SNMP OID for active interfaces

[Leonardo Schieder]

Hi!

I would like to trace the number of active interfaces on Cat3500/Cat2900 Switches. There is 1.3.6.1.2.1.2.1.0 (ifNumber), which returns the number of network interfaces regardless of their current state. As devices are attached to our switches by support staff I would like our network monitoring software (Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold 11) to tell us when a switch is getting "full" to let us react before there is no interface free.

Any ideas?

Regards, L. Schieder

[Joe Clarke]

Sounds like you want ifOperStatus (1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.8). This object is in the is indexed by ifIndex. ifOperStatus will give you the operational state of each port on your switch. If you record these values over time, you can see which ports are historically not in use, and you can figure out where you may have additional capacity.

You would have to do the summation to figure out the total number of active ports.

[Leonardo Schieder]

I hoped there is an easier way to get the sum of active ports. I don't want to have to write a script to retrieve all ifOperStatus of all interfaces. That would be rather resource intensive. Our network management server is already busy checking about 650 devices...