Network Ferret Features, Protocols and Platforms

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What is Discovered

Address Discovery

  • Standard ping sweep using address ranges
  • Seed router address with expansion based on subnets in router.
  • List of addresses from host file or via API.
  • Network crawl using addresses found via ARP cache, LLDP, routing tables, OSPF, BGP, GVRP, MPLS, CDP and IGMP.
  • Combinations of the above.
  • Ability for user to control amount of pinging.
  • Ability to automatically control pinging based on ICMP source quench messages.
  • Determination of Cisco HSRP addresses.
  • Multiple strategies for determining device uniqueness. SNMPv3 engine ID, sysName, user specified variable or address list comparison.
  • Ability to limit discovery based on private networks, LAN or WAN subnets, mask sizes or a specific exclude list.

Basic Host Discovery

  • Standard MIB-II variables such as sysName, sysDescr, etc.
  • IP addresses, interfaces, virtual circuit endpoints and the stacking of these objects.
  • Hardware discovery using the Entity MIB and vendor-specific MIBs.
  • Application discovery using user-defined port scanning.
  • CPU, memory, disks and file systems using the Host Resources MIB.

For switches

  • Bridge port discovery using the Bridge MIB and vendor-specific MIBs.
  • Repeater port discovery using the Repeater MIB.
  • VLAN and VLAN membership discovery using VLAN MIBs and vendor-specific MIBs.

For Routers

  • OSPF v2 and v3 discovery.
  • BGP discovery
  • MPLS objects including Label Spaces and VRFs using MPLS MIBs and vendor-specific MIBs.

Switch and Repeater Connectivity

  • Connect repeater ports using a sampling algorithm.
  • Connect switch ports using LLDP, GVRP, vendor protocols EDP and CDP, spanning tree and proprietary matching algorithms.
  • Discovery of Link Aggregation (LAG) objects.
  • Discovery of VLAN trunking.
  • Grouping of VLANs across switches.
  • Inference of unmanaged layer 2 devices both at the leaf nodes and internally.
  • Reporting of devices discovered but not attached to a layer 2 device.

Router Connectivity

  • Connects router ports by analyzing routing tables and via inference.
  • Connects Frame Relay virtual circuits using a sampling algorithm.
  • Discovers OSPF neighbors and BGP peers.
  • Discovers LDP peers and MPLS Pseudowire connections.

Other Information

Developer Features

  • Network Ferret runs standalone and generates CSV files and HTML reports so Network Ferret can be evaluated before writing any integration code.
  • Extensive logging allows for easy debug of any discovery issues.
  • MIB dump capability allows for easy field collection of information on suspect devices.
  • Record capability allows developers and testers to consistently recreate the same test scenarios.

SNMP Support

  • SNMP v1, v2 and v3.
  • Support of GETBULK for greater efficiency.
  • Uses AES and DES encryption for SNMPv3.

Performance

  • Network Ferret Proxy allows discovery through firewalls.
  • Fixed number of threads (< 50) will not drain the host system.
  • Can work on hundreds of devices concurrently.
  • Ability to control the amount of ICMP and SNMP traffic.

Platform

  • Network Ferret is written in Java and will work with JRE 1.5 or newer.
  • Pinging, if used, is platform specific. Windows, Solaris and Linux are supported.
  • A custom interface to a non-Java application can be created.