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Switch port discovery tools...

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leopard96

MIS
Apr 18, 2004
43
US
I was wondering if anyone had any good open-source tools to discover or resolve an IP Address to a switch and the particular port the node is on. I've seen a few items out there such as JFFNMS and NeDi but they require a little know-how about MySQL and Perl to get them running. SolarWinds.net makes a really slick tool set but the boss probably wouldn't be willing to fork out the cash. I think NeDi would offer a really good solution being web-based and somewhat dynamic and be up to date. I would like everyone in our IT department to be able to get the IP of a node and be able to find the port on the switch in case of worm activity, employee termination, etc. If you've got any good tools that will do the trick, I'd love to hear about them. --Thanks!
 
If you don't want to pay anything for it then telnet into the switches and do a a show mac-address-table and use that to track down where something is plugged into... you may have to trace through a few switches (start with a core switch and use show cdp neighbors to find the next switch to track through), but hey you don't get much for nothing these days.
 
I did find a cheap tool that does a pretty good job of tracking down devices on switches. Its called Kiwi CatTools. It runs around $150.00 and does a lot more than just switch port discovery. Check it out @ Its worth more than what it costs.
 
We've been using NetDisco for a while and have been very pleased. We just use it for basic matching of IP - MAC - Switch ports, but it can be setup to give technicians to disable ports via web interface if needed. Also, has L2 trace tool, automated network diagram creation, find rogue APs, and more. Best of all its open source thus, free. However, it will require some linux knowledge to install it successfully.

 
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