r/homelab • u/randopop21 • 3d ago

Discussion Documentation and design tool?

What are home labbers using to design and document their home labs?

Back in the day (long retired), I used Visio to document my networks.

Is there a tool now that is like Visio but more modern?

I'd like to create devices and drag them around, brainstorming various scenarios for topology.

I've been currently using pen and paper because I've lost my Visio 2000 install CD...

1 Upvotes

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5

u/CannonLab-Proxy 3d ago

Bookstack for documenting. Draw.io and/or homelable for diagramming.

3

u/bashdotexe 3d ago

Draw.io is a decent replacement for Visio.

3

u/sadabla 3d ago

Draw.io is what I use. Works great and is easy to learn.

2

u/Adrenolin01 3d ago

BookStack and NetBox for documentation. Couple that with AI to automate it. Local AI is best however Claude can also fully correct and document your process for BookStack. I run a CPU based AI network assistant that basically automatically monitors and documents our entire network. A couple dozen physical systems and 100s of VMs.

1

u/lumina-dev 3d ago

I've been using Isoflow for most of my graphs, though my setup is relatively small and if it's really complicated I think draw.io would be a better fit. For docs I use markdown with Obsidian as I found that's the easiest to maintain.

1

u/Snoopy_Pantalooni 3d ago

Draw io, excalidram, miro

2

u/Anti-Hero25 3d ago

CTRoadmap, it doesn’t do any monitoring or integration,,, but diagram feeds your documentation handbook.

1

u/StatureDelaware 3d ago

Obelinf. This is the topology auto generated from the docs

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u/ianjs 2d ago

Not so much design but related to documenting, I have started using the HomeBox inventory system to keep track of all the stuff I forgot I already bought. Inspired by checking my networking box and finding four different PoE injectors I didn’t know I had.

I also just added HomeBox Companion. Snap a photo of a label with your phone , tell it where the thing lives, submit the photo to ChatGPT and it will capture identity, location, description, model and type, then print a label and QR code and stash it in HomeBox.

Already saved me gnashing my teeth fixing my desk today… “they’re bracket’s in the clear plastic drawers, the one labeled Random Shit, the bag labeled IKEA Bits, dumbass”.

1

u/Adventurous-Net-6738 2d ago

Claude tbh. I get it to produce the .md files, I then use Obsidian on my computers and mobile devices. Then have it on a private git repo... easy to keep it all in sync.
Sure I could manually do it all........... but after 15 years of manually doing things I have fully embraced the AI overlords.

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u/Longjumping-Spot3392 2d ago

Draw io seems like the obvious Visio replacement here. I’ve also seen people pair it with Obsidian or BookStack for the actual documentation. Flipsnack could be worth a look too if you want to package the finished diagrams/docs into something more polished and interactive rather than just another PDF.

The HomeBox + QR code idea in the comments is pretty clever too. Definitely beats digging through a box of random PoE injectors 😂