Documenting a Network with CDP

In this post I will use the information available from CDP to help me create a logical network diagram.

CDP is the Cisco Discovery Protocol and is enabled on all router and switch interfaces by default. The switch or router sends a CDP packet out of each interface every 60 seconds, any connected device records the delivery of these packets into a CDP table for a holdtime period of 180 seconds. If after 180 seconds the device has not received any more CDP packets on that interface it removes the entry from the table. CDP can be disabled entirely or on any individual interface.

I begin by connecting to my switch and I check the CDP settings.

switch1#sh cdp
Global CDP information:
Sending CDP packets every 60 seconds
Sending a holdtime value of 180 seconds
Sending CDPv2 advertisements is enabled

From the output I can see the CDP time settings and the version. Next I look at the connected devices.

switch1#sh cdp neighbors
Capability Codes: R – Router, T – Trans Bridge, B – Source Route Bridge
S – Switch, H – Host, I – IGMP, r – Repeater

Device ID Local Intrfce Holdtme Capability Platform Port ID
switch2.lab.localFas 0/1 160 S I WS-C2950-2Fas 0/1
switch2.lab.localFas 0/24 160 S I WS-C2950-2Fas 0/24

Here I can see that I have 2 ports (1 & 24) connected to switch2 (also using ports 1 & 24). I can also see that switch2 is a Catalyst 2950.

This is a great summary but for my diagram I could do with knowing the IP address of switch2.

switch1#sh cdp entry *
————————-
Device ID: switch2.lab.local
Entry address(es):
IP address: 10.0.1.211
Platform: cisco WS-C2950-24, Capabilities: Switch IGMP
Interface: FastEthernet0/1, Port ID (outgoing port): FastEthernet0/1
Holdtime : 142 sec

Version :
Cisco Internetwork Operating System Software
IOS ™ C2950 Software (C2950-I6Q4L2-M), Version 12.1(13)EA1, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Copyright (c) 1986-2003 by cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Tue 04-Mar-03 02:14 by yenanh

advertisement version: 2
Protocol Hello: OUI=0x00000C, Protocol ID=0x0112; payload len=27, value=00000000FFFFFFFF01022505000000000000000CCE3E3EC0FF0000
VTP Management Domain: ‘lab.local’
Native VLAN: 1
Duplex: full

————————-
Device ID: switch2.lab.local
Entry address(es):
IP address: 10.0.1.211
Platform: cisco WS-C2950-24, Capabilities: Switch IGMP
Interface: FastEthernet0/24, Port ID (outgoing port): FastEthernet0/24
Holdtime : 142 sec

Version :
Cisco Internetwork Operating System Software
IOS ™ C2950 Software (C2950-I6Q4L2-M), Version 12.1(13)EA1, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Copyright (c) 1986-2003 by cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Tue 04-Mar-03 02:14 by yenanh

advertisement version: 2
Protocol Hello: OUI=0x00000C, Protocol ID=0x0112; payload len=27, value=00000000FFFFFFFF01022505000000000000000CCE3E3EC0FF0000
VTP Management Domain: ‘lab.local’
Native VLAN: 1
Duplex: full

This detailed output gives me additional useful information such as the VLAN and the IOS version.

Next I head over to switch2 and look at it’s CDP information.

switch2#sh cdp neighbors
Capability Codes: R – Router, T – Trans Bridge, B – Source Route Bridge
S – Switch, H – Host, I – IGMP, r – Repeater, P – Phone

Device ID Local Intrfce Holdtme Capability Platform Port ID
switch1 Fas 0/24 168 S I WS-C2950-2Fas 0/24
switch1 Fas 0/1 168 S I WS-C2950-2Fas 0/1
router1.lab.localFas 0/2 175 R Cisco C831Eth 0
router1.lab.localFas 0/23 175 R Cisco C831Eth 1

Here I can see the connections to switch1 and additional connections to router1. Again I look at the detailed information to get the IP address of the router.

switch2#sh cdp entry *
————————-
Device ID: switch1
Entry address(es):
IP address: 10.0.1.210
Platform: cisco WS-C2950-24, Capabilities: Switch IGMP
Interface: FastEthernet0/24, Port ID (outgoing port): FastEthernet0/24
Holdtime : 152 sec

