NetDB (Work in Progress)

NetDB Network tracking database (NetDB) utilises the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MariaDB and Perl) stack for scraping and storing your network infomration in a centralised location. Details are available on the Wiki.

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Credit

All credit goes to Jonathan Yantis.

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About this fork

This fork adds a configurable parameter for additional SSH options. Reason for this is that some older cisco devices only support SHA1 ciphers, so a ssh connection can't be established. If your device doesn't support newer ciphers you will get an error like "no matching key exchange method found. Their offer: diffie-hellman-group1-sha1" when trying to connect via openssh.

Installation

To install NetDB on a vanilla Red Hat based distribution run the following commands

• Clone the NetDB git clone https://github.com/EarlRamirez/netdb.git
• Run the installation script sudo sh <path_to_netdb>/netdb_install.sh
• Enter the database passwords
• Enter NetDB UI password

When the installation script is completed, point your browser to the IP address of the server.

Screenshots

• NetDB main page

• NetDB Results

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Configuring and Adding Devices

There are a few things that was not done by the installation script; therefore, a few modifications are required for NetDB to start scraping your networking equipment, for example, Cisco switches and routers.

Add Devices to the Hosts File

If there isn't any DNS for your devices, its recommended that you update your hosts file with the IP and the host name of your devices

• Using your favourite editor update the hosts file, vim /etc/hosts

   10.0.0.1	device1
   10.0.0.2	device2

Configure Devices to be Scraped

NetDB will only scarp the devices that are in the devicelist.csv which is located in /opt/netdb/data/devicelist.csv. The devicelist.csv supports both ARP and VRF, for example, device1 supports has VRF and device1 does not the configuration file will look like this

• Add devices to the devicelist.csv vim /opt/netdb/data/devicelist.csv

   device1,arp,vrf-one,vrf-two
   device2,arp

Updating NetDB Configuration File

The final step is to update the netdb.conf with the credentials of your networking devices

• Edit the confoguration file vim /etc/netdb.conf and update the following lines

   devuser    = your_switch_user  # Level 5 cisco user (show commands only)
   devpass    = your_passwd

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Validate the Installation

All commands below are executed as netdb

• Try to scrape devices for data for the first time, add a -debug value if there are problems

   netdbctl -ud -v

• Import data in to database (run this twice the first time)

   netdbctl -a -m -debug 3

• Check control.log for any errors tail -f /var/log/netdb/control.log

• Check the size of the data in the database

   netdb -st

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Troubleshooting

• If it's running extremely slow when you do an ARP import in to the database, you likely have a reverse DNS issue on your network. Make sure your DNS servers are properly configured or try a local caching BIND server. You can also disable DNS lookups with disable_DNS, see the netdb.conf file for ideas on how to use this.

• If you are having issues with data showing up in the database, first start by turning debugging on in /etc/netdb.conf to level 3

• Check to see if the MAC or ARP data is getting in to the data files arptable.txt and mactable.txt files by grepping for some device data in /opt/netdb/data/.

• If you are not getting ARP data, make sure you append the devicelist.csv file entry as shown in the example below. Access switches usually has ARP only; however, distribution switches can have as many VRF that exists on the distribution switche.

   switch1,arp
   switch1,arp,vrf-one,vrf-two
   switch1,arp,vrf-one,vrf-two

• If data is not getting populated, you have a scraper problem. Run netdbctl with the -v or -vv option to debug any scraper issues.

• If the data is in the files, check the database: mysql -u netdb -p -h localhost

   use netdb;
   select * from switchports;
   select * from ipmac;

• For further assistance you can create an Issue in Github