notification of "link down" events among switches

[c.chaplin]

I'm trying to setup some kind of notification to occur when a downstream switch loses connectivity and would really appreciate any advise on the matter.

Here's a very rough diagram of my current setup:

core-6500

|

|-- distribution-3550

|

|-- access-3540

(The online forum tool really limits formatting so the diagram isn't that enlightening, sorry. The access switch is downstream of the distribution switch.)

CiscoWorks is thrown into the mix as well, with all devices configured to send traps there.

If someone, for example, were to unplug the distribution switch I would like the core-6500 to send some kind of alarm to CiscoWorks. It looks like everything is setup to allow for such an alarm but when I try testing such an example the only errors that show up in CiscoWorks are related to STP changes (rather than "link down" errors).

My suspicions lie with how the switches are configured so if anyone has any advise on where to look in the configs I'd be grateful.

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

on the interfaces where the distribution switch is connected to, make sure that the command:

snmp trap link-status

is configured. This should cause the core switch to send a trap whenever the link to the distribution switch is lost.

HTH,

Georg

[c.chaplin]

In my previous example neither the core nor distribution switches support this command; some experimentation didn't reveal a similar command. Is it possible that this command is only made available after a certain IOS release?

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

the command was introduced in IOS version 10.0, highly unlikely that you have have a version prior to that...which options do you have when you type´snmp ?´ in interface configuration mode ?

Regards,

Georg

[c.chaplin]

The device in question is running IOS MSFC2 software from the 12.1 release train. Below I've included the possible snmp options available at the configuration console.

###

(config)#snmp ?

chassis-id String to uniquely identify this chassis

community Enable SNMP; set community string and access privs

contact Text for mib object sysContact

enable Enable SNMP Traps or Informs

engineID Configure a local or remote SNMPv3 engineID

group Define a User Security Model group

host Specify hosts to receive SNMP notifications

location Text for mib object sysLocation

packetsize Largest SNMP packet size

queue-length Message queue length for each TRAP host

system-shutdown Enable use of the SNMP reload command

tftp-server-list Limit TFTP servers used via SNMP

trap-source Assign an interface for the source address of all traps

trap-timeout Set timeout for TRAP message retransmissions

user Define a user who can access the SNMP engine

view Define an SNMPv2 MIB view

###

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

the command I mentioned is actually an interface configuration command...

Switch(config-if)#snmp ?

Regards,

Georg

[c.chaplin]

Yes, above I've pasted the tab completion subcommands available in configuration mode...