Network Tracking Database (NetDB)

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About Network Tracking Database

NetDB keeps track of devices on your network and the status of your switch ports over time. You can map devices to your switch ports, locate ports configured for a VLAN and recover unused switchports and static addresses. NetDB has been designed for use by network teams as well as security teams, helpdesk and the end users of any medium to large network, ultimately reducing support issues. It has been tested with almost every Cisco Ethernet switch, is written in Perl and works on most linux and BSD distributions. It's designed for large campus networks and datacenters, but should work in any environment.

What's New in NetDB v1.13.2 (released May 2015)

• Numerous Scraper Updates and Fixes
• Comware/H3C Support
• Force10 Support
• Fortigate Firewall Support
• Aerohive Support
• Palo Alto Support
• Major changes to Last IP behavior to tie switchport entries to ARP entries for more accurate reporting

Major Features

• Track all entries in your MAC and ARP tables across your network routers and switches over time
• IP, Hostname and MAC to switchport mapping in milliseconds
  
• Designed for large Ethernet LANs but can be used in smaller environments or service provider environments
• Includes easy to use web interface with access control and a command line interface backend for more advanced users and administrators
• Enable end users, helpdesk operators and security analysts visibility of network connectivity status and configuration with user access control and auditing
• Quickly track down a problem with a device and locate its current state on the network or last connected state
• Generate switch usage reports to recover unused ports or plan for network upgrades
• Monitor the usage of static IP addresses and generate reports for static address recovery
  
• Locate all switchports configured for a vlan and the history of all devices connected
  
• Find all devices on a VLAN and the last time they were online
• Web interface includes sortable columns and access controls
• Generate CSV reports from the web interface or the command line
• Change VLANs from the web interface with access controls on a per switch or per user basis
  
• Send Wake On Lan packets from the Web Interface to remotely wakeup workstations
  
• Fast imports, pulls data from 1,000 or more network devices in under five minutes (depends on the hardware used)
  
• Support for VRFs, IPv6 and almost every modern Cisco IOS and NX-OS device
• Support for port security, port-channels and trunk ports for VMWare and phones
• Wi-Fi tracking of clients on access points (Aruba and Cisco WLC)
  
• Optional graphing through MRTG to track the usage trends on your network
  
• Optionally integrate NAC registration data to retrieve user registration information based on the mac address
  

Security

• Runs everything as the netdb user
  
• Uses and/or SSH/Telnet to gather information from your devices and does not require write access
  
• Does not use SNMP, so no security issues or MIBs to deal with
  
• Web Interface has access controls to restrict the information users can access based on their userid
  

Supported Devices

• Plugin architecture for third-party additions (please share any new scrapers)
  
• Cisco 12.2 - 15.0 IOS routers (2600/2800/2900) for ARP data
  
• Cisco IOS 7600/6500 SXF and above plus VSS support
  
• Cisco 4500 Family (4006/4506/4948/4900M/4500-X)
  
• Cisco 3650/3750/3850/3560/2970/2960/2950 (anything using 12.2(35)+ will work for sure, most 12.2(25)SEE+ codes works, but really old versions have bugs in them)
  
• Cisco Nexus NX-OS 7000/5000 Switches and Nexus 2000 FEXes
  
• Cisco 2924/3500XL support for those of you with really old devices
  
• Cisco ASA/FWSM ARP table support (SSH Access Only, no telnet support)
• Cisco CatOS Support for 6500 and 2948-L3 (limited support)
• JunOS Ethernet switches and routers including firewalls (SRX/EX/MX)
• Foundry/Brocade Switch support
• Cisco WLC Wireless Controllers
• Aruba Wireless Controllers
• Dell Powerconnect Switches
• HP Procurve

Backend Details

• Centralized configuration file at /etc/netdb.conf, plus a network device list
• Managed through command line tools and config file, database stores only data
• Available as a VM image on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
• Indexed MySQL database for millisecond response times and scales to millions of rows
  
• Multi-process scraper scripts to gather data from hundreds of devices in minutes
  
• Optionally integrate NAC registration data to retrieve and search user registration information
• All code is documented and organized, program structure is modular for integration with your environment
• Extensive logging and debugging support for troubleshooting
  

Documentation and Support

• Check the FAQ for preinstall advice and common questions.
• Extensive documentation is included in the download. See the INSTALL and UPGRADE documents for help.
• Please post any other questions in the Help Forum, or feature requests in the Open Forum.

License:

• NetDB is licensed under the GPL