As a business grows, its network becomes larger and more complicated. This can cause problems with managing the network, leading to unexpected outages. These outages can be expensive for businesses because they come with a lot of extra costs. Additionally, as the network gets bigger, it becomes harder to figure out what's causing problems when something goes wrong. To make network management easier, businesses can use network diagramming tools. These tools create visual representations of the entire network infrastructure, which helps network admins understand how everything is connected. Having a clear picture of the network makes it easier to find and fix problems quickly, preventing downtime and saving money.
Why is network diagram software important?
See your network visually:Network diagramming tools create clear, easy-to-understand diagrams that show how your organization's network is spread out across different locations. This helps you visualize the network's structure and connections.
Monitor network device status: By using color codes in the diagrams, you can quickly check the status of network devices. This allows you to see if any devices are experiencing issues or are unavailable, providing an instant overview of your network's health.
Identify and fix problems easily: With an automatic network diagram software, you can quickly pinpoint and troubleshoot faults in your network. It streamlines the process by automatically detecting and highlighting problem areas, making it easier to address issues and minimize downtime.
Understand the impact of network faults: When a network fault occurs, the software enables you to assess the severity of the problem. With the best network diagram software like OpManager, you can easily identify the affected device and view its connections to other devices in the network. This knowledge helps you understand the potential impact and take appropriate actions.
Improve network planning: Network architecture diagram software represents various network components, such as routers, switches, and servers, in real-time diagrams. These visualizations assist you in better network planning and forecasting your network's growth and development. You can design an efficient network architecture that meets your organization's needs. Overall, a network diagram software simplifies network management, enhances troubleshooting capabilities, and enables informed decision-making for optimizing your network's performance and reliability.
Important features of network diagram software
Before choosing the right network diagram software for your organization, make sure you tick off the below checklist.
Easy to use: The foremost need to use a network diagram software is to create a virtual replica of the organizational network. The diagram should be easy to edit, and adding new components as and when required should not be a tedious task. However, if this whole process is difficult, the need to use a dedicated network diagram tool would be absurd.
Customizable symbols: The network diagram solution you choose should have a repository of network related symbols for you to customize the diagram as per your requirement. Easy to use, drag-and-drop functionality makes the process even easier for the users to create a diagram within a few minutes.
Improved collaboration: The network diagram tool should enable real-time collaboration of different users, allowing teams distributed by geographical locations to work together.
Automated features: Some tools also have the potential to automate the network diagramming process by discovering all the layer 2 devices connected to the main components of the network diagram. These advanced network diagramming features reduce the administrators' manual effort by half.
Other features like scalability, seamless integration with network monitoring software, and pocket friendliness are to be evaluated before choosing the right software for your organization. We recommend you take up a free trial and try it to see if the tool is compatible for your organization.
Learn everything about a network diagram software here.
Types of Network Diagram
Network diagram software can be used to create two types of network diagrams.
Physical Network diagrams
These diagrams show a visual representation of how devices are physically connected in a network. They use lines to represent the actual physical connections between devices. Physical network diagrams are helpful for network administrators to understand the layout and structure of the network.
Logical Network diagrams
Unlike physical network diagrams, logical network diagrams focus on how data behaves in a network. They show how devices communicate with each other and the flow of data between them. Logical network diagrams help network administrators understand the data flow and how devices interact in the network.
Challenges faced while drawing a network diagram
Huge size of enterprise networks: Enterprise networks are often very large, consisting of numerous devices and interfaces. Understanding the layout of such networks is crucial, but it can be time-consuming to create a diagram for such complex networks.
Scaling: Enterprise networks are dynamic, meaning the amount of traffic they handle can change over time. This dynamic nature makes it difficult to accurately represent the network in a diagram. Network administrators need to consider this variability when creating a network diagram.
Connectivity through Interfaces and Ports: A problem with interfaces and ports might significantly increase the chances of a network outage. These down-to-the-point details are complex but incredibly essential to maintain the seamless functioning of a network. Hence, a network admin has to get acquainted with these comprehensive details before drawing a network diagram, which might be exhausting.
