Network Topologies

Netdata shows you how your network is connected — which device links to which, and where each part of your infrastructure sits — built automatically from the devices you already monitor.

Built from your devices

When Netdata monitors your SNMP devices, it reads what they already know about their neighbors and assembles the topology, with no extra setup:

• LLDP and CDP — the neighbor each device advertises (device, port, platform).
• Forwarding (FDB) and ARP tables — which MAC and IP addresses are seen on which switch ports.
• Spanning Tree (STP) — which Layer 2 links are forwarding and which are blocked.
• BGP and OSPF — the Layer 3 routing relationships between routers.

The result is a live Layer 2 and Layer 3 map, kept current as devices come and go. Each link carries the evidence behind it — how it was discovered and how confident Netdata is in it — so a confirmed link is distinguishable from an inferred one.

What you can do with it

• See the real wiring — device-to-device links across your network.
• Trace a path — follow how two points connect, hop by hop.
• Find what's affected — what sits downstream of a link or device that's in trouble.
• Locate an endpoint — which switch port an address is on, cross-referenced from forwarding and neighbor data.

Beyond the device fabric

The same topology view brings in other infrastructure, each in the same form so it sits alongside your device topology:

• Live network connections — what your hosts and services are talking to right now (topology:network-connections).
• Netdata streaming — how your Agents connect to each other (topology:streaming).
• VMware vSphere — datacenters, clusters, resource pools, hosts, VMs, datastores, and networks (topology:vsphere).
• Cato Networks — Cato SASE sites, devices, POPs, and BGP peers (topology:cato_networks).

The device fabric (topology:snmp), live connections, and streaming come up automatically; vSphere and Cato come from their own collectors, configured separately.

Where to start

• Topology comes up on its own once you're monitoring devices — open the topology view in Netdata.
• The entries in this section list each discovery method and source, and what each one contributes to the map.