Documentation forSolarWinds

Switch Port Mapper tool

The Switch Port Mapper tool in ETS for the Desktop remotely discovers the devices connected to each port on a switch or hub. Additionally, Switch Port Mapper discovers the MAC address, IP address, and host name of connected devices, as well as details about each port such as operational status and port speed.

Port mapping is accomplished by discovering and correlating port information to MAC address and IP address information. The MAC and IP address information is discovered through a Layer 3 device such as a router or server directly connected to the same subnet as the switch or hub.

Switches and hubs that support the BRIDGE-MIB can be mapped. If you are not sure if your device supports the BRIDGE-MIB, try to use the tool. Many devices support MIB. Device details for switches and hubs that do not support BRIDGE-MIB cannot be discovered.

Using the Ping Sweep tool to sweep the subnet before running Switch Port Mapper improves the details of the mapping by preloading the ARP table of the router.

Before using the Switch Port Mapper tool

Switch Port Mapper is commonly able to run and return all data. However, each network is different and there are some steps you should take to ensure Switch Port Mapper runs smoothly.

You will need the community string for the switch to mapped, and the community string for the Layer 3 router used by the switch, unless the switch can perform Layer 3 functions.

It is a best practice to perform a reverse DNS lookup on the computer running Switch Port Mapper to ensure host names of discovered devices can be returned. This helps identify the IP addresses discovered during each scan.

  1. To open a command prompt, click Start > Run, enter CMD, and then click OK.

  2. Enter ping –a IP address, where IP address is an IP address on your network.

    For example, enter ping –a 10.10.1.125.

If the output shows only the IP address and does not display the host name, Switch Port Mapper will not be able to report host names in the results window. If you see a host name in addition to the IP address, Switch Port Mapper will be able to resolve host names and display them in the results window.

Occasionally DNS results are returned in a format Switch Port Mapper is unable to process. When this occurs, the host name field is left blank.

Performing a ping sweep on the subnet before running Switch Port Mapper improves the details of the mapping by pre-loading the ARP table of the router or Layer 3 switch. This ensures the latest information about connected devices can be collected when mapping the ports. See the Ping Sweep tool.

Open the Switch Port Mapper tool

  • To launch the tool from the Toolset Launch Pad, locate the Switch Port Mapper tool and click Launch.

  • You can add the tool to a tab in the Workspace Studio, and access it from there.

  • To launch the tool from the Windows Start menu:

    1. Click Start > All > SolarWinds Engineer's Toolset.

    2. Right-click Switch Port Mapper, click More, and click Run as administrator.

Select report items

Before you run Switch Port Mapper, consider looking through the information that can be returned by a successful map of your hub or switch. You can select the information you want to see by selecting the fields from the list on the Display Column tab.

Map switch ports

  1. Enter the IP address or host name of the switch you want to map, and then select or enter in the credentials or community string used to communicate with the switch.

    Switch Port Mapper keeps a history of the device and credential fields so you can easily map the same device again later. To access this history, click the arrow to the right of these fields to list the most recently used devices and credentials. To delete this history click , and then click Manage Credentials.

  2. If your switch is a Layer 3 switch, select Get Layer 3 info from switch.

  3. If your switch is not a Layer 3 switch, enter the IP address or host name of the router the switch is connected to in the Layer 3 Device field.

    This is the router or server to which the hub or switch is connected. This device is used to gather MAC and IP address information to correlate with the hub or switch port information.

  4. Select or enter the credentials or community string used to communicate with the router.

  5. Click Map Ports.

  6. To enable or disable an interface, right-click the interface in the results table, and then click Enable/Disable Interface.

Modify Switch Port Mapper settings

The modifications you make are globally applied to all hubs, switches, and routers used by Switch Port Mapper.

  1. Click , and click Gadget Settings.

  2. On the Display Columns tab:

    • Add or remove columns to display or hide.

    • To reorder columns, select a column and click Move Up or Move Down.

    • Select Make Global Default to apply the current settings as the default for all other instances of Switch Port Mapper when you choose to have multiple instances running.

