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Simple Office Network Diagram
A basic office network with internet, firewall, switch, and workstations:
[Internet]
|
[Firewall/Router]
|
[Core Switch]
/ | \
[PC] [PC] [Printer]
In the generator, drag the Internet cloud symbol, a firewall icon, a switch, and three endpoint devices onto the canvas. Draw connections between them with labeled Ethernet links. The result is a clean, professional diagram ready for documentation.
Three-Tier Web Architecture
A typical web application network with DMZ and internal zones:
Internet
|
[Firewall 1] ─── DMZ Zone ───────────────────────
| [Load Balancer]
| / \
| [Web 1] [Web 2]
|
[Firewall 2] ─── Internal Zone ──────────────────
| [App Server 1]
| [App Server 2]
|
[Firewall 3] ─── Database Zone ──────────────────
[DB Primary]
[DB Replica]
Color-code each zone: red for DMZ, yellow for internal, green for database. Add firewall rule annotations on the connections between zones for a security architecture diagram.
Cloud Hybrid Architecture
On-premises data center connected to AWS via VPN:
On-Premises Data Center
├── [Core Router]
│ └── [VPN Gateway] ──── VPN Tunnel ──── [AWS VPN Gateway]
│ |
└── [Internal Servers] [AWS VPC]
├── [EC2 Web Servers]
├── [RDS Database]
└── [S3 Bucket]
Use AWS-specific symbols from the cloud symbol library. Label the VPN tunnel with bandwidth and protocol (IPSec). Add a Direct Connect link as an alternative path for higher throughput.
High Availability Load Balancer Setup
Redundant load balancers with active/standby configuration:
[Internet]
|
[Load Balancer - Active] ←→ [Load Balancer - Standby]
|
[Backend Pool]
├── [App Server 1] ● Active
├── [App Server 2] ● Active
└── [App Server 3] ● Active
Show the active load balancer with a solid border and the standby with a dashed border. Add a heartbeat connection between the two load balancers. Label backend connections with the load balancing algorithm (round-robin).
Security Zone Diagram for Compliance
Network segmentation for PCI-DSS compliance:
┌─── Internet Zone ──────────────────────────────┐
│ [Internet] │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
| (Firewall Rule: Allow 80, 443)
┌─── DMZ Zone ───────────────────────────────────┐
│ [Web Server] [API Gateway] │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
| (Firewall Rule: Allow 8080 from DMZ only)
┌─── Cardholder Data Environment (CDE) ──────────┐
│ [Payment App Server] [Card Database] │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Security zone boundaries are drawn as colored rectangles. Firewall rules are annotated on the connections. This diagram format is standard for PCI-DSS audit documentation.
Disaster Recovery Diagram
Primary and secondary data centers with failover paths:
Primary DC (Active) Secondary DC (Standby)
├── [Web Servers] ├── [Web Servers - Standby]
├── [App Servers] ←sync→ ├── [App Servers - Standby]
└── [DB Primary] └── [DB Replica]
| |
[Load Balancer] [Load Balancer]
| |
└──────── [DNS Failover] ────┘
|
[Internet]
Use solid lines for active connections and dashed lines for standby/replication links. Label the sync connection with the replication method (async/sync) and RPO/RTO targets.
Kubernetes Cluster Network Diagram
Container orchestration network topology:
[Internet]
|
[Ingress Controller]
|
[Service: frontend-svc]
|
[Pod: frontend-1] [Pod: frontend-2] [Pod: frontend-3]
|
[Service: api-svc]
|
[Pod: api-1] [Pod: api-2]
|
[Service: db-svc]
|
[StatefulSet: postgres-0]
Use Kubernetes-specific symbols for pods, services, and ingress. Color-code by namespace. Add network policy annotations showing which pods can communicate with which services.
Exporting for Documentation
Export options and their use cases:
- PNG — Embed in Word documents, Confluence pages, Jira tickets
- SVG — Embed in web-based documentation, scales to any size
- Visio XML — Import into Microsoft Visio for further editing
- Text/code — Store in Git alongside infrastructure code
<!-- Embedding a network diagram SVG in documentation -->
<figure>
<img src="network-architecture.svg"
alt="Three-tier web application network architecture diagram">
<figcaption>Production network architecture — updated March 2024</figcaption>
</figure>
Text-Based Diagram Syntax for Version Control
Store diagrams as code in your repository:
# network-diagram.txt
nodes:
internet: { type: cloud, label: "Internet" }
fw1: { type: firewall, label: "Firewall" }
sw1: { type: switch, label: "Core Switch" }
web1: { type: server, label: "Web Server 1" }
web2: { type: server, label: "Web Server 2" }
connections:
- from: internet, to: fw1, label: "1Gbps"
- from: fw1, to: sw1, label: "1Gbps"
- from: sw1, to: web1, label: "1Gbps"
- from: sw1, to: web2, label: "1Gbps"
Text-based diagrams can be committed to Git, diffed, and reviewed in pull requests — keeping documentation in sync with infrastructure changes.