Network Documentation & Netdot

Network Startup Resource Center

nsrc.org

These materials are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
 Attribution
Based on materials from several presentations
authored by:
–Carlos Vicente
University of Oregon Network Services
Principal author of Netdot

–Hervey Allen
Network Startup Resource Center
–Dale Smith
University of Oregon Network Services
 Documentation
Have you ever asked, “How do you keep track of it all?”

Document,
Document,
Document!
 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
Maybe this process should be automatic. Tools to
help automate network documentation are
something to consider.
–You can write local scripts (programs) to do this.
–Consider
among several automated
documenation systems for networks.
–You’ll probably end up using and doing both.
 Documentation: Labelling

Nice…
 Problems With Documentation
In most cases:
–Lack of clear procedures and methods
–Dispersion

–Lack of structure
–Lack of correlation
–Lack of tools… or, too many tools
–Lack of time and human resources
 Requirements for a Tool
●
Open standards based
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Generic and flexible
●
That uses a relational database
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Automates tasks
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Exports configurations
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Web and command-line interfaces (CLI)
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Authentication and authorization
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Reports
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Open source code
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Application programming interface (API)
 {net.} NETwork DOcumentation Tool
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Started in 2002. Required by the University of Oregon
Network Services and NERO
(http://www.nero.net)
Nothing equivalent available as Open Source
●

Started as something much simpler

●

Ccentralizing and correlating information is critical:

●

–Topology

–Cable plant
–IP and Mac addresses
–DNS, DHCP, etc.
 {net.} Design Goals
Reutilize components (don’t reinvent the wheel)
●

–Thereare Open Source packages that help to resolve many

Network Management problems.
●
Independent of the RDBMS using abstraction
(http://www.masonhq.com)
–MySQL, Postgres, etc.
●
Use of Object Relations Mapper tools (ORM)
●
Minimize the number of programming languages.
–Perl and Javascript
Low impact graphical interface.
●
 {net.} NETwork DOcumentation Tool
Core functionality includes:
•Discovery of network interfaces via SNMP
•Layer 2 topology discovery and graphics using:
-CDP/LLDP
-Spanning Tree protocol
-Switches forwarding tables
-Router point-to-point subnets
•IPv4 and IPv6 address management (IPAM)
-Address space visualization
-DNS and DHCP configuration managment
-IP and Mac address correlation
 {net.} NETwork DOcumentation Tool
Functionality cont.
•Cable plants (sites, fibre, copper, closes, circuits)
•Contacts (departments, providers, vendors, etc.)
•Exports for tools like Nagios, Sysmon, RANCID, Cacti, etc.
-For example, automate Cacti configuration
-I.E., how to automate node creation in Cacti
•User access-level: admin, operator, user
•Ability to draw pretty pictures of your network.
{net.} 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

●
 {net.} Topology
{net.} uses many sources of topological information:

•CDP and LLDP protocols

•Analyze redirection tables

•Spanning Tree protocol

•Point-to-point networks
Topology: Example

Netdot can dynamically draw

the topology of a network or a
segment of a network.
 IP Space: Addresses and Blocks
●
Hierarchical (drill-down) and graphical representation
●
Support for IPv4 and IPv6
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Classification in:
–Block
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Container
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Subnet
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Reserved
–Address
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Static
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Dynamic
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Reserved
Visualisation of IP Address Space
 IP Space: Blocks & Addresses
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Subnets are discovered from router interfaces
●
From ARP tables we can know:
–Addresses in use in each subnet
–Mapping of IP to MAC

●
Information added for blocks (or subnets)
–Group that uses the block
–Group that administers the block
–Percent utilization of addresses (subnet)
–Percent utilization of sub-divisions (containers)

●
Information added for addresses
–First and and last time seen
–interface and device
–Services to monitor with Nagios (HTTP, DNS, SSH, DHCP, Radius, LDAP, etc.)
 Cabling
●
Inter-building cabling (backbone)
–Buildings and closets where cabling starts and
stops.
–Type of fiber, length, quantity of fibers
●
Fibers
–Interconnections (splicing) and sequences
–Measurements, tests, interfaces, circuits
–Status
 Cabling
●
Intra-building cabling (interior cabling)
–Closet where it begins
●
Level
–Building
–Interface (port) where it is connected
–Outlet where it terminates (id)
●
Office number or room
–Level
●
Building
 Cabling
●
Physical data
–Dimensions, number and types of panels, type of
ventilation, number of copper pairs, number of
racks, etc.
●
Cabling that terminates in the closet
–Fiber and twisted pair
●
Photos
Closet Photos
 Entities
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Branch
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Customer
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Department
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Manufacturer
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Peer (BGP)
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Provider
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Vendor
 Contacts
Based in individuals and roles (Person & Contact)
●

–Information by individual
Contact data
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–Locations, position, telephone, e-mail, beeper

Roles
●

–Administrative contact, technical, etc.

–Notification schedule and levels
Contact lists
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–Assigned to different resources

Devices, subnets, cabling, etc.
●
 Reports
Devices
●

–By category and by product

–Out-of-date firmware
–Duplex mismatches
Most used MAC codes (Manufacturers)
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From the database

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–SQL table utilization reports

Inventory & Devices
 Configuration Exports
Information contained within Netdot enables automatic
generation of configurations for software packages.
•Monitoring devices and servces
-Nagios, Sysmon
•Monitoring configurations
-RANCID
•Traffic analysis
-Cacti
•Services
-DNS (Bind)
-DHCP
 Exporting Configuration
Recommendation:

• Netdot updates VCS (Git, Subversion, etc)

• Config mgmt system (Puppet, Chef, etc)
distributes configurations, restarts services, etc.
 IP Plan
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
●
Launched 2003. 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 IP address & switch port usage: historical & current.
–Pretty pictures of your network.
 RackTables
Web site: http://racktables.org/
“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
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Visio: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/visio/
●
Ezdraw: http://www.edrawsoft.com/
Mac
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Omnigraffle: https://www.omnigroup.com/omnigraffle
Open Source
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LibreOffice Draw
●
Pencil: http://pencil.evolus.vn/
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Dia: http://live.gnome.org/Dia
●
ASCII: http://www.ascii-art.org/
 Diagramming Software
Web based
●
Google Docs drawings
●
Gliffy: https://www.gliffy.com/
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Beware some charge for storage or team sharing features
Icons
●
Cisco icons: http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac50/ac47/2.html
●
For LibreOffice:
http://www.vrt.com.au/downloads/vrt-network-equipment
●
Nagios Exchange: http://www.nagiosexchange.org/
 {net.} Demo
Assuming there is time we will now give a short
demonstration of a running copy of Netdot

Netdot can be found at:

http://netdot.uoregon.edu/