Documenting Your LAN
Managing a LAN can quickly become a fairly complicated business, especially as it grows and changes. You can make the job easier for yourself and the CIT staff who do network installations and troubleshooting for you, by keeping organized information about your network. We refer to this as your LAN documentation. Some of your LAN documentation will be generated by CIT and provided to you. Other pieces of documentation will be generated and updated by you. Contents of this page:
What You Should Have
The following forms and documents should be part of your LAN library of documentation:
- This web page (and others that you have found informative).
- Handouts from classes you may have taken (including NT, Novell and Bear Access classes).
- A copy of each Request for Service (RFS) generated for your LAN.
- It is especially important to keep track of anything nonstandard or unusual about your LAN.
For example: Some older LANs made use of "thin-net" segments. CIT will not guarantee this method will work, recommends that its use be discontinued, and charges time and materials for repairs. This kind of network topology is very difficult to troubleshoot without accurate documentation about cable routes (maps/diagrams of logical and physical topologies) and number of connections!
For example, do you have a modem attached to your network that people use from remote locations to gain access?
- Copies of your completed Workstation Profile Worksheet(s).
- A list of operating system versions and printer drivers used on workstations.
- Any documentation regarding previous trouble calls, if any.
Documenting your LAN is an ongoing process. You should adjust your existing documentation whenever a node is added or removed, whenever an adapter card is added to a node or removed, and when any other change is made.
If you are responsible for tracking serial numbers for your department's hardware, you should document those as well.
Documentation helps you keep track of how your network is set up. You should find this documentation personally helpful when you perform management or troubleshooting functions. Beyond that, good documentation practices can save you money. If you need to call CIT for troubleshooting help, up-to-date documentation can save them from having to research how the network is set up. The less time CIT spends at your site, the less costly the troubleshooting visit. The same is true for consulting services. If you need help to plan changes or additions to your network, accurate documentation will cut down on the time CIT staff spends understanding your current network, thus reducing the charges to your department.
When your LAN is installed, your technician will provide you with all your LAN information: network numbers, router address, etc. Keep this information for reference, you will find it useful to refer to later.
Last updated: January 30, 2004
Reformatted: June 04, 2007
