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extensions:teemip-cable-mgmt

Cable Management

name:
Cable Management
description:
Documents cable infrastructures and physical connections between devices
version:
1.0.0
release:
2022-12-04
TeemIp:
3.x
iTop:
3.x
code:
teemip-cable-mgmt
localization:
English, French, German
state:
stable
keyword:
cmdb, cable
dependencies:
teemip-framework, teemip-config-mgmt-adaptor
download:
teemip-cable-mgmt-1.0.0-121.zip
github:
teemip-cable-mgmt
php-max:
8.0

This extension brings objects from the passive cabling world that will allow you to document the physical connections between CIs.

Vocabulary: by “TeemIp solution” or “TeemIP”, it should be understood: TeemIp standalone or the iTop solution on top of which TeemIp as a module has been installed.

Revision History

Version Release Date Comments
1.0.0 2022-12-04 Initial revision

Features

TeemIp cable management allows you to document the cable layouts of your organization. Connect physical interfaces to wall mounted network sockets or to patch panels hosted in racks, document your patch cables: the extension enables a large scope of connection scenarios as the following drawing highlights:

Furthermore, the extension displays the wiring that links devices, physical interfaces and network sockets together, like:

Licensing

The TeemIp Cable Management extension is licensed under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License Version 3 as published by the Free Software Foundation. This gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify TeemIp Cable Management under certain conditions. Read the ’license.txt’ file in the TeemIp distribution. TeemIp Cable Management is provided AS IS with NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING THE WARRANTY OF DESIGN, MERCHANTABILITY, AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Limitations

There is no specific limitations with that extension.

Requirements

There is no specific requirement with TeemIp standalone. TeemIp Cable Management will be embedded in TeemIp standalone starting with TeemIp 3.1.

When installed on an iTop application, make sure that IPAM for iTop is installed as well.

Installation

Installation on a TeemIp standalone is done with the application itself, through the setup.

When adding the module on an iTop application, follow the Standard installation process.

Configuration

No specific configuration is required in TeemIp's configuration file or in IP configs for that extension.

Patch Panel

As everyone knows, a patch panel is a piece of hardware with multiple ports that helps organize a group of cables. Each of these ports contains a wire that goes to a different location and can be set for fiber optic cables, cat5 cables, RJ45 cables, and many others. That class allows you to register them in TeemIp's CMDB.

Patch Panel Properties

Name Type Mandatory?
General Information
Name Alphanumeric string Yes
Organization Foreign key to a(n) Organization Yes
Status Possible values: Implementation, Production No
Location Foreign key to a(n) Location Yes
Rack Foreign key to a(n) Rack Yes
Description Multiline character string No
More Information
Capacity Number of network sockets that the panel can host No

Tabs

Tab Description
Network sockets All the network sockets attached to this configuration item
Cables All cables connected to a network socket hosted by the patch panel
Peer front end panels List of other patch panels connected to the current one through the network socket port of its hosted sockets
Peer back end panels List of other patch panels connected to the current one through the back end network socket port of its hosted sockets

Displaying a Patch Panel

In the Overview menu of the Configuration Management module, under the Network section, find the Patch Panel dashlet, click on it and select the item you are interested in:

Network Socket

A network socket is the passive physical piece of hardware where you plug a network cable to establish a link between different network devices.

Network Socket Properties

Name Type Mandatory?
General Information
Code Alphanumeric string Yes
Status Possible values: Implementation, Production No
Location Foreign key to a(n) Location Yes
Rack Foreign key to a(n) Rack No
Patch Panel Foreign key to a(n) Patch Panel No
Comment Multiline character string No
Front End Information
Connector Foreign key to a(n) Interface Connector No
Device Foreign key to a(n) Connectable CI No
Physical interface Foreign key to a(n) Physical Interface No
Network socket Foreign key to a(n) Network Socket No
Back End Information
Back end network socket Foreign key to a(n) Network Socket No

Tabs

Tab Description
Cables All cables connected to the network socket

Friendly name of a network socket is automatically computed as the concatenation of the location name, rack name (if exists), patch panel name (if exists) and code of the socket.

A network socket can be installed in a patch panel or as a stand alone equipment in a room.
  • When installed in a patch panel, attributes Location, Rack and Patch panel are mandatory.
  • When standing alone, attribute Location is mandatory but Rack and Patch panel must NOT be set.

Network Sockets have 2 sides:

  • A front end where RJ45 cables or optical fibres are plugged in,
  • A back end that links the socket to another network socket.
A few rules are enforced at front and back ends' levels.
  • On the front end side, a network socket cannot be connected to both a remote network socket and a connectable CI.
  • The front end network socket and the back end one cannot be the same.

Network sockets implements three 1:1 relations. As the datamodel doesn't provide such attributes by default, these 1:1 relations are automatically computed when objects are created, modified or deleted: when one side of the relation is changed, the other sides (new and old when appropriate) are changed. These relations are:

  • 1:1 relation between the physical interface of a CI and the network socket attribute of the interface,
  • 1:1 relation between the network socket and a remote network socket,
  • 1:1 relation between the network socket and a back end one.

Displaying a Network Socket

In the Overview menu of the Configuration Management module, under the Network section, find the Network Socket dashlet, click on it and select the item you are interested in or select it directly from the Patch panel detailed dispaly :

Physical Interface

TeemIp Cable management extension alters Physical interfaces with a new attribute that points to a network socket.

Physical Interface Properties

Name Type Mandatory?
General Information
Network socket Foreign key to a(n) Network socket No

Such attribute allow you to connect a physical interface to a network socket as follows.

As stated above, this connection is a 1:1 relation.

Network Cable

A network cable (known as well as patch cable, patch cord or patch lead) represents the piece of hardware that connects 2 network sockets.

Network Cable Properties

Name Type Mandatory?
General Information
Network socket #1 Foreign key to a(n) Network Socket Yes
Network socket #2 Foreign key to a(n) Network Socket Yes
Cable type Foreign key to a(n) Cable Type No
Cable category Foreign key to a(n) Cable Category No
Length (m) Length of the cable, in meter No

Friendly name of a network cable is automatically computed as the concatenation of the 2 network socket names.

A few rules are enforced when creating or modifying network cables.
  • A cable must be connected to 2 different network sockets,
  • A cable connecting 2 network interfaces is unique, regardless the network socket used (#1 or #2),
  • A cable is automatically updated when one of the sockets it connects is changing.

Displaying a Network Cable

In the Overview menu of the Configuration Management module, under the Network section, find the Network Cable dashlet, click on it and select the item you are interested in or select it directly from the Patch Panel or Network Socket detailed displays :

Wiring diagram

Once connections between Devices, Physical interfaces and Network Sockets are documented, the physical path that connects them all can be visualized through the menu “Wiring…” displayed under the “Other Actions” menu of Connectable CIs, Physical Interfaces and Network Sockets.

That action displays the wiring layout that connects the device it has been launch from, and all the elements that are part of the cabling path. For instance, from a network device :

In this example, Server 4 is obviously hosting 2 physical interfaces but only eth0 is connected to a socket.

Typology Elements

Two new typological elements are brought by the extension:

Name Description Attributes Example
Cable Type Type of a Network Cable Name, Description, List of Cable Categories using it Single mode
Cable Category Category of a Network Cable Name, Cable Type, Description, OS1, OS2

The extension groups network specific typological elements in a dedicated dashlet.

extensions/teemip-cable-mgmt.txt · Last modified: 2022/12/04 20:48 by cnaud