The other day, I was in a demo meeting with a prospective customer who informed me they had reached out because their cable software’s vendor,Brady, stopped supporting its NetDoc Cable Management software and is reaching end-of-life by the end of December 2021. I recalled hearing the name ‘NetDoc’ from exhibiting at BICSI events last year (where we discussed the importance of having an effective cable management strategy as part of the change processes to keep track in a DCIM system, like netTerrain).
netTerrain DCIM allows you to manage cables and circuits — essential to tying together assets and understanding how they are related and connected to each other. Without a cable management strategy in place, your efficiency and costs suffer. For example, when decommissioning a cable (whether fiber or copper) connection across multiple hops… in the rush to get that switch disconnected from one end, it is not uncommon to forget about the rest of the cable trace (the cross connections across patch panels, and so on).
Now that Brady is sun-setting NetDoc, you may find yourself looking for a software that allows you to continue managing cabling with the support, updates, and new features you need to get the job done, year in and year out. netTerrain DCIM is up for the job: it’is a web-based solution, offering flexible licensing: both on-premise and Cloud. Accessing netTerrain is just like NetDoc: all you need is a standard web browser. Our software requirements are essentially the same, too: Windows O/S, IIS, .NET, and MS SQL Database Server.
With netTerrain DCIM, you can plan the network, troubleshoot, and manage inventory…and avoid inefficiencies such as:
- Used ports that are not providing any services
- Cables going through trays that are only occupying space
- Fiber strands that supposedly carry traffic
- A percentage of equipment that is supporting infrastructure isn’t
How can netTerrain DCIM help? You will be able to manage your cabling infrastructure, from managing fiber (and its fiber strands) to copper cables, cable trays, power cables, and showing fiber cables from inside and outside plant.
This sounds good and all, but can I import my data from NetDoc into netTerrain? You have a couple of options:
- Export & Import Data: you can export your NetDoc data to a CSV file and import this into netTerrain. You will need to follow our template guide, to make sure the import works smoothly.
- Connect: SQL Server ODBC Connector. Since NetDoc has a MS SQL database server, like netTerrain, you can use the ODBC connector in netTerrain’s Integration toolkit to import your database.
- API: if NetDoc has REST API’s, you can utilize netTerrain’s web API’s to make a connection.
After the data is imported into netTerrain, you can utilize its work order tasks to keep track of any changes to the cabling, along with an extensive audit trail, to see who has made changes in netTerrain. This is how you can maintain up to date cabling diagrams.
Some of netTerrain’s features include:
- Infrastructure Management. Document any number of sites, campuses, buildings, floors, rooms, racks, and equipment inside the racks.
- Asset Management. Document assets such as assets inside your data center and telecom rooms, office floors with computers and phones and wall jacks. Track ports, ports used, and ports that are free on each asset.
- Cable Management. Document fiber and copper cables, their location and termination hardware they connect to.
- Rack Management. Manage rack locations, connected assets, ports and fiber connections.
- Network Tracing. Use the Circuit Layout Record (CLR) to provide a visual of connected assets and its cables. You can see how equipment are connected to the network.
- Troubleshooting. Find information quickly with its powerful searching capabilities, reports, and using the CLR as mentioned above.
Example: Circuit Layout Record (CLR) in netTerrain
So, for the NetDoc users who will be attending the BICSI show in Las Vegas (let’s all hope this is still on) at the end of September 2020, come stop by and see us (we are a Bronze sponsor for this conference) at our exhibit booth to see our cable management solutions and discuss your migration plans away from NetDoc.
If you need to see something sooner, please feel free to reach our sales team at sales @ graphicalnetworks.com or get a demo by clicking here.