Visio 2010 Add-in for SharePoint Network Topology

At the SharePoint Conference 2011 Microsoft released a new Visio add-in for visualising the status of SharePoint 2010 farms.  The solution directly benefits those managing SharePoint 2010 installations and demonstrates the power of Visio Service as part of an effective SharePoint deployment.  Details can be found on visio.microsoft.com.

“The SharePoint Network Topology Diagram Add-in leverages Visio Services to deliver a near real time intuitive rendering of the status of SharePoint farm’s infrastructure and associated services. Visio Graphics services – A key part of SharePoint 2010, enables customers to share their dynamic data driven Visio diagrams and dashboards within SharePoint. This helps extend the reach of valuable information and insights across relevant teams within the enterprise for capacity planning and general IT maintenance.

The timer job fetches all the key technical metrics about the SharePoint farm infrastructure using SharePoint object model and WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation). It’s frequency can be adjusted based on specific administrative needs. The timer job creates a SharePoint list that is linked to a Visio diagram. A client add-in helps you generate, customize and link the output of the timer job to a Visio diagram by using a wizard driven interface.”, visio.microsoft.com.