Monitoring mac addresses on Cisco network device ports using snmp protocol

I work in a large organization with a large number of network devices. Often there is a need to know to which switch port a particular device is connected with a certain mac or ip-address, and in case of any failure where it was connected. I wondered: is it possible to get this information on the snmp-protocol? It turned out you can.

I also wanted to combine this information with information on switch ports switching. Since I am learning Java, I decided to write a web application in this language. What I did. At the moment, the application only supports Cisco devices, as they are installed in our organization, but it can be further developed to support devices from other manufacturers. The application uses the following mib: CISCO-VTP-MIB, BRIDGE-MIB, IF-MIB, RFC1213-MIB.

Features of the application:

1. support for all three versions of snmp protocol;
2. device port switching tables support;
3. formation of a table of results;
4. periodic polling of devices in accordance with the schedule;
5. sorting tables by several columns (when you click while holding the shift key on each subsequent column after the first);
6. authentication and user roles.

I would like to elaborate on paragraphs 2.3.

Switching table

The switching table is presented as follows:

• device ip address;
• device port;
• cross (optional);
• socket (optional).

It is possible to upload and download the table in csv-format.

Result table

The results table is presented as follows:

• mac-address of the terminal device (computer, printer, etc.);
• vlan;
• ip-address of the terminal device (optional);
• switch ip address;
• switch port;
• cross (optional);
• socket (optional);
• the last time the device was discovered.

It is possible to poll the device and update the table of results. You can also upload to a csv file.

In the article I gave a mini-review of the application, who are interested can follow the link to my github: MacMonitor application on github . It contains the source and binary codes, as well as installation instructions and user manual.