Cablefolio

Getting started

How to document a client network

Updated

A practical method for documenting a client's network so the next technician can find any device, port, or cable without a site walk: what to record, in what order, and how to keep it true afterwards.

Start with the places

Good network documentation follows the building, not the spreadsheet. Record the client, then each property (a site or a building), then each room that holds network equipment or serves as an end point: the comms room, each wiring closet, the server room, and outside locations such as a pole or a gate. In Cablefolio that is client → property → room; see Places and devices.

Draw the floor before the detail

A floor plan turns a list into a map. Trace each floor over the architect's drawing or a photo, outline the rooms, and set the scale from a door or a wall. Every outlet, camera, and access point placed later lands in its room, and runs between pinned devices draw themselves. See Floor plans.

Record the racks as they hang

For each rack, record its height and numbering, then each device at the units it covers, front and back: patch panels, switches, the firewall, UPS and PDUs, shelves, blanks, and cable managers. Save common models as presets so the next rack takes minutes. See Work with a rack.

Map both sides of every patch panel

A patch panel has two sides: the rear, where each horizontal cable run lands, and the front, where a patch cord goes to a switch port. Document both, and a trace can follow any wall jack to the switch port behind it. See Ports and links.

Give every cable run an ID and its test result

Each pulled cable is one run with its own cable ID, where it starts and ends, its cable type, its pathway, and its certification test result. Number runs from a pattern rather than by hand, import tester results rather than retyping them, and print wire flags for both ends from the same record. See Cable runs and testing.

Add the logical layer

With the physical layer in place, add VLANs and subnets, IP addresses, Wi-Fi networks, and the internet circuits, and let the topology map draw the network from the links already recorded. See Topology.

Keep the logins out of the notes

Device logins, door and alarm codes, and the client's own provider logins belong in an encrypted vault with audited reveals — never in a note, a spreadsheet cell, or an email. See Accounts and security.

Take the photos that answer questions

Photograph each rack front and back, each panel, the demarcation point, and anything unusual, and file each photo on the record it shows, while standing in front of it. See Photos, files, and notes.

Label it the way it is documented

Print QR labels for rooms, racks, and devices, and wire flags for runs, from the same record, so the label on the cable says what the documentation says and scanning it opens the record. See Labels and QR codes.

Keep it true

Documentation goes stale when nobody looks. Walk each site on a schedule — an audit walk stamps every room, rack, device, and run you see as verified — review articles by their review date, and work through Needs attention. Hand every change over with a signed checklist and an updated report. See Getting started.