Iristheangel wrote: » I haven't documented for a small city by any means but at my previous job, I walked into the place and there was no existing documentation at all. Over the course of two years, I documented most of the network. I don't know if I did it by any industry standard way but I took a little of what I learned from the previous infrastructure architect and some of what I found online to merge it into my own documentation. I was very heavy on the Visio usage at that job Depending on the site, I would create several diagrams: -Physical diagram - Basically showed how every piece of network equipment was interconnected. Think of it as a layer 1 diagram. I would diagram the actual equipment models and how they were interconnected (port-to-port). I would also include a very basic description of how each port was configured on the links between devices. I'd usually squeeze a basic port matrix in there. They diagrams were usually the most helpful for the techs onsite installing the equipment. -Tier 2/3 diagram - This was a high level diagram. It would show where each switch and router was located, how the IDFs were physically interconnected, the DNS name and IP address of the switches, switch models, which APs/cameras were connected to which IDF, where the IDFs were located, the IP scheme, DNS scheme, etc. This was most helpful for network administrators and network engineers troubleshooting when a site or part of a site went down. -CCTV/WAP diagram - Usually built on floorplans. It would show the locations of the WAPS and CCTV Cameras and which IDFs they were connected back to. Pretty simple stuff. This was usually helpful when a camera or AP went down. When I was done diagramming, I would create a sitepak. This was sort of my comprehensive documentation that would help any network admins or the service desk do basic troubleshooting. It would include the following: -Address of the site -Contacts for people onsite -Physical layout of the location -Network design -IDF/MDF locations -Site Inventory including serial numbers, model numbers, Smartnet contract numbers, etc -Circuit types, speeds, LEC and circuit IDs, handoff type, media converters (if any), etc -VLAN numbers and descriptions - Security enhancements used - Number of APs, SSIDs, model numbers, etc - Any additional appliances or servers onsite and their uses - Identified single points of failure, MTTR, risk, remediation - Vendor list (wire vendors, appliance vendors, tech support, SPs, etc) - Router and switch configs at the time of install - This part would usually change and I set everything up on Solarwinds to automatically back up the configs in NCM but I wanted to document the configuration before anyone touched anything. At one point, I did try to look at various network topology mappers but I found they produced crappy diagrams and maps. I think they can be useful for scanning a subnet and coming back with a basic map and inventory but I'm yet to use one to build my diagrams completely off of. Anyways, that's how I do it. I don't know if it's right or wrong but it certainly helped myself and others troubleshoot after the fact.
