Complex Network Design Tools? 33
I'm-Not-A-BOFH asks: "How do you do your large scale network design? I am currently designing a large enterprise network - and there is a ton of information to track and think about. I use AutoCAD, Visio and Cisco Configmaker (which sucks) and many other applications. I am looking for software specifically designed to help you design a network.
What tools do you use - and what tools are out there that maybe are little known? How do you begin to manage network documentation when your hosts get into the thousands and your routers and routes into the hundreds? I am really just interested in the tools used to accomplish this - as all the tools I have been finding are just not adequate or well thought out. Please let me know what you think is invaluable to you when you design your systems."
Some useful tools. (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.lumeta.com/ipsonar.html
The whiteboard.
A good knowledge of networking protocols, etc.
The hardcore network engineer doesn't need diagrams - sh ip route, sh ip bgp, sh ip ospf, sh cdp neigh, sh arp, sh cam dyn, etc. (in Cisco-speak; there are equivalents for other vendors) are enough to visualize/plan/troubleshoot, quite frankly.
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Cisco Network Designer (Score:3, Informative)
Use your HEAD (Score:2, Informative)
Then, off of each core router, drop gig-e links off to your layer 2/3 routers. If redundancy is a huge issue (which is probabally is), you will probabally have two core layer 3 routers (probably cicso, juniper) with a small number of ports, and two layer 2/3 routers (riverstone, foundry, extreme) with a large number of layer two ports at each major location with gig-e multimode links btween them to provide extra redundancy. Before you go and buy everything, spend time testing this four router configuration (see how long it takes to reroute traffic when links go down). This is especially important if you ever intend on implementing VoIP on your new network.
All critical systems (DNS servers, domain controllers, application servers, VoIP gateways, database servers) should be on the layer 2/3 routers, not on the smaller routers underneath that most "end users" will be connected to throughout each location. Essentially the layer 3 routers are just for core routing, and the layer 2/3 routers will provide most of your functionality.
Once you have everything up and running, use SNMP to monitor your links (most SNMP management software draws your network for you, and it will draw nice broken links when links go down). Good SNMP software will map every network device on you network, as long as you configure SNMP on all your new nodes. Also, make sure you have a really cool NOC (Network Operations Center) with lots of LCD projectors and linux/unix workstations. Make sure you have a good naming convention for all your network links and routers.
Don't deploy at 100% capactiy immediately, run at 10% capacity then work your way up.Many unforseen problems WILL come up (Routers have more bugs than you can imagine). In the end, you will probably have a nice buildingwide, statewide, nationwide, or worldwide modern next-generation (VoIP etc) capapable network.
-n