Four Simple Guidelines for Documenting Your Network Infrastructure
By NetQoS

Published 2007, Posted March 2007

Abstract:

Unlike putting off a trip to the dentist, the consequences of a poorly documented network affect hundreds of users or customers. Most often, it results in confusion and involves extra time and effort when it comes to network expansion and troubleshooting. For some businesses, it has even hurt the bottom line.

For example, quick and efficient troubleshooting is a matter of systematically reducing the area for a fault domain. If several client systems lose connectivity to a server, the network analyst needs to determine the areas of the network involved quickly, and to identify the links and equipment in that data path. Without an up-to-date network diagram, he will be forced to employ brute force methods to reduce the number of affected systems. When faced with a 2 AM visit to a wiring closet full of unlabeled connections, most network analysts quickly come to appreciate the value of good network documentation. Few network analysts are lucky enough to build a network from the ground up. Usually, they inherit a network that comes from several sources. It may have been part of an acquisition or a departmental consolidation. Previously, it may have been maintained by a vendor. Perhaps the company and the network have expanded so rapidly that network documentation is reduced to drawings on napkins or Post-It notes.

Whatever the case, documentation was probably created and kept at varying levels or degrees of care. One first step in proactive network documentation is to examine what information is available, and at what level of detail. You'll want to determine what information has been recorded, and to note where different sets of data overlap, and whether they agree or conflict with one another.

Network documentation can then be upgraded and maintained according to four simple guidelines:

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