Looking for a nice trace utility...

[getwithrob]

Does anyone know of a utility that can be used to trace through a network to identify what switch and what switch port a PC is connected to? I know this can be done using Campus Mgr user tracking but I would think there is a nice shareware or freeware utility that could do the same thing that has less overhead.

The steps required to find what switch port a PC is connected to involves running a traceroute to the PCs IP address. Logging onto the router at the last hop, showing the IP arp to get the PCs MAC, showing a CDP neighbor on that router, telneting to the switch connected to that router and possibly jumping over to another switch if one is connected then showing the CAM or MAC address table to find the port. This can sometimes be a lengthy process. Surely there’s a nifty utility that could be installed on a PC that will do the same thing.

[michael_davis]

There are two nifty tools available in catalyst switches you should play with.

l2trace (cat os)

Console> (enable) l2trace ?

Usage: l2trace [vlan] [detail]

l2trace [detail]

(src-ip-addr, dest-ip-addr: IP alias or IP address)

For IOS, try traceroute mac

LAN1#traceroute mac ?

H.H.H 48-bit hardware address of source

interface Interface on which this source mac exists

ip Specify ip addresses

Also, there are a couple of script tools to do the same process you described, built by Sasa Milic and distributed under GNU GPL.

http://www.geocities.com/milicsasa/Tools/l2trace/l2trace.tar.gz

http://www.geocities.com/milicsasa/Tools/l2trace/l2trace.zip

[getwithrob]

Thank you. I'll try them on Monday.

I'm still hoping someone will respond with a shareware or freeware utility that can do this.

[michael_davis · Accepted solution]

Also, there are a couple of script tools to do the same process you described, built by Sasa Milic and distributed under GNU GPL.

http://www.geocities.com/milicsasa/Tools/l2trace/l2trace.tar.gz

http://www.geocities.com/milicsasa/Tools/l2trace/l2trace.zip

[getwithrob]

Again, Thank you. I'll take a look at this on Monday.

[nhabib]

Looks like there is a tool called Tracker available on COSI as well:

http://cosi-nms.sourceforge.net/alpha-progs.html