Tool to trace mac address back to a switch port

Question

To make a long story short, I have some newer off-brand switches in just a few locations. The main feature I'm missing on these switches vs our nicer (but old) 3Com equipment is the ability to trace a mac address down to a specific port in the address tables. The off-brand switches do support snmp. Can someone recommend a good (and cheap/free) software tool (probably snmp-based) that will allow me to trace a mac address down to a specific switch port?

Solution 1

Are there cli tools? You could do something like (I know it's cisco, bear with me):

switch>ping 192.168.101.1

Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 192.168.101.1, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 1/1/1 ms

Then search the arp for the IP:

switch>show arp | include 101.1
Internet  192.168.101.12         37   0020.6b61.a83d  ARPA   Vlan101
Internet  192.168.101.1           -   001d.09fd.71c0  ARPA   Vlan101

Now that you know the MAC address, search the mac address table:

switch>show mac-address-table | include 71c0
*    1  000d.662f.71c0    static  No           -   Router
*   10  001d.09fd.71c0   dynamic  Yes         20   Gi2/43

Voila! Port 43 on the second internal switch.

Solution 2

I agree with him, you need to find the mac address first, and look for it ini your 3Com switch.

I have 3Com SuperStack III 4200 series, you need to login to your switch, and use these command: bridge --> addressDatabase --> summary to display all mac address on your switch.

Solution 3

I have no idea whether or not Netdisco supports your devices, but that's the tool I've turned to in the past for keeping track of the physical location of MAC addresses on my networks.

Comments

[Chopper3]

make/model please?

[Joel Coel]

There's 3 different model switches - one netgear, one dlink, and one (sigh) tplink. I'm hoping for something generic that pulls the info via snmp.

[John Gardeniers]

What do you mean by "off-brand"?

[Joel Coel]

I mean a brand that's traditionally more consumer focused rather than top-tier enterprise like cisco or 3com/hp.

[Tim Williscroft]

That 3Com feature was very good; CPU by port is a lifesaver sometimes too..

[Joel Coel]

I can do that on the 3Coms... this question about how to do it on the non-3Com switches that don't have that feature.