We have a scenario where we are trying to search for a Cisco VoIP device using the standard search box on the dashboard. We have the switches added to Netbrain but the VoIP phones are not. The the sake of this example the devices hostname is SEP010203ABCDEF and it’s MAC address is 01:02:03:AB:CD:EF. The Hostname for a Cisco VoIP phone is usually SEP followed by the MAC address without any punctuation. The NDP table on the switch has the information to show that the device is a neighbour so in some capacity Netbrain could be aware of the name.. Searching for SEP010203ABCDEF reveals no results. Searching for 010203ABCDEF reveals no results Searching for 0102.03AB.CDEF returns a direct match in the ARP cache of the switch Searching for 01:02:03:AB:CD:EF returns a match for the MAC in the cisco format above in the ARP cache of the switch The ideal here is to search for the hostname in the easiest and quickest way possible. While modifying the name each time can be done to produce a correct search match - there’s replication of effort there I’d like to avoid. The question: Is it possible to make the search either aware that the device name correlates to a MAC address (in the same way it correlates 01:02:03:AB:CD:EF to 0102.03AB.CDEF in the ARP table) or to have the search results also search the CDP/NDP neighbour table?

Searching for CDP neighbours | Exchange Community

We have a scenario where we are trying to search for a Cisco VoIP device using the standard search box on the dashboard. We have the switches added to Netbrain but the VoIP phones are not.

The the sake of this example the devices hostname is SEP010203ABCDEF and it’s MAC address is 01:02:03:AB:CD:EF. The Hostname for a Cisco VoIP phone is usually SEP followed by the MAC address without any punctuation. The NDP table on the switch has the information to show that the device is a neighbour so in some capacity Netbrain could be aware of the name..

Searching for SEP010203ABCDEF reveals no results.
Searching for 010203ABCDEF reveals no results
Searching for 0102.03AB.CDEF returns a direct match in the ARP cache of the switch
Searching for 01:02:03:AB:CD:EF returns a match for the MAC in the cisco format above in the ARP cache of the switch

The ideal here is to search for the hostname in the easiest and quickest way possible. While modifying the name each time can be done to produce a correct search match - there’s replication of effort there I’d like to avoid.

The question: Is it possible to make the search either aware that the device name correlates to a MAC address (in the same way it correlates 01:02:03:AB:CD:EF to 0102.03AB.CDEF in the ARP table) or to have the search results also search the CDP/NDP neighbour table?

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Hi Kieran,

I am sorry to tell you what you have described is not supported by default, but I can think of some workarounds that may help. I will contact you through emails.

Hi @Kieran Drain I would be interested in the outcome. Is there any development?

No. While we could have created a qAPP to gain this functionality in theory- Because the handset name is always based on the MAC address our team found it easier to just use the built in search and change the device name into the mac address each time.

Since phones aren’t usually put under management and are considered endpoints, there isn’t a way that I found that can update device information. So, I created a Qapp that used an lldp parser (I don’t recall if its pre-built or made my own) with an excel output option. Then I used the Qapp in Inventory reports and set it to run on manual demand. I am not sure if using Qapp scheduler could be outputted into inventory reports or you would have to download from the scheduler.

I use a qapp to work on a predefined device group in the qapp scheduler. The result is a CSV file which is automatically sent to me by email.

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