p>
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<br>
Call me old-fashioned, but i find that using a pencil and a piece of
A3 paper nicked from the bottom of the photocopier works well for
me. (Pen makes too much of a mess when i try to rub it off the
napkin.) <span class="moz-smiley-s3"><span> ;-) </span></span>
You can waste hours on doing designs in diagramming tools, and
sometimes they don't actually help. I only transfer my design to a
diagramming tool (dia, since i'm a Linux bigot) when i've done 5 or
6 iterations of the paper version.<br>
<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal">I’ll volunteer a tool that I was discussing
with several people at AusNOG on Thursday/Friday since several
people thought it was pretty cool and hadn’t heard of it yet.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For Live Updates from CACTI/MRTG Graphing
We’re currently using NETWORK WEATHERMAP<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.network-weathermap.com/gallery">http://www.network-weathermap.com/gallery</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is great to have on a heads-up display
to give a quick overview of immediate health / congestion for
the wall of your NOC.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Certainly not the be-all and end-all but
definitely good to have when you need it.</p>
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<br>
Everyone i know agrees that map tools like this are desirable, yet
every one that i've ever seen leaves so much to be desired that it's
hardly worth implementing. The major problem i see is that any
non-trivial network becomes so large and messy that it has to be
split up (and will be until we have affordable, wall-sized, 32K x
18K resolution screens), and usually none of the split-ups works at
a practical level.<br>
<br>
I work for a medium-sized private school for a significant portion
of my week, and even the most complex examples in the above gallery
(say, <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.network-weathermap.com/node/8">http://www.network-weathermap.com/node/8</a>
or <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.network-weathermap.com/node/119">http://www.network-weathermap.com/node/119</a>)
are vastly simpler than our network (despite my continual efforts to
simplify). I shudder to think what a service provider network looks
like.<br>
<br>
The solution i use for monitoring is Observium (see demo at <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://demo.observium.org/">http://demo.observium.org/</a>),
and i like its approach to mapping: map the links on one device,
then make it easy to jump from device map to device map by clicking
the links. It could probably use a "top utilised ports" bandwidth
screen, if your network utilisation is something you have to track
closely. (I don't - my 10G switch stack sometimes hits 300 Mbps
total traffic across 48 ports...)<br>
<br>
Paul<br>
<br>
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