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PRTG, Switches, and what's plugged in?

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0

Hello,

I was wondering, does PRTG have the ability to determine what ports servers, printers, and workstations are actually plugged into on the swithces?

For instance, a mail server is plugged into Switch 1 port 36. Can PRTG report that mail server is actually plugged into port 36 on switch 1? Or at least port 36?

And if this is possible, what needs to be monitored by PRTG? Does the device in question and the Switch need to be monitored? Does just the Switch need to be monitored? Or can just the device be monitored?

Is there some additional monitoring on the PRTG server that needs to be setup in order to allow for this?

Thank you

port prtg server switch

Created on Jan 20, 2012 7:55:11 PM



7 Replies

Accepted Answer

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Hello,

I'm very sorry, but PRTG does not monitor 'what' is connected on which interface to a switch. This is not possible. With SNMP Traffic Sensors though PRTG can check the connection state of a port, if a cable is plugged in or not.

best regards.

Created on Jan 23, 2012 1:13:10 PM by Torsten Lindner [Paessler Support]



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Hello,

thank you for your response. It is to bad PRTG does not have this functionality. This may be out of the range of its capability and intended purpose. We have been testing other software that has the ability to track right down to the port on the switch where a device is plugged in.

Thank you for your response.

Cheers

Created on Jan 23, 2012 2:28:13 PM



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I would like to second a motion for this ability. It is quite possible to do with SNMP though it does take a bit of work and manipulation. Simply querying the FIB (switch forwarding) table gives a list of which MAC addresses are attached to which ports. Then querying the gateway ARP table (or other ARP tables on the LAN) will produce the MAC to IP mapping. From there it's just DNS lookups on the matched IP addresses to put a name to the IP.

Switch forwarding tables are standard MIB II fare and begin at OID .1.3.6.1.2.1.17.4.3.

Even if PRTG skips the IP-to-MAC lookups it would be nice to be able to produce a table of MAC address connected to a given port.

Created on Jan 23, 2012 9:09:23 PM



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If I could up vote Mr. Kirby's response I would gladly!

In the past, we produced these types of lists manually using a series of scripts. It would be nice to see PRTG look at incorporating this feature into their software!

And I would agree, even a table that contained a list of MAC's per port on any given switch would be of great help!

Thank you

Created on Jan 26, 2012 4:13:34 PM



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I also agree that a MAC per port on a switch would be a usable tool.

Created on Jan 31, 2012 1:37:14 PM



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Thank you for your replies. We will take this matter up elsewhere. For your reference, here are some results of a quick google search "mac address via prtg" that all discuss wanting the ability to reference MAC address in PRTG. https://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/28843-capture-mac-address-for-ping-sensor https://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/59637-capture-mac-address https://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/42353-auto-discovery-snmp-and-mac-address https://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/30863-prtg-switches-and-what-s-plugged-in

Created on May 31, 2016 5:55:33 PM



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Paessler should absolutely add this. We run an ANCIENT package called netinfo (from some guy named Stefanos Harhalakis -- hanks Stefanos!) that we found years ago that we have been using ever since. It does essentially exactly what people here are asking for, and we would LOVE for PRTG to take over this function. Here is a link to the package.

Created on Mar 28, 2017 6:13:10 PM




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