Network Diagrams – Relationships visualized easily

Introduction

IT environments are easier to manage when relationships are visible. A device is connected to other devices, belongs to a network, runs an operating system and applications, or is part of a virtualized environment. Reports remain essential, but they do not always make these relationships immediately clear.

With release 5199, JDisc Discovery introduced diagrams in the Web UI. They provide another way to explore discovered data: start with one entity, follow the relevant relationships, and build the view you need. This article explains how the diagrams work and how they support practical network documentation.

Start with the diagram that fits the question

The simplest JDisc diagram is a single-entity diagram. Open it from the context menu of a report that supports diagrams. The diagram menu offers three useful starting points:

• Device diagram starts with a device entity node.
• Network topology diagram opens the network topology for the selected device.
• Virtualization topology diagram opens the virtualization topology for the selected device.

Navigate and adjust a diagram

The diagram toolbar and vertical context menu provide the controls for everyday work. You can reset or reload a diagram, zoom in and out, centre the view, and export it. Release 5199 supports export as an .svg file.

You can also change the layout and search for text within the diagram. Search highlights possible matches, which is especially useful when a diagram has many nodes. An overview panel helps you keep your orientation while you explore a larger result.

Expand the relationships that matter

Open a node’s context menu with a right click. On mobile devices, select the node and open the vertical diagram menu. The menu lets you navigate to related information for the selected device, for example directly connected devices, hardware information, or the network topology starting from that device.

Use templates for repeatable views

A template is a set of relationships that belong together. It applies several relationships with one selection to direct and child nodes. For example, the All Hardware template enables hardware-related information.

The Network Topology template is designed to enable device-to-device connections so that you can visualize the complete network topology. This makes it easier to move from a single device to a broader documentation view without manually enabling each relationship.

For communication paths between systems, the JDisc Dependency Mapping Add-On complements topology information with discovered TCP connections, open ports and related process information.

Configure the display for your environment

Choose Diagram Preferences from the vertical diagram menu to change default settings. In node settings, you can adjust node size and the way labels are created. For example, a device node for a switch can include the device IP address. A Cisco-specific icon set is also available for teams that prefer that representation.

In Expanding Preferences, you can adjust the default depth for templates that support it. These settings are retained and apply to all diagrams.

Make network documentation easier to explore

JDisc diagrams turn discovered entities and their relationships into an interactive view. Start with a device, network or virtualized system; select the relationships that answer the current question; and use templates when a repeatable view is useful. Together with reports, diagrams offer a practical way to explore and document the environment.

You can download JDisc Discovery to evaluate the product in your own network or book a demo to discuss your requirements with us.