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    Network Documentation: Network Monitoring and Management

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    Eppy David Paz Cordoba
    This document discusses the importance of network documentation and provides guidelines for effective documentation. It states that documentation is essential so others can troubleshoot problems if the main engineer leaves or is unavailable. It provides tips for labeling all equipment and cables and creating a documentation policy. The document also introduces several automated network documentation systems that can help with monitoring, management and generating reports.

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    Network Documentation: Network Monitoring and Management

    Uploaded by

    Eppy David Paz Cordoba
    38 views34 pages
    This document discusses the importance of network documentation and provides guidelines for effective documentation. It states that documentation is essential so others can troubleshoot problems if the main engineer leaves or is unavailable. It provides tips for labeling all equipment and cables and creating a documentation policy. The document also introduces several automated network documentation systems that can help with monitoring, management and generating reports.

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    Original Title

    Documentation

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    This document discusses the importance of network documentation and provides guidelines for effective documentation. It states that documentation is essential so others can troubleshoot problems if the main engineer leaves or is unavailable. It provides tips for labeling all equipment and cables and creating a documentation policy. The document also introduces several automated network documentation systems that can help with monitoring, management and generating reports.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    38 views34 pages

    Network Documentation: Network Monitoring and Management

    Uploaded by

    Eppy David Paz Cordoba
    This document discusses the importance of network documentation and provides guidelines for effective documentation. It states that documentation is essential so others can troubleshoot problems if the main engineer leaves or is unavailable. It provides tips for labeling all equipment and cables and creating a documentation policy. The document also introduces several automated network documentation systems that can help with monitoring, management and generating reports.

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    Network Monitoring and

    Management

    Network Documentation

    These materials are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported license
    (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) as part of the ICANN, ISOC and NSRC Registry Operations Curriculum.
    Documentation

    Maybe you’ve asked, “How do you keep track


    of it all?”...
    Document,
    document,
    document…
    Updated Documentation is essential

    •  So that you can remember what you did 6


    months ago
    •  So that others in your team can
    troubleshoot problems quickly
    •  Think about these questions:
    –  What would happen to the network if the main
    engineer moves to another job?
    –  How would your team deal with problems if you
    were sick? Or on vacation?
    Documenting is hard
    It’s tedious
    –  “I’m so busy, I don’t have time right now”
    It’s difficult to keep organized
    –  You need to have an established methodology
    that everyone can follow
    –  Otherwise it becomes crazy with time
    It becomes outdated very quickly
    –  Old information is useless and can be even
    dangerous!
    Guidelines
    Create a documentation policy
    –  What’s the responsibility of each person?
    –  What is the process? Order of tasks?
    –  How to verify completeness/quality?
    –  Methodologies
    •  Consistent naming schemes
    –  For devices, cabling, etc.
    Guidelines
    Label EVERYTHING
    –  Devices: routers, switches, servers, access
    points, etc.
    –  Cabling
    –  Network jacks
    –  Racks
    Documentation
    Basics, such as documenting your switches...
    –  What is each port connected to?
    –  Can be simple text file with one line for every port in a
    switch:
    •  health-switch1, port 1, Room 29 – Director’s office
    •  health-switch1, port 2, Room 43 – Receptionist
    •  health-switch1, port 3, Room 100 – Classroom
    •  health-switch1, port 4, Room 105 – Professors Office
    •  …..
    •  health-switch1, port 25, uplink to health-backbone
    –  This information might be available to your network staff,
    help desk staff, via a wiki, software interface, etc.
    –  Remember to label your ports!
    Documentation: Labeling

    Nice…
    Network Documentation
    More automation might be needed. An
    automated network documentation system
    is something to consider.
    –  You can write local scripts to do this.
    –  You can consider some automated
    documentation systems.
    –  You’ll probably end up doing both.
    NOCs: Network Operation Centers
    Where documentation, monitoring and
    management can all come together:
    –  Links to monitoring tools
    –  Ticketing systems
    –  Documentation systems
    •  Diagrams
    •  Databases
    •  Wikis
    The Network Operations Center
    NOC = Network Operations Center
    –  Come in many forms and depend on the size of
    your organization and your goals.
    –  “One or more locations from which control is
    exercised over your network.”
    –  NOCs can be:
    •  Virtual
    •  Located at the core of your network
    •  With your help desk
    •  Built in pieces
    •  Etc.
    A BIG NOC

    There are even bigger NOCs out there…


    A small NOC
    In the same room there is a
    desk with a phone, another
    computer and a monitor.
    This acted as the group’s
    Help Desk.

