How AIM helps to recover unused switch ports

In any network infrastructure capacity planning is important as you need to connect a growing number of end-user devices to as many switch ports. In existing installations, it is far more economic to try and recover unused switch ports instead of buying additional switches. But where do you start?

The hunt for inactive switch ports

Imagine you are tasked to find and recover unused switch ports in a data centre or enterprise cable rack. How would you go about it? If you stand in front of a rack filled with active switches chances are almost all ports are patched up, leaving you with no idea which are in actual use. This then leaves you with two options:

1. You can trace every physical connection down to an end device, or…
2. You rely on documentation of your network (provided its up-to-date)

We discourage anyone going on a time consuming manual detective hunt for port activity. At least not without proper documentation. The risk of cutting off a connection on a guess, and without 100% certainty where that link goes, can get you in trouble real fast. It’s not because a switch port is inactive that it’s not being used at present, in the past or will be in the future. An end device may simply be switched off at the time you check the port’s status.

Why network documentation is key

In the end what you need is an 100% accurate and up-to-date documentation of your network, so you can track down each cable’s connection from switch port to outlet socket. Businesses must rely more and more on their IT network infrastructure in order to grow and stay competitive. As technology evolves these high performing networks are getting increasingly complex.  Therefore, documentation and administration of your cabling infrastructure is critically important as over a span of 10 to 15 years many changes will occur in a company. This goes from replacing servers, routers and switches to an increase of employee devices. And with all these challenges, maintaining 100% accurate documentation without an automated method is difficult, even impossible.

Automated Infrastructure Management (AIM)

This is where Automated Infrastructure Management systems, or AIM, can help. With an AIM system in place you can see how a network is laid out, what devices are connected, where they are physically located and manage it from a remote location. LANsense Active Discovery links the network layer and physical layer of IT infrastructure. Switch management software and network management software can provide some information on switch port usage, but the addition of LANsense also provides the complete circuit path of downlinks and allows you to check whether a patched switch port is actually connected to an end device, physically where that device is located, and when it was last used. This way, patched yet unused switch ports can be identified and reused without the risk of disconnecting a live service.