Layer 2 topology discovery

Posted by pegah s on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by pegah s
Published on 2012-06-22T00:07:43Z Indexed on 2012/06/22 3:18 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 546

Filed under:

switch

|

network-topology

I have been given a network (it is a LAN) comprised of switches and I need to discover the topology of that. (There may be Link Aggregation Groups (LAGs) in the network as well.)

I have done a lot of search on layer 2 topology discovery and I have seen many articles talking about using SNMP MIBs or LLDP (I do not know which one is better or more practical, but all devices in my network support SNMP). But my problem is that I cannot find "the software to install and run" to actually see the topology map. I would really appreciate if someone could send me the website where I can download the code and use it.

I have also found a lot of tools available online such as OpenNMS, Nagios, The Dude, LANsurveyor, SNMPwalk, and many more... But I cannot figure out which one is the best to pick. To summarize: what is the easiest simplest way to discover the layer 2 network topology?

© Server Fault or respective owner

Related posts about switch

Problem connecting a 3Com 2952-Plus switch to a Cisco 3750 switch

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Connected a 3Com 2952-SFP Plus switch to a Cisco 3750 switch via fibre. There is a light on the 3Com end, but nothing at the Cisco end, and no traffic will flow. Have swapped SFP's, have swapped fibre cables, have used a different port on the Cisco, have even swapped the 3Com switch, but still no… >>> More
enable Cisco switch to communicate withe HP switch

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have one CISCO 2906g and hp 2626 switches i link them by MM fiber optic cable, the problem the cant communicate with each other, i verify there is no problem with cable and JBC's. win i connect other HP switch in the other end it will communicate without any problem, but not with CISCO >>> More
Repository pattern - Switch out the database and switch in XML files

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Repository pattern - Switch out the database and switch in XML files. Hello I have an asp.net MVC 2.0 project and I have followed the Repository pattern. Periodically, I am losing access to the database server so I want to have another mechanism in place (XML files) to continue developing. It is… >>> More
SQL Server database with clustered GUID PKs - switch clustered index or switch to sequential (comb)

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
We have a database in which all the PKs are GUIDs, and most of the PKs are also the clustered index for the table. We know that this is bad (due to the random nature of GUIDs). So, it seems there are basically two options here (short of throwing out GUIDs as PKs altogether, which we cannot do (at… >>> More
MS SQL Database with clustered GUID PKs - switch clustered index or switch to sequential (comb) GUID

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
We have a database in which all the PKs are GUIDs, and most of the PKs are also the clustered index for the table. We know that this is bad (due to the random nature of GUIDs). So, it seems there are basically two options here (short of throwing out GUIDs as PKs altogether, which we cannot do (at… >>> More

Related posts about network-topology

Network topology question

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
We currently have three networks, X.X.163.1, X.X.93.1 and 192.168.1.1. Today's setup is like this: http://i.imgur.com/tkKWy.jpg We now have PPT VPN from internet to the X.X.163.1-network, but really need to access the files from the File Server through VPN. I am also aware that this setup is not… >>> More
Question about network topology and routing performance

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hello I am currently working on a uni project about routing protocols and network performance, one of the criteria i was going to test under was to see what effect lan topology has, ie workstations arranged in mesh, star, ring etc, but i am having doubts as to whether that would have any affect on… >>> More
Any online network topology to study?

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I want to study network. But I don't have an access to a sample network (routers, DNS, IP4, IP6 windows linux mixed heterogenous system). Do you know any online network to study (Free as possible). Is it possible to simulate network topologies with a sing PC using virtual machine. If so could you… >>> More
Ethernet: network topology

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Consider a standard GigE network switch. In order to do the switching, presumably it needs to maintain a map of MAC addresses of all things that exist on the network to its (switch's) port numbers. How does it maintain such a map? What are the protocols involved? If I change the topology of one… >>> More
network topology including many services

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I know this is yet another question on how to setup network but I hope you are not bored of such questions yet. The site is also an office, so it includes windows dc, windows ad, exchange, sql, file sharing, development app servers and other pcs. In addition to office (internal) things, there are… >>> More