    Many network problems


    could be detected and
    solved on the spot!
    Automated Documentation Systems

    There are quite a few automated network


    documentation systems. Each tends to do
    something different:
    –  Netdot:
    https://netdot.uoregon.edu/
    –  IPplan:
    http://iptrack.sourceforge.net/
    –  Netdisco:
    http://netdisco.org/
    –  Rack Tables:
    http://www.racktables.org/
    It’s a very comprehensive tool:
    –  Device discovery via SNMP
    –  Layer2 topology discovery and graphing, using:
    •  CDP/LLDP
    •  Spanning Tree Protocol
    •  Switch forwarding tables
    •  Router point-to-point subnets
    –  IPv4 and IPv6 address space management (IPAM)
    •  Address space visualization
    •  DNS/DHCP config management
    •  IP and MAC address tracking

    Continued è
    Netdot:
    Functionality continued:
    –  Cable plant (sites, fiber, copper, closets, circuits...)
    –  Contacts (departments, providers, vendors, etc.)
    –  Export scripts for various tools (Nagios, Sysmon,
    RANCID, Cacti, etc)
    •  I.E., how we could automate node creation in Cacti!
    –  Multi-level user access: Admin, Operator, User
    –  It draws pretty pictures of your network
    Netdot: NETwork DOcumentation Tool
    Network devices

    •  Can be added via SNMP (preferred) or manually


    •  Automatic updates via SNMP
    •  Manufacturer, model, software version, name and
    domain, dates
    •  Maintenance contracts, out of band access,
    SNMP version and community
    •  Interfaces, VLANs, IP addresses, BGP peers
    –  ARP tables (routers), redirection tables (switches)
    •  Topology
    •  Images, comments, change history
    Topology

    Netdot uses all possible sources of


    topological information:

    •  CDP and LLDP protocols


    •  Analyze redirection tables
    •  Spanning Tree protocol
    •  Point-to-point networks
    Netdot Topology example
    Netdot can draw the
    topology of a network or
    a segment of a network
    dynamically.
    IP Space: Addresses and Blocks
    •  Hierarchical (drill-down) & graphical representation
    •  Support for IPv4 and IPv6
    •  Classification in:
    –  Block
    •  Container
    •  Subnet
    •  Reserved
    –  Address
    •  Static
    •  Dynamic
    •  Reserved
    Visualization of IP space
    Reports

    •  Devices
    –  By category and by product
    –  Out-of-date firmware
    –  Duplex mismatches
    •  Most used MAC codes (Manufacturers)
    •  From the database
    –  SQL table utilization reports
    Inventory and Devices
    Configuration exports

    The information contained within Netdot enables the


    automatic generation of configurations for
    software packages.
    •  Monitoring devices and servces
    -  Nagios, Sysmon
    •  Monitoring configurations
    -  RANCID
    •  Traffic analysis
    - Cacti
    •  Services
    -  DNS (Bind)
    -  DHCP
    But wait! There’s more…

    Cabling
    –  Inter-building cabling (backbone)
    –  Fibers
    –  Intra-building cabling (interior cabling)
    –  Cabling closets – physical data, photos.
    Contacts
    –  Individuals
    –  By building
    –  Roles
    –  Contact lists
    Other automated systems
    Many. Each one does something different:
    Open Source
    •  IPplan:
    http://iptrack.sourceforge.net/
    •  Netdisco
    http://netdisco.org/
    •  RackTables
    http://racktables.org/
    Commercial
    •  HP OpenView
    •  IBM Tivoli and Netcool
    •  SolarWinds
    .

    From the IPplan web page:

    “IPplan is a free (GPL), web based, multilingual, TCP IP address management


    (IPAM) software and tracking tool written in php 4, simplifying the
    administration of your IP address space. IPplan goes beyond TCPIP address
    management including DNS administration, configuration file management,
    circuit management (customizable via templates) and storing of hardware
    information (customizable via templates).”

    Lots of screenshots:
    http://iptrack.sourceforge.net/doku.php?id=screenshots
    Netdisco:

    •  Project launched 2003. Version 1.0


    released October 2009.
    •  Some popular uses of Netdisco:
    –  Locate a machine on the network by MAC or IP and
    show the switch port it lives at.
    –  Turn Off a switch port while leaving an audit trail.
    Admins log why a port was shut down.
    –  Inventory your network hardware by model, vendor,
    switch-card, firmware and operating system.
    –  Report on IP address and switch port usage: historical
    and current.
    –  Pretty pictures of your network.
    .

    Web site:
    http://racktables.org/
    From the RackTables web site
    “Racktables is a nifty and robust solution for datacenter and server room
    asset management. It helps document hardware assets, network
    addresses, space in racks, networks configuration and much much
    more!”

    There is a demo system:


    http://racktables.org/demo.php
    Documentation: Diagrams
    Diagramming Software
    Windows
    -  Visio:
    http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/visio/FX100487861033.aspx
    -  Ezdraw:
    http://www.edrawsoft.com/

    Open Source
    -  ASCII:
    http://www.ascii-art.org/
    -  Dia:
    http://live.gnome.org/Dia
    -  Cisco reference icons:
    http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac50/ac47/2.html
    -  Nagios Exchange:
    http://www.nagiosexchange.org/
    Questions

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