NeDi OpenSource Software Network Discovery

What is Nedi?Nedi is a network discovery and management suite

that provides advanced features for network support

Originally designed based on MAC-Address table queries this open solution has developed into an expanded network resource tool that supports more than just MAC tracking.

This program has grown into an enterprise management tool that provides extensive network discovery, device discovery, device inventory, configuration storage, vlan management, interface management, network mapping, and many more features.

What is required to run Nedi?

• The supporting hardware requirements are dependent on the size of your network. Bigger network, bigger server. The program was originally designed on a P4 /2.4 GHz device with 1 GB of RAM, sufficent for a small network. If this program will be used to monitor a large network the applications can be seperated through separate servers (Discovery, Database, and WebServer) to share the load requirements.

• The software can be run on many platforms. Most users run on Linux systems, but Mac OSX, Solaris, and Windows XP are also capable.

• Additional addons such as wget, perl DBD, SQL, SNMP, SESSION, GD might be required to properly display information

What features does it provide?

Network discovery – it scans the inter network for devices that are connected through ethernet or fiber

What features does it provide?

Cisco devices provide advance polling features such as vlan information, CDP connections, and can display system configuration

What features does it provide?

Device and Node (hosts) inventory – once the devices have been discovered their information such as MAC address, IP, interface type, switchport and connecting interface number are added to management table

What features does it provide?

Monitors the health of the network and sends notifications for critical network elements

References:Rickli, R. (2006). The Story so far. Retrieved from

http://www.nedi.ch/

Ground Work Open Source. (2010). Nedi = network discovery. Retrieved from http://www.groundworkopensource.com/community/open-source/nedi.html

Macintosh Howtos. (2010). Discover and manage networks with nedi. Retrieved from http://homepage.mac.com/duling/halfdozen/NeDi-Howto.html

SourceForge. (2010). Nedi's requirements. Retrieved from http://nedi.sourceforge.net/require.html