netgraphp

Making a graphical map of your network

Quick favorite links: Documentation FAQ Examples Download Contact

About

Netgraphp is a php script which uses LLDP information to traverse SNMP servers in a network and produce a graphical map of different hosts and connections in the network. The graph is produced with the graphviz dot syntax and graphviz can be used to produce different file formats like .png or .eps. All connections to be identified must have LLDP support at both ends and SNMP support at least at one end. Most high end switches have built in support for SNMP and LLDP. Computer hosts need something like lldpd together with an SNMP server and the SNMP server need to provide the .1.0.8802.1.1.2.1 LLDP information.

License

Netgraphp is published under the terms of the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE (GPL).

Documentation

 A README file with this information is also included with netgraphp.

Usage examples

netgraphp -h
shows some help 

netgraphp some.host.in.my.net > /tmp/my_net.dot
Creates a graphviz dot file. 

netgraphp -c my_secret_snmp_community some.host.in.net > /tmp/net.dot
Uses a custom SNMP community to traverse your network. 

netgraphp my_switch.net | dot -Tpng -o /tmp/my_net.png
Uses graphviz dot to create a png file. The network topology will probably look best if you give switches as commands on the command line. 

netgraphp my_switch.net | dot -Tpng -Gdpi=75 -o /tmp/my_net.png
Creates a slightly smaller png file. 

netgraphp -d switch1.net switch2.net | dot -Tpdf -o /tmp/my_net.pdf
Strips domain name from host names and uses graphviz dot to create a .pdf file. 

netgraphp -t 2000000 my_switch.net | dot -Teps -o /tmp/my_net.eps
Increases SNMP timeout to 2s for a slow network and uses dot to create eps.

Dependencies

Installation

  1. Adjust path to php
    2. As netgraphp is a php script no compilation is necessary. However, to run netgraphp you will need php installed and might have to modify the first row of the file netgraphp to make that row point to your php binary. The line that you might have to edit looks like this: 
    #!/usr/bin/php
  2. Copy directory structure
    3. The entire directory structure should be copied to some location that you prefer. The important thing is that the filters directory lies next to the netgraphp file, the README and the COPYING file is not important for functionality but might be good to keep for reference.
  3. Adjust PATH in login file
    4. Unless you want to give the entire path to the netgraphp script like /my/preferred/path/netgraphp switch1 host2 -c my_community1 -c other_community add the installation directory to your path. How this is done depends upon your shell, but if you are an advanced user seeing the use of this tool you probably also knows how to modify your PATH :-)

FAQ
Q:Why can't I see my host X in the generated image?
A:To be shown, both X and the device at the other end of the network cable must support LLDP. Also, at least one of the devices need to provide LLDP information by SNMP and this SNMP server must have been found as an argument to the command line or by traversing other SNMP servers providing SNMP information. Traversing of SNMP servers will only be successful if it is possible to resolve the SysName provided by LLDP.
Q:Why is one of my devices marked gray in the graph?
A:That device does support LLDP but did not provide any SNMP information, all information about that device was provided by its neighbor. This also means that other devices beyond that device might be hidden as the SNMP traverse stops there.
Q:Why isn't the link speed shown at one of my network connections.
A:Both ends of that network link did provide SNMP information about the link speed, but they didn't provide the same speed. As least one of those given speeds must be wrong and we don't want to risk presenting any wrong results.

Changelog

From the CHANGELOG:

Date       Version   Comment
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
07/4 2023  1.0.1     Fixed support for onyx switches which messes with mac
                     address for connection identification and reorders ports.
                     Windows 10 machines are now shown as different machines
                     even though their LLDP does not tell anything about
                     machine name.
29/8 2020  1.0.0     First stable release
                     Avoiding bug from LLDP messages without SysDescr
                     Trying to show Win10 machines even though their LLDP
                     messages are broken
                     Experimental identification of Zyxel switches
                     Fixed "Unknown OS" for some machines lacking lldp
                     Fixed bug in detecting broken mac addresses from snmp

28/1 2017  0.9.0beta First public release

ToDo

Contributions are welcome!

Examples of generated images

Small home network

Netgraphp small home network

Bigger network

This rather big image (4155x6706 pixels) is provided by its own link, unless your web browser is able to zoom in and out when displaying big images you will probably not find the link useful.

Download

Current stable version

Current stable release is version 1.0.1, it is available from SourceForge download.
The md5sum of netgraphp-1.0.1.tar.gz is 4d69855d7dcd084d115240d6a2974633

Previous versions

Release version 1.0.0 is available from SourceForge download.
The md5sum of netgraphp-1.0.0.tar.gz is 628571e7b8f845f9e26a1f8f1d5fc72d

Release version 0.9.0beta is available from SourceForge download.
The md5sum of netgraphp-0.9.0beta.tar.gz is c62bacab88806b765cf3c94da0bda231

It is possible to get the latest development files with the following subversion command: 

svn checkout svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/netgraphp/code/trunk netgraphp-code

Contact

Bug reports

Bugs should be reported to the SourceForge Bug Tracking System.

Support

Questions will be answered at SourceForge netgraphp support page.

Patches and contributions

Please contribute your patches at SourceForge netgraphp patches page.

Email

It was once possible contact me, Henrik Carlqvist, by my sourceforge email. Unfortunately that email address is no longer usable because large amounts of spam.
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