Switchports InUse/Available

[Fred]

I'd like to have a graph showing switchports "in use" versus available. Specifically for Cisco switches, but if it's SNMP based, I don't see why it wouldn't be more generic than that.

Does anybody more familiar with SNMP have a good idea on where to get this information? I could write a script to walk the 'up/down' state of the interfaces and keep counters, but perhaps there's a more direct way to get this information?

[gandalf]

Does anybody more familiar with SNMP have a good idea on where to get this information? I could write a script to walk the 'up/down' state of the interfaces and keep counters, but perhaps there's a more direct way to get this information?

I would go the same way. Find help at the first link of my signature
Reinhard

[Fred]

Well, I created this graph. I don't have a screenshot, but it shows ports in use and available. The script is a simple perl script that does an snmpwalk, so paths may need to be corrected.

It shows all ports, including virtual ones, so the readings might seem a little off. (i.e., you'll probably see 14 ports total on a 12-port switch).

Written for and tested on linux. Put the .pl script in your scripts directory, and import the .xml. No guarantee that it will work in your particular environment. It will probably work against non-cisco switches, as well.

[pgus]

Hi!

In logfile I get this:

SCRIPT: /usr/bin/perl /var/www/html/scripts/cisco_switchports.pl 192.168.0.1Public, output: total:0 up:0 down:0

And in my Data Imput Methods
/usr/bin/perl <path_cacti>/scripts/cisco_switchports.pl <ip><community>

If i run on server
/usr/bin/perl /var/www/html/scripts/cisco_switchports.pl 192.168.0.1 Public
Total:30 up:10 down:20

Can someone help me?

Thanks in advance

[Fred]

Is that space actually missing between the IP address and the community string? Your data input method should read:

Code: Select all

/usr/bin/perl <path_cacti>/scripts/cisco_switchports.pl <ip> <community>

That space is going to be very important. But perhaps it was just a copy and paste problem.

[pgus]

Uppdated script, my friend Jesper Ekberg solved problem with virtual ports.

[aleu]

Uppdated script, my friend Jesper Ekberg solved problem with virtual ports.

Hmm, nice template. I was wondering whether there is a way to make it more accurate though. First of all, if you have a 3560 switch it will report switch ports for each configured VLAN (and this number is not fixed as you may have different number of VLANs on each physical switch). Besides that it will list portchannel interfaces and the Null0 interface. On 3750s it will also count all stack ports, as well. Any idea whether it is do-able to re-write the perl script somehow to exclude these:

VLAN Interfaces
StackSub
StackPort Interfaces
Portchannel Interfaces
Null0 interface?

I looked into it, but I do not know perl.

Thanks,
AL

[Howie]

It's more the SNMP that you need to know. ifType tells you whether the port is a virtual one, or some other type. If the script is ONLY going to be used on an ethernet switch, then you should be able to skip all interfaces that don't have ifType of 6 (ethernetCsmacd).

That should correspond to the physical switch ports. Not sure what the stackports on a 3750 show up as though... (looks like they don't appear at all)

[Howie]

This works for me, for an all-ethernet switch. The '6' is the magic thing to ignore all other port types. (and the first walk is different, so as to collect the ifType and store it away)

and it doesn't use 'magic' to assume that the last couple of ports are virtual. I don't think the order that interfaces are listed in is a defined thing.

[aleu]

This works for me, for an all-ethernet switch. The '6' is the magic thing to ignore all other port types. (and the first walk is different, so as to collect the ifType and store it away)

and it doesn't use 'magic' to assume that the last couple of ports are virtual. I don't think the order that interfaces are listed in is a defined thing.

Wow, that was a quick response. Thanks Howie, it seems that your updated script does the job correctly. I will post if I find any errors, but so far everything is looking god. Thanks a lot.