Determining Switch Port Availability

[Mark Wagnon]

Hello All,

We will soon be adding a number of new IP devices to our network and I would like to know if there is a way to get a count of ports that are being used. I've done a few Internet searches, but have come up blank. I found MRTG, but I'm not sure if that will be much help because it seems more suited to traffic analysis. Any ideas?

Thanks a ton!

Mark

[Leo Laohoo · Accepted solution]

Use the following commands:

sh interface status | i notconnect
sh interface counters

[Mark Wagnon]

Thanks! I'm thinking that I can clear counters and let the switch sit a few days and come back and see which ports are really being used. This will help a lot. Thanks again.

Mark

[Leo Laohoo]

Thanks for the rating.  One flaw to this is that sometimes you don't know that the client on the other side is on leave and after 30 days, you see the counters as zero.

[glen.grant]

   The only platform that can accurately give you this is the 4500 series, with those you can use the "show int link"  command and it will tell you exactly when the port was last used.  Why they don't port that command to the rest of switches is beyond me ...

[Leo Laohoo]

Yeah.   I've love that command.