Network mapping, physically

[XOR != OR]

Hey all, I'm interested in learning how others have tackled this problem. I have a building where I want to be able to go to either side of the connection and know exactly where the other is. I can do this from the port to the punchdown ( label the port ), but I'd like to be able to do the opposite as well ( punchdown to port ).

A punchdown legend is one method. I was also thinking of setting up a grid and naming the ports associated with the grid as well. What I'm after is something easy to maintain, doesn't require a lot of maintenance and easy to understand. Initial setup isn't so big a concern, as long as I get everything else.

So, ideas?

EDIT: One thing i should mention is that I can't rely on things like computer name, position name or even the walls themselves to stay consistent, hence the grid idea.

 

[Gott]

Well, the way I did it was that I created a physical drawing in Visio of all of the equipment in the server room. I did leave out workstations because we have a small office but just made note of what VLAN they're on.

And I also have a logical drawing showing IP's, subnets/VLANs as well. It took me some time to create but it's such a nice thing to have for quick referencing.

 

[SCSI-Terminator]

What he said, or:

For some of the larger 6500 setups, because of the shear number of physical ports, I usualy end up making a spreadsheet that shows the all the info, one connection per row which I can do easy filtering and searches. Also as a handy reference, I also print it out and tape it on the inside of the cabinet door, along with the date that it was printed, this way I always have a nice reference in the feild.

Visio diagrams for over 500 ports to a device tend to be too busy, thou they work just fine for smaller topologies, or higher level diagrams.

 

[Gott]

What he said, or:

For some of the larger 6500 setups, because of the shear number of physical ports, I usualy end up making a spreadsheet that shows the all the info, one connection per row which I can do easy filtering and searches. Also as a handy reference, I also print it out and tape it on the inside of the cabinet door, along with the date that it was printed, this way I always have a nice reference in the feild.

Visio diagrams for over 500 ports to a device tend to be too busy, thou they work just fine for smaller topologies, or higher level diagrams.

We're moving a lot of our servers to VM's so keeping track of them is so much easier. We do use a spreadsheet for all of our IP ranges because we simply cannot and won't cover everything in our physical or logical drawings.