Drawing an interactive diagram
My boss wants to draw a local network, and then if you click on one of the computers or click the mouse over one, he wants to see things like RAM, CPU, OS, etc. This needs to be done in a browser, in particular on an intranet wiki.
One of my colleagues suggested using flash (I'm a complete noob, but I'm guessing ActionScript is what will be used?) And I think it can be done in javascript as well, but I don't know. Not sure which will be better.
He wants it to be extensible if possible, so adding another computer later or editing values shouldn't be too difficult, although the topology shouldn't change very often. It may be up to me to code a separate way to edit it, though I don't know.
Any thoughts / recommendations?
Before one of the latest versions of Visio (2003?), There was a very useful network discovery tool that would build a diagram. Then, using the Save As HTML option, there are several different ways to build an interactive chart.
I would suggest that other network diagrams can do the same.
This is the easiest way I've ever done to do what you want. The only drawback I know of is that Visio detection will send a significant number of packets; it can flood the network. However, in my opinion, if your network is so susceptible to downloads that you want to know as soon as possible. Desirably with the task, you can stop and start at will.
Don't forget that any process you come across should be able to rebuild your diagram regularly, for example. once a week or month.
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It may be cost effective to purchase a monitoring system.
OpManager is quite easy to use and provides graphical display capabilities.
Paessler is cheaper, still details, but lacks graphical display capabilities.
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