Backup Paranoid says: your documentation needs backups too. NetBox dump nightly, sure. But what about the photo proof? I keep three copies: server, Wasabi, and printed binder in Kraków office. Fire at datacenter, fire at cloud, still have paper.
Yes I know this is excessive. No I will not stop.
We use RackTables. Old. Ugly. Free. Works. Custom field for "last verified by human" date. Anything over 90 days turns red. Red means I fly there or I pay smart hands to verify. Expensive but cheaper than wrong cable at 3am.
Netbox good. RackTables old but good. Excel bad. Device42 expensive.
One thing works: two people rule. One moves, one watches. Both sign. Like nuclear launch. Slow. Safe.
Finland cold. Cables stiff. Mistake easy. Double check only way.
Manchester here, dyslexic so colors are already hell for me. We use numbers not colors. Port 1A-17, 1A-18, not "green pair." Colorblind installer would not matter if industry stopped pretending colors are primary key.
Still use Excel though. Hypocrite, I know.
This thread drifted from "what do you use" to "how do you make humans care." Classic.
My answer: you don't. You remove human from loop. Automated patch panels exist, cost fortune, but exist. I saw one at Google tour. Not for normal people yet. Until then, less bad is best we get.
Following.
We tried NetBox at two sites. Abandoned at both. Too much friction for field tech. Now use simple web form: port from, port to, photo, submit. Backend is plain database. Not fancy. Actually used.
Fancy system unused is worse than simple system used. This is my law.
Same here. NetBox learning curve too steep for contract tech who rotates every quarter. We built internal app, three fields, takes 90 seconds. Compliance up from 20% to 70%. Good enough.
