It’s 2019, almost 2020, and what a time to be alive: we are on the cusp of robotic take over! Our robot overlords are coming but fear not. Before robots really take over we can at least use them to make our lives a little more simple. Put some automation in your life: it can be a big help….for example, with automatic network mapping software.

OK, ok: our network mapping software is not a robot but when I think ‘robots’ I think ‘automation’. My daily life, and probably yours also to some extent, is already helped along by automation. Simple things are automated…like my coffee getting brewed before I get up, or the floors being swept by that thing my dog hates. In netTerrain, you can get some automation as well.

Who likes updating network diagrams? Who has time for that? Face it (or tell your boss to face it…): diagrams of a constantly changing network become outdated the second after you complete them. Manually trying to keep network diagrams updated is like being stuck in a hamster wheel. So you need a way to keep things up-to-date…automatically.

In this blog, we’ll check out five things you can do in netTerrain that will automate your workflow.

#1 Awesome Thing about Network Mapping Software: Discover the Network
With automated network mapping software, you can discover the network devices. Yeah baby! Let the machines talk to the machines and discover the machines. Use SNMP to find what is out there and get results. You can also pick up connections and get an idea of how your network is connected together. Do this on one network or on many remote networks.

Understand your connections, for example: view the connectivity of the starting point of a device or port.

#2 Awesome Thing about Network Mapping Software: Automatically Grab SNMP Data
Get open SNMP data from any SNMP-enabled device: with the automation in a good network mapping software, you can get some really good information from your systems. If you have a temperature sensor, then get the reading from it. Humidity sure why not. How about applications running on a Windows system? What are you waiting for? The data is out there, so go and get it — and on a regular basis. How about every 24 hours you get an update..or even more often?

# 3 Awesome Thing about Network Mapping Software: Get Status Info and Understand It
Get status information and get knowledge. So lets say your device is no longer responding to SNMP. We can take that status and change the appearance of the device in netTerrain..think flashing red. We can also send out a notification about it.

# 4 Awesome Thing about Network Mapping Software: Integrate
You have systems out there with data and you are not using them.Solarwinds, VMware, ServiceNow, AWS, Azure and many others. Most of these systems already do discovery or you have your processes wrapped around them and getting good data on a regular basis. Why not take this data and use it to build some great documentation and get your users taking advantage of this data.

Easily connect to Solarwinds and other systems with netTerrain Logical

# 5 Awesome Thing about Network Mapping Software: Stop Stressing
Build that documentation and make it sing! Grab your data and have it work for you. Map the network, get diagrams, get insights, make solid decisions. No more outdated drawings and data, no more running around like a chicken with your head cut off when something goes wrong (or an audit pops up).

The bottomline is this: if you have a coffee maker that automatically brews your coffee for you every morning at 6 AM, and you have one of those robot-vacuums zooming around your home scaring your dog, you might as well automate your work a little bit less stress-inducing. netTerrain Logical (or DCIM, or OSP), or another network documentation software, may just be able to help you out.


About Jason Sherman

As Graphical Networks’ Sales Engineering and Support Services Manager, Jason Sherman leads the pre and post sales cycle with the entire Graphical Networks software portfolio, and ensures current customers are able to use the software to its fullest potential.