Switch Management

[kevstar]

I have four swiches that are not manufactured by the same company. I want to monitor network traffic on all of the switches whilst only being connected to one port on one switch.
How do I do this? DO I need any software installed so that I can manage my switches in this way?

Any help greatfully recieved.

Kev

 

[salserocito]

SOmething like HP OpenView would do the trick.

 

[TJUK]

If they are not all made by the same manafacturer then the only thing you can use really is some SNMP stuff(the earlier response said hp-openview which is one but is expensive)..

There are free ones like MRTG on the net but you will need to get the MIBS from the respective switch sites.

What types of switches are they? 3com, cisoc, intel??

Cheers

Terry

 

[kevstar]

I am not too sure what make of switches we have got. That may sound a little strange but they are at a differnet site.

What is an MIBS?

Thanks for your help it is greatfully appreciated.

Kev

 

[TJUK]

MIBS are a way of gaining management info/stats from switches(as long as they support them, hence why we would need to know the make/model)

You can then have a third party product interrogate the switch using these MIBS to gain info like port usuage, traffic flow, error rates etc...

Do you know if the switch has the ability to have its own IP address set? if so then chances are it can be quizzed... if not then its probably not possible.

Most switches conform to a standard set of MIBS but some fancy stuff require the use of the manafacturers code.

Cheers

Terry

 

[patrckb]

To see how much traffic is on each port try MRTG (

http://www.mrtg.org).

It is free software but you have to configure it mostly by hand.