IPNetwork Monitor allows you to test and monitor performance parameters of network switches. You can select which variable to monitor using built-in MIB browser that provides you with all variables supported by switch, their current values and descriptions taken from MIBs.

Network switches are computer network devices that connect other devices on a computer network by means of packet switching (combining data into packets, containing information required to transmit packets to the correct destination).

Network switch uses hardware addresses (such as MAC) to perform packets delivery. Normally, switch stores the packet destination, thus reducing time required to deliver packets. Advanced network switches can also include router’s capabilities.

Typical switches monitoring use cases

Depending on exact network switch type and capabilities, control over address table and ports status can be monitored. Ports speed might be under control, as well as ports availability.

For some models of network switches, firmware version, VLANs presence and status and other hardware information can be monitored.

For switches with router features, all router-specific monitoring can be enabled, as well.

List of MIBs used to monitor switch devices

  • CISCO-APENT-MIB MIB module used to describe the Cisco CSS11000 Series Content Services Switch MIB branch.
  • CISCO-ATM-SWITCH-ADDR-MIB MIB module for ATM Switch Address.
  • CISCO-ATM-SWITCH-CUG-MIB This MIB module is for closed user group support (virtual private networks).
  • CISCO-ATM-SWITCH-FR-IWF-MIB A MIB module for managing Frame Relay to ATM interworking connections, and Frame Relay to Frame Relay switched connections via an ATM switching fabric, on a Cisco ATM switch.
  • CISCO-ATM-SWITCH-FR-RM-MIB This MIB module describes a set of objects used for switch Resource Management (RM) for Frame Relay/Framebased User-to-Network (FUNI) to ATM interworking function (IWF) connections. Please refer to the FrameRelay Forum documents FRF.5 and FRF.8 for details on the Frame Relay to ATM Interworking Functions. For details on FUNI, please refer to the ATM Forum FUNI Specification document. These objects are applicable to Frame Relay and FUNI interfaces present on the Frame Relay Port AdapterModule (PAM).
  • CISCO-CNO-SWITCH-MIB MIB module for the management of Cisco Network Office (CNO) switch products.
  • CISCO-DLC-SWITCH-MIB MIB module for objects used to manage FRAS sessions to the end station. These objects are specific to downstream or end user sessions only. It does not contain objects supported by the FRAS-HOST MIB which are specific to upstream or host-end sessions.
  • CISCO-DLSW-EXT-MIB MIB module for management of Cisco specific Data Link Switching protocol enhancements. DLSw is described in RFC 1795 and RFC 2024.
  • CISCO-DLSW-MIB This MIB module contains objects to manage Data Link Switches.
  • CISCO-MGX82XX-ATM-UNI-PORT-MIB The MIB module containing objects related to user-side of the ATM UNI Port. The MIB is applicable for MGX8250 and MGX8220 products.
  • CISCO-MGX82XX-CARD-FEATURE-MIB The MIB module that describes the features supported in MGX82XX products. This MIB Module provides the features supported in Controller Cards in MGX8250 and MGX8220.
  • CISCO-MGX82XX-DSX1-MIB The MIB module to configure DS1/E1 interface objects. This MIB also contains the alarm configuration of DS1/E1 interfaces. This MIB is supported in T1/E1 service modules.
  • CISCO-MGX82XX-DSX3-BERT-MIB The MIB Module for BERT (Bit Error Rate Testing) on ds3 interfaces in some of the cards (Service Modules) in MGX products.
  • CISCO-MGX82XX-DSX3-MIB The MIB Module for DS3/E3 interface configuration , statistics and Alarm configuration.
  • CISCO-MGX82XX-ENVMON-MIB The MIB module to describe the status of the Environmental Monitoring devices in MGX82xx products.
  • CISCO-MGX82XX-MODULE-RSRC-PART-MIB The MIB module to configure the resource partition on service modules(cards) supported in MGX82xx and MGX88xx products.
  • CISCO-MGX82XX-PXM-CLOCK-MIB The MIB module to describe the clock configuration in Processor Switch Module(PXM) in MGX82xx product.
  • CISCO-MGX82XX-RPM-CONN-MIB The connection MIB module for RPM(Router Blade) service module in MGX8250/MGX8230 products.
  • CISCO-MGX82XX-RPM-RSRC-PART-MIB The MIB module to manage resource partition objects.A resource partition is configured on a RPM subinterface. An administrator can partition connection related resources like VPI, VCI ranges, bandwidth and total amount of available connection entries in the switch through these MIB tables.
