Netdisco is a network management application targeted at large corporate and university networks. Data is collected into a Postgres database using SNMP and presented with a clean web interface using Mason.

Designed for moderate to large networks, configuration information and connection data for network devices are retrieved by SNMP. With Netdisco you can locate the switch port of an end-user system by IP or MAC address. Data is stored using a SQL database for scalability and speed. Layer-2 topology protocols such as CDP (Cisco Discovery Protocol) optionally provides automatic discovery of the network topology.

The network is inventoried by both device model and operating system (like IOS). Netdisco uses router ARP tables and L2 switch MAC forwarding tables to locate nodes on physical ports and track them by their IP addresses. For each node, a time stamped history of the ports it has visited and the IP addresses it has used is maintained.

Netdisco gets all its data, including topology information, with SNMP polls and DNS queries. It does not use CLI access and has no need for privilege passwords. Security features include a wire-side Wireless Access Point (AP) locator.

The project is supported by a community of open-source developers, headed by Eric Miller, Bill Fenner, and Max Baker.