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."
Re:Some useful tools. (Score:4, Insightful)
Thats assinine. Have you ever worked on a network with THOUSANDS of devices before? He didn't say 'Small Business' he said 'enterprise'.
stupid arrogant people assuming the people who need diagrams aren't good enough. Glad you can sit and boost your ego that way, but when that stops working for you, join the real world.
To keep this slighly on topic, try using Ciscoworks [cisco.com]
No Single Tool and Layers (Score:4, Insightful)
Other Considerations (Score:3, Insightful)
Many "well-planned" networks fail because they aimed to provide all resources evenly, but in the real-world, this is not the case. Most of the time, a certain group of people use specific resources, and use very little of other resources. Also keep in mind that you must be able to adapt if the resource requirements for a group change, because it will happen. It's the same thing as trying to use a database wizard to optimize your database. A computer just can't do that for you. The software doesn't have all the necessary input parameters to the problem, and even if it did, the problem is NP Hard. So, in reality, it doesn't matter what tool you use to diagram the network, but actual design still has to be done by human insight, or at least a well-trained monkey...