Documentation forKiwi CatTools

Report.ARP table

The Report.ARP table activity builds a report using the ARP table from selected devices as source data. On a Cisco IOS device it uses a simple "Show IP ARP" command and builds a table of results over time.

The default location of the text file is \Reports\Master ARP table.txt. This activity automatically indexes MAC addresses against IP addresses and device interfaces, and then resolves their host names via DNS, if required. By default, the table is updated after each run of the activity, providing a historical record of the devices attached to your network over time. Each entry is time stamped, and "First Seen" and "Last Seen" columns included in the report.

By importing the file into a spreadsheet program like Excel, you can search for specific MAC addresses or host names, or maybe list all devices on a particular port. The Options tab allows you to use an alternate command, to set the expiry date of MAC entries in the report, and to select whether to resolve IP addresses.

Setting up the activity for Report.ARP table

For information on setting up activities, see Add / Edit scheduled activity details.

Activity options

Configure the options specific to this activity in the Options tab.

Use alternate command

Set an alternate command if the default command issued by CatTools does not produce the correct results.

This may be useful if you have some devices not yet supported in the CatTools default device list.
Days until entries expire

Activates associated numeric field. Enter the number of days you want entries to remain in the table.

Each time the activity runs, the existing MAC address table entries that are older than the expiration period are removed. This keeps the table to a workable size.
Resolve IP addresses to host names

Activates resolution of host names to IP addresses for report.

Each time the activity runs, the program scans the table for entries that have a blank host name field. A list of IP addresses is created and then resolved in bulk. The resolver attempts up to 100 DNS lookups at once. If a hostname is returned for the IP address, the table is then updated with the hostname.