Discussion on:

How to determine what device is on what port on your Cisco switch

That's why I always label my ports when I set it up. That way the names that I picked automatically come up in SNMP management tools and it makes the job a lot easier. You don't need "documentation" that no one can find and read, the stuff is already in the configuration.

Apologies for the confusion. When you login and configure an interface; it does allow you to set description for it like this.:

config#config-t
config#int e0
config-if#descrip peanutbutter

Is that what you meant? I definitely know a label maker can help aswell, LOL! Can you set specific descriptions for VLAN interfaces too? I need a cluepon here. Thanks.

That is how I label ports on switches. I don't remember if you can label VLAN interfaces.

IIRC on HP Procurve managed switches you can assign whatever name / description you like for the defined VLANs. I'm not sure about Cisco though - I only used a 2950T a couple of years ago, and I didn't mess with it again once I put it in place.

yes you can put desc on vlan int just as you would to hp's procurve

Kiwi CatTools can do this to

Yes, you can add description to any interface, including VLAN interfaces.

I manage a metro area network with switches located in over 100 facilities throughout our small community. We are very fortunate to have Ciscoworks which is not an inexpensive product but can pay for itself in short order. One of the tools ?User Tracking? continually monitors all ports, IP and Mac address traffic using the ports. You can at any time search the data base to find who is using what port anywhere on the network. This system continually monitors changes, documents, tracks IOS, upgrade IOS configurations and changes. Error reports are generated letting you know areas that need attention. I know companies that have this product and administrators do not take the time to learn the functions. With resources being limited this tool is like having an extra staff person working for you 2 hours per day. I am able to manage the large metro network supporting over 5000 users and 1000+ VoIP phones on the network. This is done with Ciscoworks and me.

switch# vlan database
switch(vlan)# vlan 2 name sales
switch(vlan)# exit
switch#

When you create your vlan under "vlan database mode", you can add a descriptive name to the vlan.

config#vlan 1
config#name do_not_use_this_vlan

can't have spaces in vlan names



I dont remember how to do it the old way (VLAN database outside the config more)

For those of you who would like to use spaces in their Vlan names/interfaces descriptions;
one can actually use spaces after all if you put the name between "". For instance:
config#vlan 1
config#name "Spaces allowed!"
results in a vlan name being 'Spaces allowed!'

what's wrong with:

AR05Z2#sh mac-address-table address ?
H.H.H 48 bit mac address

AR05Z2#sh mac-address-table address xxxx.xxxx.xxxx.xxxx

this gives you the port where that mac address (xxxx.xxxx.xxxx.xxxx) is connected to...

Absolutely nothing!

There's several ways to accomplish the task. The blogged example being the least useful.

write your own app? That's what we did. We have a database with all the assets, and another that runs php that queries the boxes via snmp and returns the port and what mac address is associated with each. In the database, you map the mac address with the asset information and voila` you have everything you ever wanted. With this method, I can tell you when someone plugged in, plugged out, how long they stayed, where, etc.

we do our labeling based on which cable closet the ports go, which rack in that cable closet, which panel in that rack and which port in that panel. Then we have a spreadsheet with a table that maps that port with another label that shows the building, the floor in the building and the grid in the building based on pillars so when the walls move you can still find it.

for example closet 1, rack 1 panel A port 42

the label would be
config_if#description 11A42

the label is in both the user side and the closet side so when the user phones you can just ask them port tell you the port number they are in and you know where they are

if you are the one tracking them down you can look at the port label and check it with the building grid table and you know how to track the user down. You could also add the building grid in the label also

hope this helps someone out there planning on organizing their network or someone just starting fresh

I use:
traceroute mac ip GATEWAYIP IPTOFIND

try that from the relevant layer 3 device. Of course that can be complicated on larger networks, but our IP ranges are well enough organized that I can get to the right layer 3 pretty quickly most of the time. It does have trouble with bridged vlans, and I use it on an all cisco network...

http://switchminer.sourceforge.net/

NeDi - Does a little more than just port mapping but its in there.
http://nedi.sourceforge.net/about.html

http://www.zenoss.com/

This is a Network Management System but it has a feature that might help with this. Once you add the device it will list all of it's interfaces with IP address (if L3 or a VLAN), MAC address, and description (if you labeled it on your device). This tool is highly customizable allowing you to create custom parts. I for example am working on a script to allow me to use CDP to get the hostname of the device plugged in to an interface (in the case of switches and phones).

On gutsy gibbon, I'd like to know how to enable it to discover attached devices. No IP's show up under the device. Description does.

To discover devices you have to options. If you have SNMP working on your zenoss box you can follow these instructions:
http://www.zenoss.com/community/docs/zenoss-guide/2.1/ch09s06.html

Otherwise you can do this (which is the way I did it):

1. Click on Networks (under Browse By) and add your networks using CIDR notation.
2. Open a terminal on your Zenoss server and do the following:
a. Login as the zenoss user
b. cd to /usr/local/zenoss/bin
c. run "zendisc run --net=0.0.0.0 (NOTE: replace the 0s with the subnet you're scanning and do it with all of them one by one)
3. You can now go to devices on your zenoss page. All devices will be listed under the Discovered class. You can individualy add them to a different class if you'd like.

What I did was to add my switches, routers, and servers manually and then used zendisc to scan the network for computers.

I have pretty successful with NetDisco.

Not only you can map ports, you can enable and disable it fairly easy. If you know a MAC or IP of the device, you can search for it in matter of seconds...

Best,

i need complete help for installing net disco on redhat
I am new to linux

Wow. Thanks a million - that helps me consolidate the number of things I look at every day.

Does a nice job of associating the macadress, IP and name of system in one command.

Thanks,
Bill

I'am using opensource monitoring tool (primary SNMP) http://cacti.net/. And there is plugin MACtrack which works nice.

Hi:

I do a Ping on the IP address of the device, then I do an show arp to identify the mac addresss of the device, then I do a show mac-address with the mac address i learned in from the arp.

The ping/ARP combo only works if you are on the same VLAN I believe. If you are spanning VLANs, and the problem is a Windows box, you can also do an nbtstat command to discover the MAC address.

CiscoWorks also is useful for finding what port a user is connected to. It has a User Tracker feature that you can do searches on using many criteria (IP, MAC, host name, etc). It's not real-time info, but it's pretty reliable unless your users are extremely mobile.

If you have a well designed network, you can usually just track it down using the 'show mac-address-table" command once you know the MAC address. Start at the core, and you should only have to go one or two switches out to find the port. Obviously if you can't remote in, this is not a desirable method.

Lastly, it can be nice to identify the user associated with the PC. If your users are like mine, they will just plug their PC into a different network block once you shut down their port or switch to wireless on laptops.

I will use a Microsoft SMS query to identify the PC name and last logged in user so I can call them. An alternate method is looking up the MAC address in your DHCP management console or logs to identify the computer. Again CiscoWorks will also give me their computer name.

Many core switches use the COS operating system not IOS. Good commands to know in COS are:
show cam [mac_address]
show cam dynamic [port_number]

How to determine what device is on what port on your HP Procurve switch? Is it same? If not, please it.

I've noticed porttracker now supports non-Cisco kit, they also now support LLDP as well as CDP. From their web site:

v2.1 new features:

* An increase in the number of supported vendor switches to include Nortel Baystack and Huawei Networks in addition to HP Procurve, 3Com, Cisco and Extreme Networks