Version :
Cisco Internetwork Operating System Software
IOS ™ C2950 Software (C2950-I6Q4L2-M), Version 12.1(12c)EA1, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Copyright (c) 1986-2002 by cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Sun 24-Nov-02 23:31 by antonino

advertisement version: 2
Protocol Hello: OUI=0x00000C, Protocol ID=0x0112; payload len=27, value=00000000FFFFFFFF01022505000000000000000C8582C600FF0000
VTP Management Domain: ‘lab.local’
Native VLAN: 1
Duplex: full

————————-
Device ID: switch1
Entry address(es):
IP address: 10.0.1.210
Platform: cisco WS-C2950-24, Capabilities: Switch IGMP
Interface: FastEthernet0/1, Port ID (outgoing port): FastEthernet0/1
Holdtime : 152 sec

Version :
Cisco Internetwork Operating System Software
IOS ™ C2950 Software (C2950-I6Q4L2-M), Version 12.1(12c)EA1, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Copyright (c) 1986-2002 by cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Sun 24-Nov-02 23:31 by antonino

advertisement version: 2
Protocol Hello: OUI=0x00000C, Protocol ID=0x0112; payload len=27, value=00000000FFFFFFFF01022505000000000000000C8582C600FF0000
VTP Management Domain: ‘lab.local’
Native VLAN: 1
Duplex: full

————————-
Device ID: router1.lab.local
Entry address(es):
IP address: 10.0.2.254
Platform: Cisco C831, Capabilities: Router
Interface: FastEthernet0/23, Port ID (outgoing port): Ethernet1
Holdtime : 176 sec

Version :
Cisco IOS Software, C831 Software (C831-K9O3Y6-M), Version 12.4(4)T1, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc4)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 1986-2005 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Thu 22-Dec-05 01:39 by ccai

advertisement version: 2
Duplex: half

————————-
Device ID: router1.lab.local
Entry address(es):
IP address: 10.0.1.254
Platform: Cisco C831, Capabilities: Router
Interface: FastEthernet0/2, Port ID (outgoing port): Ethernet0
Holdtime : 176 sec

Version :
Cisco IOS Software, C831 Software (C831-K9O3Y6-M), Version 12.4(4)T1, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc4)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 1986-2005 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Thu 22-Dec-05 01:39 by ccai

advertisement version: 2
Duplex: full

From the output I am able to determine the IP addresses of the connected router interfaces and I can also see that one interface is configured to half duplex. Now I have some good information to begin populating my diagram with.

From here I would probably move to the router and look at the CDP table. But supposing I want to prevent CDP packets from leaving an interface? After all, quite detailed information is included in CDP that you might not want everyone to view.

I connect to the device that I want to stop sending CDP packets and turn CDP off on that particular interface. In my case I would like to stop router1 from sending CDP packets on interface ethernet 1.

router1#conf t
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
router1(config)#int ethernet 1
router1(config-if)#no cdp enable
router1(config-if)#end

Now when I check the switch that router1 is connected to I see that the holdtime decreases as the switch receives no CDP packet on the interface until after 180 seconds it reaches 0 and the entry is removed from the table.

switch2#sh cdp neighbors
Capability Codes: R – Router, T – Trans Bridge, B – Source Route Bridge
S – Switch, H – Host, I – IGMP, r – Repeater, P – Phone

Device ID Local Intrfce Holdtme Capability Platform Port ID
switch1 Fas 0/24 159 S I WS-C2950-2Fas 0/24
switch1 Fas 0/1 159 S I WS-C2950-2Fas 0/1
router1.lab.localFas 0/23 6 R Cisco C831Eth 1
router1.lab.localFas 0/2 126 R Cisco C831Eth 0

switch2#sh cdp neighbors
Capability Codes: R – Router, T – Trans Bridge, B – Source Route Bridge
S – Switch, H – Host, I – IGMP, r – Repeater, P – Phone

Device ID Local Intrfce Holdtme Capability Platform Port ID
switch1 Fas 0/24 153 S I WS-C2950-2Fas 0/24
switch1 Fas 0/1 152 S I WS-C2950-2Fas 0/1
router1.lab.localFas 0/23 0 R Cisco C831Eth 1
router1.lab.localFas 0/2 179 R Cisco C831Eth 0

switch2#sh cdp neighbors
Capability Codes: R – Router, T – Trans Bridge, B – Source Route Bridge
S – Switch, H – Host, I – IGMP, r – Repeater, P – Phone

Device ID Local Intrfce Holdtme Capability Platform Port ID
switch1 Fas 0/24 147 S I WS-C2950-2Fas 0/24
switch1 Fas 0/1 147 S I WS-C2950-2Fas 0/1
router1.lab.localFas 0/2 174 R Cisco C831Eth 0