Pro Tips with Esben #41
Being able to view switches and their ports is a popular feature within Lansweeper. It allows you to quickly navigate to devices connected to a switch and identify where network problems. It also lets you trace which devices utilize what network equipment.
Uplinks
By default, Lansweeper will show up to 4 devices connected to a network interface. Once more than 4 devices are connected to an interface, it is simply shown as an “Uplink”.
An uplink is a port on a router or switch that is designed to connect to another router, switch, or internet access device. Because there will be a lot of MAC addresses connected to these ports, Lansweeper will instead of showing all of the connected MAC addresses and devices, simply show the port as being an uplink.
However, with virtualization being present in most businesses, it is common to have a server that hosts a lot of virtual machines. This is one scenario where a lot of devices would be connected to a single port which would result in the uplink port instead of the actual VMs using that network interface.
To help you find which assets have uplinks I’ve created a graph report and a regular report that show you which devices have an uplink interface and how many.
Changing What is Considered an Uplink
To change this setting, you will need to be on version 9.3 of Lansweeper or higher. If you are up-to-date, you can adjust the setting for each of your scanning servers separately. You can find the setting in Configuration > Server Options.
Once raised, you will need to rescan the switch, router, or other network devices you want to see all the connected devices on. Once the scan is finished, you’ll get a complete overview regardless of what Lansweeper you’re using.
If you’re using Lansweeper Classic, I’ve also created a report to show you what your uplink settings.
Diagrams
One big benefit to adding the additional data is that it can also be used in other areas of Lansweeper like diagrams. Having the extra data on which devices are connected means that your diagrams will also automatically be more complete.
