First off, there's a great thread with XML language that creates a new Report for this that can be imported into your SW here: How to find ports which have not been used for a long time ?
Also, check this search out for other threads containing "Last & Transmitted": https://thwack.solarwinds.com/search.jspa?q=last+transmitted
The process below is what I built for my team's use, since the above XML report provided information for too many kinds of ports and systems. The method I use allows you to focus on a specific switch, and it eliminates reporting on some ports that I know will always be out of scope for discovering patched copper ports for reuse (like fiber uplink ports and port-channels or local Fa0 ports).
Start off in Settings, Admin > Alerts & Reports, Create New Report
Click the small blue "Edit" just to the right of Datasource 1 and make it look like this:
Adjust the items above to match your specific needs and then click Add to Layout.
What the filtered options mean:
- As you can see from the first entry (Caption contains "Insert Switch Name") this particular report will focus solely on a specific switch. You don't have to include this if you don't want, and you could change it to identify a switch by whatever method you prefer--or drop it entirely.
- Solarwinds NPM may discover Cisco interfaces that are "Controlled" and "Uncontrolled" for security options (depending on IOS release and hardware platform); since these interfaces are duplicates to the physical interfaces, I don't want them included in the report, so I had it filter any interface with "ontrol" in its name.
- I'm not interested in Port-channels, therefore that's filtered out.
- I don't want any port whose status is "Up".
- It must be a Physical Interface, not a virtual or logical one.
- Don't report on Ten Gig interfaces ("Interface Name does not start with Te")
- Don't report on interfaces ending in 49-52--those are uplink fiber links on my switches, and I'm not looking for information about those in this report. I only want to know about copper ports that can be unpatched & reused.
- Don't report on the Fa0 port if one is present
Click Edit Table
Adjust these items per your specific needs and click Submit
I put a note it to remind my Team to change the switch name inside the report:
Click Next
Put helpful information in the Report Description, Click Next.
Schedule if it needed:
Click Next
Review the setup and make any changes required:
Click Submit.
Now select the report, edit it to report on the specific switch, save it and run it. You'll get a report that sorts from the ports longest down to those most recently down, looking like this:
I export this to .PDF and send it to my Network Technicians for unpatching of ports on switches they're concerned with.
Enjoy!
(Updated 20190905 Rick Schroeder)