Workshop

sun rise on your beach vacation without your pager or cellular phone going off. Because the work day is
already occupied enough without having to drag somebody around to show him or her all of the nuances
of the network, your network documentation does this for you, leaving you time to do other work. Table
2.1 describes the four major types of network documentation.
Type Purpose
Table 2.1Types of documentation
Logical/functional map This type of documentation gives an overview of how data flows in
general. It leaves out individual workstations and wire runs and
simply shows the important parts of the network (such as the
servers, routers, and network segments).
Physical/layout map This type of documentation shows very specific information about
the network, including all wires, hubs, local switches, and
workstations.
Device and cable labeling This type of documentation consists of physical labels that identify
the devices or cables they’re attached to in big, bold letters.
Detail/description This type of documentation can consist of a logical write-up of an
application or system, or an everyday log of what’s done to a
device or system. It includes anything that’s not intuitive and not
included in manufacturer’s documentation.
Logical/Functional Maps
Logical or functional maps are probably the type of documentation that you’ll refer to most often.
They’re used as a sort of “org chart” of your network, and, appropriately, they indicate which device or
server is responsible for what function, as well as which devices depend upon other devices in order to
work. Details are not as important here; flow is what you’re looking for. You’ll want to be able to
determine, without being confused by unnecessary details, why department A can’t talk to the server, but
department B can.
Not every PC or printer needs to be on this chart, but every device that somebody else relies on (such as
your servers and routers) does. You’ll need to make a per-case decision as to whether to include hubs or
switches on this type of chart, based on whether these act as a group or stand alone. In other words, on
this type of chart, hubs and switches (being a “neighborhood”) are usually represented on their own, but
there might be cases in which a switch connects two different “neighborhoods” that would be
appropriately represented separately. See Figure 2.1 for an example of a simple logical network.