  • CISCO-MGX82XX-RPM-SUBIF-MIB This MIB is used to provision backplane sub-interfaces on the MGX’s Route Processor Module (RPM). This MIB is implemented on the MGX controller to manage the RPM. The RPMfamily of Router Modules run the IOS Operating System
  • CISCO-MGX82XX-VIRTUAL-PORT-MIB The MIB module for configuration and reporting statistics of virtual ports in PXM1 Service module in MGX82xx series.
  • CISCO-MGX8800-IF-MAPPING-CAPABILITY This MIB module contains the Agent Capabilities for CISCO-MGX8800-IF-MAPPING-MIB.
  • CISCO-MGX8800-IF-MAPPING-MIB This MIB module is used for getting the if Index values given physical location and/or logical information.The physical information includes the slot, back-card and physical line, IMA group ID, MFR (Multilink Frame Relay)bundle etc. The logical information includes the logical interface or virtual interface number.In this MIB back card, bay, line module are used to refer to the back card.
  • CISCO-RHINO-MIB The interim Chassis MIB for Rhino ATM switch.
  • CISCO-SVC-INTERFACE-MIB MIB module for displaying and configuring SVC (SAN Volume Controller) related features in the Storage Area Network (SAN) switches.
  • CISCO-SWITCH-CGMP-MIB Switch-side Cisco Group Management Protocol MIB for Layer 2 Switch devices.
  • CISCO-SWITCH-ENGINE-MIB This MIB module defines management objects for Cisco Layer 2/3 switches. These devices may either have a single (central) switching engine entity or may consist of multiple (distributed) switching engine entities which are inter-connected via a common ‘switching fabric’. In the central switching engine model, all the physical ports in the system are handled by the only switching engine in the system. In the distributed switching model, each switching engine will handle a set of ‘local’ physical ports and when necessary, packets are also switched between switching engines over the switching fabric. Cisco L2/L3 switching devices use regular routers to assist the min learning packet ‘flows’ by observing how a router routes a candidate flow. A flow is some combination of source network address, destination network address and the transport port numbers, as applicable. Once a flow is established (learned), all traffic belonging to that flow will be switched at Layer 3 by the switch engine, effectively bypassing the router, until the flow has been ‘aged’ out. Most Cisco L2/L3 switching devices employ built-in (internal) router module(s) for integrating Layer 3 switching with Layer 2 forwarding. However, they can also learn ‘flows’ through other physically-separate (external) Cisco routers that are connected to the switch-engine through the network.
  • CISCO-SWITCH-USAGE-MIB This MIB defines objects related to statistics for the usage of switch fabric. The switch fabric is used by the incoming packets from the line/network to a interface. Such packets are called ingress packets. Counters are maintained for number of ingress packets/octets switched by the switch fabric for each interface. NOTE: These counters are not counting the total number of incoming packets and octets for a particular interface. Instead only the counts of packets and octets that actually use the switch-fabric are being accounted for by this MIB. Therefore, the counters in this MIB are distinctly different from packet and octet counters found in the IF-MIB.
  • CISCO-VSI-CONTROLLER-MIB This MIB module is used for configuring ATM Capable Switch to be aware of VSI Controller information.
  • CISCO-VSI-MASTER-MIB This MIB module contains objects related to the master side of the the Virtual Switch Interface protocol used for control of ATM switches.
  • CISCO-WAN-MODULE-MIB MIB to configure Connection Specific parameters and statistics-related information in a Service Module. The Service Module (SM) is defined as any Module which provides services such as ATM, Frame Relay or Voice in a Wide Area Network (WAN) switch.
  • DLSW-MIB This MIB module contains objects to manage Data Link Switches.
  • FOUNDRY-SN-RT-L3-SWITCH-GROUP-MIB This MIB module contains the definitions of Management Objects for Layer 3 Switches.
  • FOUNDRY-SN-SWITCH-GROUP-MIB This MIB module contains the definitions of Management Objects for Foundry Switches.
  • FOUNDRY-SN-SW-L4-SWITCH-GROUP-MIB This MIB module contains the definitions of Management Objects for the L4 Switch Group.
You can start Switch SNMP monitoring using free 30-day trial version of IPNetwork Monitor right now. With IPNetwork SNMP monitor you can monitor network performance, audit network usage, detect network faults, or inappropriate access. The IPNetwork’s SNMP monitor can communicate and interact with any SNMP-enabled device. [interfaces_screenshot]

IPNetwork Monitor 1.0 build 141 of March 11, 2024. File size: 112MB