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Ports and links

Updated

A link records what a device connects to — over a cable run, a patch cord, fibre, a mesh hop, or a VPN — and the ports screen draws each device's faceplate so you can see, make, and trace those connections.

See a device's ports

A switch, patch panel, or any device with numbered ports shows a Ports section on its page: the faceplate, how many ports are in use, and Manage ports.

  • Tap a port to see its label, VLAN, PoE, and what it is connected to, with a button to open the device at the other end.
  • Each port is coloured by its state, shown in the key: Complete, Incomplete, Run landed, or Free.
  • On a desktop, resting the pointer on a port lights its whole connection chain.
  1. On the device's page, press Add link in the Links heading.
  2. In Link to, choose the device; each choice names the kind of link. Only devices the link rules allow are offered.
  3. For a wired link, choose the Cable drop it travels over, if any, and the Port on each device. Only free ports are offered.
  4. Add a Label, a Status (Planned, Connected, or Decommissioning), and Notes if useful.
  5. Press Link.

A link over a cable run takes its cable and length from the run; a direct patch cord records its own.

Press Manage ports, then tap a free port on the faceplate: Link port … opens with that port chosen. You can also drag a port onto a port of a device in Devices within reach to patch the two directly; a link the rules refuse says why. With a mouse, right-click a port (or focus it and press Shift+F10) for Connect…, Edit link…, and Disconnect.

Find a device's switch port

  1. Open the device. Its Links list names the device at the other end of each link.
  2. Press Trace on a link. The Cable trace sheet walks the path hop by hop — each device port, each patch panel port and its side, and the run travelled — to the far end. Every device in it opens its page.

On the ports screen, tapping a port that is in use opens Trace port ….

  • Edit opens Edit link: change the label, status, and notes — and, for a direct patch cord, its cable and test result — then press Save link.
  • Unlink removes one link after a confirm; Clear all removes every link on the device.

Edit ports in bulk

  1. On the ports screen press Edit ports, beside the count of ports in use in the toolbar above the faceplate. All, Free, and In use narrow the table, and Filter ports searches by label, VLAN, or device.
  2. Change a port's label, VLAN, connector, speed, duplex, PoE mode, or enabled flag in its row.
  3. For a range, Shift-click two ports on the faceplate (or set First port and Last port), tick Set label, Set VLAN, Set speed, Set duplex, or Set PoE mode, and press Apply to ports ….
  4. Press Save ports, or Discard changes. Done editing closes the table.

The VLAN box offers the property's VLAN table, but a tag the table does not hold is still saved.

Patch panels

A patch panel port has two sides: the A side faces the devices and the uplink, and the B side is where a cable run lands, one run per port. A modular panel's cassettes are edited on its ports screen. The panel's page also shows a Patch schedule — each position's state, rear run, front patch, cable, and test — narrowed with All, Tested, or Untested.

Group ports and hang devices off a port

  • Link groups records link aggregation and port mirrors: press Add group.
  • Hangs off a port records a device plugged into another device's port, such as a phone off a switch port: press Hang off a port. The trace and the topology map follow it.

Related: Cable runs and testing and Topology.