OpManager: An automated network diagramming tool
OpManager is a user-friendly network diagram software that helps you visually represent your business's network infrastructure. With OpManager's automatic network diagram feature, you can easily create visual representations of your network in different formats. These formats include:
Network diagram: Layer2 Maps
A vital requisite to automate network diagramming process
OpManager, the automated network diagram software, offers an impressive feature called Layer2 Maps. This feature allows you to understand the logical structure of your network by representing it visually in a diagram.
Let's learn the benefit of Layer2 Maps:
Visualize your network easily: Layer2 Maps provides a clear and intuitive visualization of the physical layout of your network. You can see how devices are connected and organized, making it easier to grasp the overall network topology.
Identify issues quickly: When a device in your network encounters problems, Layer2 Maps helps you pinpoint the devices and interfaces that will be affected. This enables you to troubleshoot and resolve issues faster, minimizing network downtime.
Customize and share your maps: You can save your Layer2 Maps as business views, allowing you to customize the layout according to your needs. Additionally, you can export the maps as Visio files or generate printable versions, making it convenient to share the network diagrams with colleagues or stakeholders.
Automatic mapping of Layer2 devices: With Layer2 discovery, OpManager automatically maps Layer2 devices in your network. You don't have to worry about manually creating or editing the map every time a new Layer2 device is added or discovered. This automated network diagramming software saves you time and effort in maintaining an up-to-date network diagram.
Sync Layer2 relationship with ServiceDesk Plus: By integrating OpManager with ServiceDesk Plus, OpManager can automatically sync device relationships using information from the Layer2 map feature and subsequently import this data into ServiceDesk Plus.
Network diagram: Business Views
To map devices according to their associated business services
OpManager's network diagram software helps you create a network topography diagram for your network infrastructure using the business view format. This map view allows you to understand business functions accurately and offers a bird's eye view for effective management.
Business view, one of the visualization formats in OpManager's network diagramming tool, allows you to visually organize the devices in your network based on the business needs that they cater to.
With business views, you can:
Visually group devices that belong to a particular business.
View live link status between two network devices.
View the device details of all the individual devices in the business view from a single console.
Drill down to the snapshot details of the individual devices in the business view in just a click.
View network traffic from SNMP & NetFlow.
Network diagram: Maps
Visualize the critical devices in your network geographically.
OpManager, the network diagramming software or network topology mapper, offers maps, a format which can be used to represent the location of your servers and other important devices geographically.
Apart from this, you can use the map tool to:
Gain a clear understanding of how your network is distributed geographically.
Connect your critical network devices to their real-world locations using either Google Maps or Zoho Maps.
Check the status of devices in specific geographic areas directly on the map.
Quickly access device snapshots by simply clicking on the embedded devices on the map.
Now under the scope of OpManager's automatic network diagram software.
OpManager, our network diagramming tool, can automatically create visual representations of your network's structure. It generates network topology diagrams for various virtualization platforms such as VMware VCenter, VM's, HyperV, and Xen hypervisors, including their guest and host machines. In our user-friendly Windows network diagram software, these diagrams are conveniently stored in tabs under the map menu, making them easily accessible for you.
Network diagram: 3D floor views
Diagrammatically represent the servers & switches in your network
OpManager's automatic network diagram solution is designed to simplify the maintenance and management of servers. One of its standout features is the 3D floor view, which helps you visualize your network infrastructure in a diagrammatic way.
This is how OpManager's 3D floor view can benefit you:
Create 3D views of your switches and servers on each floor: OpManager allows you to generate 3D representations of your switches and servers in your data center or server rooms. This visual representation makes it easier to understand and navigate your network infrastructure.
Simplify server and switch installations: With the 3D floor view, you can get a clear visual image of your server floors or rooms. This makes it convenient to identify suitable locations for installing new servers or switches, saving you time and effort.
Monitor server and switch status: The 3D floor view also provides real-time information about the status of your servers and switches. You can easily see if they are online, offline, or experiencing any issues, helping you stay on top of your network's health.
Identify faulty servers and switches: OpManager, the best network diagramming software, uses color codes in the 3D floor view to highlight any faulty servers or switches. This makes it effortless to spot problematic components in your network, allowing you to address them promptly and minimize downtime.
