Verifying SNMP on Fully Managed Switches

To verify if a Layer 2/3 Switch supports SNMP and is a fully managed you can invoke the switchprobe utility to do in multiple ways:

1: switchprobe.jar - brings up the same utility as is available in Windows by going to Start / programs / intravue / tools / run switchprobe menu item. See Downloads

2: util.jsp- If you select this page you will get a list of available utilities with their syntax hints. More utilities will be added over time.

In your IntraVUE browser, substitute the URL of the IntraVUE host to be :

http://127.0.0.1:8765/tools

If the host resides under a different IP address, modify this accordingly.

The syntax hint must be added to the URL you use to access IntraVUE. For instance, if you access IntraVUE using "http://10.1.2.3:8765" the full URL for each of the utilities above would be:

http://10.1.2.3:8765/tools/util.jsp?ping=10.1.2.99

http://10.1.2.3:8765/tools/util.jsp?tracert=10.1.2.99

http://10.1.2.3:8765/tools/util.jsp?switchprobe=10.1.2.99&community=public

The Switchprobe's utility community field is case sensitve! Watch for extra spaces.

These utilities are also available on the IntraVUE Agent. After you run one of the commands, a browser window will open with the results

The switchprobe browser option allows you to use the find command to locate specific data within the switchprobe results.

3. Enter the ip address of the switch or router and the presumed community (e.g. public).

If you don't get MAC addresses and Port information that means the switch:

A. Does not have SNMP enabled**

B. Does not have a Read-Only Community setup***

C. The switch is not a fully managed switch

This is what you will see when the switch or router is not a managed switch or a firewall/ACL/Antivirus is blocking SNMP/ICMP Pings

requesting 1.3.6.1.2.1.1.5.0 (System Name)

timeout - no response from x.x.x.x

abandoning further queries to this device

 

Usually when running theswitchprobeutility against suchswitch, at the bottom of the switchprobe results page it will return the bridge mid information with MAC address and port number for each interface of theswitch. If it doesn't then thisswitchdoes not conform with either standard and can't be considered a "Fully Managed"switch.

 

For example, this is found in a switch probe output for a fully managed switch which shows the first port found. It shows the MAC address as well as the port number for that MAC address.

...3.1.1.236..229.85.183.60.128 (HEX MAC address found)

...29.85.183.60.128: [OctectString] HEX:ece555b73c80

...3.1.2.236.229.85.183.60.128 (port number for MAC Above)

...29.85.183.60.128: [Integer] 1

 

**Many L2/L3 switches and routers require a reboot after enabling SNMP and SNMP communities.

***IntraVUE does not require SNMP Traps to be enabled on switches. SNMP Read-Only Communities are enough to communicate L2/L3 switches & routers in order to get MAC Addresses of end devices. IntraVUE does not write to devices.