Using porttracker

Step 1 – Connect & Configure

Install your master porttracker appliance, delivered either as a 1u rack mount unit,  or as a Virtual Appliance (VMware image). Connect power, network cables and finally attach a console via the cable provided to perform initial configuration of IP address, gateway, subnet mask and DNS. For more information on initial configuration see our getting started guide.

 

Step 2 – Discover

Each discoverable region of your network can be named and is known as a Realm. Realms are defined using network/mask combinations that allow you to define how much of the network porttracker ‘sees’.  Starting with a configured seed address for each realm, porttracker will automatically discover the switches in the realm and assign them to a poller.

 

Step 3 – Poll

Once discovery is complete and the switches have been assigned to a poller, porttracker is ready to start work!. Polling can be run in an ad-hoc manner or scheduled to keep your data up to date. Depending on network size and topology a standalone (master) appliance can be assigned additional poller appliances to form a distributed architecture. Using efficient polling algorithms, configurable schedules and customizable throttles designed to minimize the network load, porttracker quickly builds a database of all the connections for each and every switch throughout your network.

Step 4 – View and Report

Now porttracker really delivers the benefits! With flexible filtering, views can be created to meet a wide variety of specific reporting needs. The user can select columns and filters and save them as favorites to be recalled at a later time.

Porttracker can displays the following collected and derived fields:

Device View

Device View displays end device connectivity information including:

DNS Name (FQDN), IP Address, MAC Address, Switch Name, Switch IP, Slot, Port , Admin Status, Link Status, Speed, Duplex, VLAN#, VLAN Name, Port Description, VTP info, Last Seen Time, Last Change Times and Notes

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Switch Summary View

Switch Summary View displays switchport capacity information including:

Switch Name, Switch FQDN, Switch IP Address, Total Ports, Free Ports (not in use 'now'), Available Ports (ports not used for xx days), Poller, Last Seen time, Last Change time & Notes

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Switch Detail View

Switch Detail View displays interface information as well as device type for all physical connections on the switch, including:

Switch name, Switch IP, Poller, Last seen (switch) Slot, Port, Speed, MAC(interface), Admin Status, Link Status, Last Change, Port Description, Detected Device Type (End device, Phone, Infrastructure, Nothing Found)

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Filters

Filters are used to mine the potentially large amount of data in the porttracker database and show with precision the information that is being sought.

Filters include:

AND, OR, NOT, LESS THAN, GREATER THAN, BEFORE, AFTER, Network/Mask, *.* , Relative Dates (e.g. in the last 'n' weeks)

Filters can also be applied both between fields as well as within fields to display exactly what is required.

Columns can also be sorted in Ascending or Descending order.

Filters, column selection, rows per page and sort order selections are all saved in the view

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porttracker Licensing

A simple licensing model, including one sync module and the ability to distribute pollers, allows organizations to deploy porttracker economically in a wide range of configurations.