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A Simple Tool for Tracking Switch Ports?
jeremy cobert asks: "I work for a large school district in the Computer Networking department. We have several network closets at each school and each switch is set for different equipment on different VLAN's. Sometimes a Tech at a school will call in and need a printer plugged into a switch, and we are currently using maps drawn with PhotoShop to keep track of which ports are set for different equipment. I can look at a map and tell them to use a port that is already setup for printers. I am the only person who knows how to use Photoshop in our department and it is becoming way too time consuming every time someone switches a port. Here is an example of how we currently track our ports. Is there any program that we can use to make changes and diagrams in some similar fashion?"
At the shop that I work at we have over a thousand circuits that we have to keep track of. Visio not only allows us to keep track of all the equipment, circuit flow, extra data, etc via making simple circuit layout records, but it is also easy enough that only minimal training is needed for new users. As an added bonus images can be stored and used over and over again so no "drawing" is required.
Others have mentioned proper diagramming software like Visio. For the free software/OSS type person, there is Dia (google it). It works reasonably well on both Linux and Windows. If only I could find a web based wiki-drawing tool...
You want something like NetDisco. It will go out and discover every switch on your network and can figure out how they're interconnected. You can then query ports for VLAN, speed, and duplex settings, among other things. Finally, you can toggle ports on and off. It can even produce graphs of your network layout using GraphViz. You'll need a *nix box, Perl, Apache, and Postgresql, as well as managed switches that support SNMP.
If all of this scares you, then go out and buy Visio, but all you'll get out of that is pretty pictures.