  3. On the Port Map Settings tab, configure the following settings.

    Use GetBulk

    This is a feature of SNMPv2 that has a faster and better method of getting large amounts of data at one time from the SNMP agent of the target device. SolarWinds recommends that you keep Use GetBulk turned on unless the SNMP agent of your device only supports SNMPv1, or does not fully support SNMPv2.

    Get Extended VLANs

    Allows Switch Port Mapper to get information for VLANs outside the default VLAN ranges. It is best to leave this setting enabled.

    Use GetBulk

    When you use a separate device to provide the Layer 3 information, you can control the GetBulk setting independently.

    Use IPv6 as preferred address family when both are present

    Uses IPv6 as the preferred communication, even if IPv4 is currently being used.

    Combine rows with identical values

    Rows with identical values are collapsed.

    Only show interfaces with MACs on them

    This option limits the results to interfaces with discovered MAC addresses.

    Hide Cisco trunk ports

    Enable this option to remove Cisco trunk ports from the results table.

    MAC Address Display Settings

    Specify whether to display MAC addresses in uppercase or lowercase.

  4. If your network is capable of faster SNMP polling or if you notice that information is not being reported, modify the settings on the SNMP settings tab.

    SNMP Timeout

    The amount of time Switch Port Mapper waits for an SNMP query to return. If you are getting data but failing to get VLAN information, try increasing the timeout value significantly and map the ports again. If this succeeds in getting all the information, and then reduce the timeout until you find a value that works in your environment.

    SNMP Retries

    The number of times Switch Port Mapper retries a failed a SNMP request.

  5. Click OK.

Use the command line interface

Optionally, you can run Switch Port Mapper using the command line interface.

  1. Click Start > Run.

  2. Browse to the installation folder. By default, this is:

    [Program Files]\SolarWinds\SwitchPortMapper.

  3. Enter SwSpmCmd.exe and use the following parameters to specify how to run the tool:

    Parameter

    Description

    /?

    Displays all available parameters and syntax.

    /Switch IP

    The name or the IP address of the switch to map.

    /switch community

    The community string or credential name to be used when communicating with the switch.

    /arp ip

    Layer 3 device name or IP address when using a switch that does not support Layer 3.

    /arp community

    Community string or credential name for the layer 3 device when present.

    /scommv=<1|2>

    Specifies the SNMP version (1 or 2) used by the switch.

    /arpcommv=<1|2>

    Specifies the SNMP version (1 or 2) used by the Layer 3 device when present.

    /showraw

    Shows all data retrieved from the devices.

    /xml

    Show output in XML format instead of fixed with. This is useful for scripting.

    /nostatus

    Hides the status messages in the output.

    /nodns

    Prevents a reverse DNS query on found IP addresses. This speeds up the process.

    /nologo

    Hides the copyright information.

    /macaddrlowercase

    Sets the MAC address output to lowercase.

    /log

    Displays additional log information.

    /exvlan

    Retrieves extended VLAN information.

Export results

  1. Click , and then click Export Table.

  2. Select the rows and columns you want to export.

  3. Select the Export Format.

  4. Click OK.

  5. Enter the file name you want to save the export as, and then click Save.

  6. To enable or disable an interface, right-click the interface in the results table, and then click Enable/Disable Interface.

To perform another scan or to scan additional devices, click Back to device entry.

Switch Port Mapper FAQs

Why don't I see IP addresses or host names for a device?

It is possible the device does not show within the ARP table of the router or server you specified. When this occurs, Switch Port Mapper will be unable to correlate the MAC address to an IP address and host name. The ARP entry for this device may have expired or the device may be off or unreachable.

Why do I see multiple devices connected to the same port?

A hub is most likely connected to the switch and multiple devices are directly connected to the hub.

Why don't I see the MAC addresses for non-default VLANs when using SNMPv3 on Cisco switches?

For Switch Port Mapper to read the Bridge-MIB for each VLAN, you must add the context for each VLAN to the snmp-server group on your device. To add visibility to your VLAN bridging table, add similar statements from the following examples to your configuration:

snmp-server group MyGroup v3 priv context vlan-2 read myview

snmp-server group MyGroup v3 priv context vlan-3 read myview

snmp-server group MyGroup v3 priv context vlan-4 read myview