Hi all i am working in a large Network as Admin and usually code stuff that I don't want to repeat for 5000 switches and routers. Now I have some spare time and was thinking to make a Database of the Network. I was thinking of a learning Programm that would gather information when needed and do this in a "Intelligent" way. Like : network A has nodes -> find all nodes. Nodes are switches or router- switches have ports. ... .and so on. The problem for me at the moment is, how do I store the Information since I do not know how large the Information could be and how I connect the information. I was looking at some of the Articles but didn't see the answer. (could be my bad english). So, how do you guys put a learning Database on the Hardrive ? Textfile, sql ? Where can I look for more Information about this ?

You're right to be so open about tools! Personally I'd think about using the MSDE / Access as a database backend using C# for this project. One because it sounds like your quite new to programming and it's easy to pick up, and two because C# has the database stuff built in to it's language, the MSDE is free (when used with WebMatrix or VS C#), you could use SharpDevelop instead to try out the language which is also free. Finally C# also has pretty easy networking stuff built in too.

You could achieve the same in other languages (C++, Java, etc) - personally I'd use a small database like MSDE, Access or some kind of free embedded database.

Alternatively you may want to look at using an xml file as a storage mechanism. For what you are doing I doubt the verbose wordy nature of xml should effect you too much - it depends on how much info you store about each machine.

Thanks for the answer. At the moment, and the past 7 Years I am programming with Tcl/Tk because of the easy STRING manipulation.
As Database I have MYSQL . Thats on Linux.
But the answer that you suggest a DB instead of a flatfile helps me for planning.

Just use whatever you already know to get the job done if you need to get it done quick!

If you think you can do it with a flatfile, do it with a flatfile. A database will give you more flexibility in the long run though.