We do this for all new clients using a combination of Excel and Visio. We use an 'aggregate table' report and include things like:
- machine id
- computer name
- ip address
- domain/workgroup
- operating system
- os version
- manufacturer
- system serial #
- subnet mask
- ram size
- cpu speed
- cpu type

I export that to an Excel spreadsheet, and then use a macro to 'fix up' the column data to match the property names of a 'computer' object in Visio.
For example: We concatenate the 'Operating System' field (which has just the 'XP' or 'Vista' name) with the 'OS Version' field (which has the full version info like 'Professional Edition Service Pack 1 Build 6001'). This gets put back into the 'Operating System' column because in a Visio computer object, there is a field called 'Operating System' that we use in the next step. Similarly, we rename the 'RAM (MB)' column to 'Memory (MB)' again to match the visio property.

It seems like a lot of work, but I just figured it all out once and recorded a macro so it's just the 'press of a button' now.

Once the spreadsheet is 'fixed up', I use Visio's 'link data to shapes' function to bring in all of my machine specs into visio. Then it's just a matter of dragging each item into a visio worksheet and associating it with the computer object and moving stuff around where you want it. We setup a visio template with basic layout and object properties and reuse this each time.

It was probably several hours of work to get it all working initially, but now we can build a new client map in about 5 minutes. We export the map to a PDF so the client has a nice 'eye candy' copy, and we keep the real visio doc for ourselves, which contains lots of additional properties not exported in the PDF.

Legacy Forum Name: General Discussion,
Legacy Posted By Username: benny@geeksaknockin.com

Sounds like a good place to start, would you have an example that you can share of what your final map looks like?

How do you handle things like (un)managed switches or networks that traverse multiple lan segments? These have been causeing the most pain in my world

Legacy Forum Name: General Discussion,
Legacy Posted By Username: thirteentwenty

Yeah, do you care to share that? That would be awesome. Thanks

Legacy Forum Name: General Discussion,
Legacy Posted By Username: lgarnier

So I've been playing with this method, yea there is some setup work involved. not too bad (I'm not macro savvy ). I guess with a bit of work this will work out fine.

In playing with this, I've answered one of my own questions (well that and I re-read bennys post) so the different lan segments are taken care of, but the question about un/managed switches and other knick knacks (ie. network/local printers) are handled (SNMP has been my biggest struggle to date).

Legacy Forum Name: General Discussion,
Legacy Posted By Username: thirteentwenty

I've attached a real basic sample - this sample is missing a few of the 'connector lines' for some reason. The names that show up in the green 'bubbles' are the Kaseya machine names (formatted a bit to display as we want them).

As to your question about switches/printers/etc we are doing a lot of that manually still. Like you, SNMP has been a real pain to reliably implement. Here's hoping K2 might make that process easier.

Legacy Forum Name: General Discussion,
Legacy Posted By Username: benny@geeksaknockin.com

That is truly beautiful. Nicely done. How can I make my own now?

Much appreciated shared. Thanks.

Legacy Forum Name: General Discussion,
Legacy Posted By Username: lgarnier

benny@geeksaknockin.com

I've attached a real basic sample - this sample is missing a few of the 'connector lines' for some reason. The names that show up in the green 'bubbles' are the Kaseya machine names (formatted a bit to display as we want them).

Thanks for the nudge in the right direction. I played around with the 'link data to shapes' feature in Visio, and yea, with some (read: a lot of) work, and a few explitives here and there. I was able to get it working alright and looking somewhat like yours I've had a pretty good hate/hate relationship with macros... Meaning I hate them and they hate me. But I've got something that works pretty well with the data exported into an xls file. So it's not exactly what we're looking for, but then again doing this cuts down on a lot of the manual work that I was doing before... So I can very much live with "not exactly"...

benny@geeksaknockin.com

As to your question about switches/printers/etc we are doing a lot of that manually still. Like you, SNMP has been a real pain to reliably implement. Here's hoping K2 might make that process easier.

We can only hope :\

PS did you ever notice that little guy that you used for your server doesnt look very happy?

benny@geeksaknockin.com

How can I make my own now?
Much appreciated shared. Thanks.

benny goes through the gist of it in his original post.

Legacy Forum Name: General Discussion,
Legacy Posted By Username: thirteentwenty

thirteentwenty

PS did you ever notice that little guy that you used for your server doesnt look very happy?

lol, I never did, that's funny though you're right! BTW, I'm pretty sure I got the basic visio template somewhere online, perhaps from Microsoft's template library:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT101431051033.aspx

Yeah, I hear you on the macros. I went back and looked at the one I recorded for this project - it does rely on certain things being uniform - like the agent naming convention for example. I did a lot of iterations of that macro until I had it manipulating the data exactly as I wanted. It's one of those things that when you click 'record macro' you want to make sure you've memorized the keystrokes and mouse clicks exactly how you want them to run.

Legacy Forum Name: General Discussion,
Legacy Posted By Username: benny@geeksaknockin.com

Yeah, Thanks Benny.

I will see what I can come up with.

Rock

Legacy Forum Name: General Discussion,
Legacy Posted By Username: lgarnier

benny@geeksaknockin.com

BTW, I'm pretty sure I got the basic visio template somewhere online, perhaps from Microsoft's template library:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT101431051033.aspx

I'll go through those there may be something in there that will make life a bit easier... or make these things look better

benny@geeksaknockin.com

Yeah, I hear you on the macros. I went back and looked at the one I recorded for this project - it does rely on certain things being uniform - like the agent naming convention for example. I did a lot of iterations of that macro until I had it manipulating the data exactly as I wanted. It's one of those things that when you click 'record macro' you want to make sure you've memorized the keystrokes and mouse clicks exactly how you want them to run.

I'm sure I'll be redoing the macros for a long while, or atleast until we find something we like.

Thanks a million for you input on this. Your way is much much easier than the way I was doing it before.

Legacy Forum Name: General Discussion,
Legacy Posted By Username: thirteentwenty

Nice post guys. This should come in handy when time allows. SNMP isn't done through Kaseya in my org so that'll have to be done separate. Or, come to think of it, existing network diagrams missing Kaseya provided data could be the bottom "layer" of the drawing.

I would also like to thank you for the nudge.

Legacy Forum Name: General Discussion,
Legacy Posted By Username: cameronpratto