Today, enterprise or organization level networks use hundreds of switch ports as a part of their IT infrastructure to enable network connectivity. This has made switch port management a part of the day-to-day network management tasks. Traditionally network admins had to depend on manual network switch port management techniques to keep track of switches and their port connectivity status. This manual tasks did more bad than good since they were prone to human error, did not reflect the real-time network conditions, and more. In avoid to avoid the hassles of manual switch port management, organizations need to deploy a reliable switch port management tool.
In an organization, devices frequently shift between switch sections, which makes finding rogue or unknown devices on switched networks a challenge for IT admins. Most organizations lack the ability to trace and record who connects when and where.
Switch port usage is difficult to identify, leading most IT departments to either under or overestimate the port's capacity requirements and usage, and leaving IT admins with more questions than answers—is switch port utilization static, increasing, or decreasing? Where are the usage trends increasing or decreasing?
In a large spanning-tree network, some switches will absorb intolerably high loads, while other switches can go underutilized. Additionally, it's difficult to perform basic troubleshooting by locating the affected device.
Due to inadequate capacity planning, many IT admins end up investing in expensive switch capacity "just to be safe." On the other hand, if switches don't have enough capacity, they can be impacted so greatly that it pulls the entire network down; when this happens, additional man power is needed to manually disable the switch port so it doesn't further affect the network.
OpUtils, ManageEngine's switch port management solution, provides a highly-focused view of an entire network. By enabling you to view the status of all ports in one screen, it's easy to maintain at-a-glance management of all the switch ports in your network.
Let's consider a scenario where a particular set of switches supports a number of hosts that often leave their network (on business trips, for example) solely to return within one or two weeks. In cases like these, the network manager will find it challenging to control those temporarily vacated ports so that they remain available for their returning hosts.
OpUtils scans your entire network to identify whether or not a switch port is available, and provides details of the IP addresses connected to a specific port. It provides end-to-end mapping with the option to include mapping of physical ports to switch ports. From the Switch Port Mapper tab in OpUtils, administrators can decide which ports are up or down through SNMP, which can help you block unwanted traffic from a particular port impacted by a cyberattack or hacking. OpUtils empowers network administrators with advanced port scanning capabilities, enabling efficient switch port management and delivering real-time status for the switch ports.
Along with these advantages, OpUtils also provides specialized reports to help you analyze historic data over a specified time period, monitor and manage all your switch ports through your web browser, and quickly learn the switch port settings of the interface to which any device connects.
Switch port management is the process of keeping track of network switches and their port connectivity details. In large network's, the switch port management process is often carried out using an automated switch port management tool.
The complete control and visibility offered over the network switch ports has switch port management tools indispensable in managing networks. The need to deploy a switch port management solution in your network includes:
Switch ports can be easily managed with the help of a network switch port management software. Once switches are added to this solution, the switch port manager automatically discovers, maps, and visualizes the network switch ports.