Traffic Analisys on Catalyst 6500

[Laishah]

Greetings,

I've just been volunteered to verify why our network is so slow. I have 2 catalyst 6500s and was asked to do a traffic analisys for the workstations in various areas. I know there are various VLANs so I imagine doing an analysis by VLAN would be the way to go, but I dont know how to do this through the switch itself (via telnet). I would like to know how to do this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Laishah]

Well I just found out the switches are running CatalystOS and I have no way to do this through the console.

 

[vipergg]

don't understand your statement about Catos , this is probably a hybrid box , just do a "session 15" to get into the router side if this is a layer box . There is all sorts of counters on the layer 2 side .

 

[lui3]

you could also setup span ports and set the destination port to be a protocol analyzer.

also take a look at the cat os

show port

command and look for excessive errors

clear counters and issue show port again.

that will get you started. cisco has some great article on troubleshooting ethernet on cat os. check out their website for more information.

Lui3
CCNP,CCDA,A+/Net+
Cisco Wireless Specialization

 

[Laishah]

Thanks a lot to the both of you for your replies. I will go ahead and continue to play with catOS while searching the cisco site.

Thanks again

 

[V11]

There is always the TopN report in CATOS....gives a good idea of who are the top talkers on the switch.

 

[wybnormal]

Two better ways are to use a monitor(span) port off the cat with a sniffer such as Ethereal running. Or get the 30 day demo of Solarwinds and run the network performance app for several days. You can watch all ports or sort it out for the top talkers AND packet size.

MikeS

Find me at

http://www.packetattack.com

"Take advantage of the enemy's unreadiness, make your way by unexpected routes, and attack unguarded spots."
Sun Tzu

 

[Laishah]

Thank you.

I have done everything you all have recomended. show port, move to the router side (session 15 /16 ) topN and I even setup span and hooked my laptop running Etherpeek to the switch.

I think I can now answer some questions on this topic. Haha

Thank you all.

 

[BuckWeet]

You might see about switching over to native IOS as well..

 

[Cotton9]

You might try looking into continous traffic monitoring software. For example: MRTG (

http://www.mrtg.com)

Its free.
By default it will build traffic graphs for monitored ports with a 5 minute average.
We use it monitor traffic and error on all WAN and ports between switches.
I will flag this thread and check Monday if you want a little help getting it running under Windows. I only do Windows -- no Unix --- yet...

 

[Laishah]

I actually used PRTG at home, but i dont know why i cant get it to work at work on the catalysts. I dont get anything at all. I appreciate your help.