Network diagram: 3D Rack view
Granular visualization of devices via virtual racks
OpManager, the Linux network diagram software, has a really cool feature called the 3D rack view. It helps network administrators like you create virtual racks that represent your actual server room or custom racks that suit your needs.
This feature makes managing your network a breeze in the following ways:
Easy Organization: You can create a virtual 3D rack for a group of network devices that serve a common purpose. This allows you to organize and manage them effortlessly.
Visualize Your Network: The 3D rack view provides a topographical visualization of your devices in the network. You can populate devices onto the virtual rack in a specific order, giving you a better understanding of your network architecture.
Simplify Data Center Management: With 3D racks, you can visualize the exact physical arrangement of your racks in the data center. This makes managing your data center much easier and more efficient.
Spot Issues at a Glance: You can easily identify any issues with individual devices in these racks using color codes. This visual indicator helps you quickly pinpoint any problems that need attention.
Streamline Troubleshooting: If you come across a faulty device in the rack, you can simply click on it and you'll be taken to the device snapshot page. This makes troubleshooting a breeze, as you can quickly access the relevant information and resolve issues promptly.
How to draw a network diagram using OpManager
Before setting up a network for your organization, it's important to create a clear and understandable network diagram. This diagram helps you plan and organize your network effectively. OpManager, a versatile network diagram software, follows a simple three-component approach to make drawing network diagrams easy and efficient.
The first component is symbols that represent specific network components such as routers, switches, servers, and more. These symbols visually represent the devices in your network. The second component is link connectors that bridge the network components. These connectors show how the devices are connected to each other, helping you understand the connectivity within your network. The third component is labels, which are used to name the network components. This allows you to easily identify and locate specific devices in your network.
OpManager simplifies the process of creating network diagrams. It provides a list of discovered devices, which you can easily drag-and-drop onto the diagram. You can also use the multi-select option to add a range of devices quickly.
Once you have added the devices, you can position them according to your network layout. By creating links between the devices, you can visualize how they are connected and how they work together.
OpManager also allows you to select a background image for your diagram. You can choose your organization's layout or even use a world map to represent different branch offices. This helps you visualize your entire network in a single frame. Read more
A network diagram software is a helpful tool that allows you to see your organization's network infrastructure visually. It makes it easier to spot any problems or issues with the network, helps you fix them faster, and keeps an eye on all the different parts of the network to make sure they're working properly. Network diagrams are helpful visual representations that show the different parts of a network and how they are connected. They make it easier to keep track of the network's health and check if all the components are working properly. These diagrams help you monitor and manage your network more efficiently.
What is a network infrastructure diagram?
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A network infrastructure diagram is like a map that shows how all the devices in a network are connected to each other. It uses symbols and lines to represent the devices and their connections. This visual representation helps users see how the network is set up and understand how everything works together. It's like having a clear picture that makes it easier to understand the details of the network.
How do I create a network diagram automatically?
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OpManager is a user-friendly software that lets you easily create network diagrams. You can simply drag and drop network components to build your diagram. With OpManager, you can group these components and visually represent them in business views, maps, and more. It's a great tool for visualizing and managing your network setup.
How do you create a network diagram?
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The best way to create network diagrams is by using special software designed specifically for that purpose. OpManager is a great tool for making network diagrams. It's easy to use and lets you build diagrams by simply dragging and dropping elements onto the canvas. With OpManager, you can create detailed diagrams of your network infrastructure and how everything is connected.
How do you create a server diagram?
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A server diagram is like a picture that shows how a server is set up and what parts it has. It includes drawings of the server's shelves and other important pieces. These diagrams help the people who take care of the server to see if everything is working well and to find out what's wrong if something goes bad. They make it easier to fix problems and get the server working again. To create a server diagram, you can use special software called network diagram tools to create 3-D diagrams of servers. These tools allow you to visualize your servers in a rack or floor view with a three-dimensional perspective. You can even create a virtual replica of your entire data center using these diagramming tools.
What are the various visualization formats offered by a network diagram software?
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Layer 2 Maps, VM topology maps, Location maps, 3-D floor views, 3-D rack views and business views.
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