Werk #18704: Mainline network topology inventory plugins for HW/SW inventory
| Component | HW/SW inventory | ||
| Title | Mainline network topology inventory plugins for HW/SW inventory | ||
| Date | Dec 19, 2025 | ||
| Level | Trivial Change | ||
| Class | New Feature | ||
| Compatibility | Compatible - no manual interaction needed | ||
| Checkmk versions & editions |
|
HW/SW inventory now includes native network topology data without requiring external plugins.
Previously, network topology data collection depended on multiple plugins that users had to install manually from the Exchange Portal, including:
- CDP inventory plugin (layer 2)
- LLDP inventory plugin (layer 2)
- IP inventory plugins for SNMP, Windows, and Linux (layer 3)
- Interface name inventory plugin
These plugins were prerequisites for using the Network Visualization Data Creation Tool (NVDCT) to visualize network infrastructure.
Now, the following inventory plugins are built into Checkmk:
Layer 2 topology plugins: - CDP (Cisco Discovery Protocol) inventory plugin - LLDP (Link Layer Discovery Protocol) inventory plugin
Layer 3 topology plugins: - IP inventory plugin for SNMP - IP inventory plugin for Windows - IP inventory plugin for Linux
Additional plugin: - Interface name inventory plugin
With these changes, users can immediately use the NVDCT tool after installation to collect and visualize comprehensive layer 2 and layer 3 network topology data without additional setup.
The following naming and formatting changes have been made:
- Host labels renamed from nvdct/{label-name} to cmk/{label-name}
- Inventory tables renamed to en-us
- All table headers in the HW/SW inventory now follow sentence case formatting
Additionally, new host labels have been added:
- cmk/cdp_neighbor/{neighbor_id} for each CDP neighbor
- cmk/lldp_cneighbor/{neighbor_id} for each LLDP neighbor
User action: Existing configurations continue to work without modification. However, if you use custom rules or scripts referencing the old host labels (nvdct/...), update them to the new cmk/... labels to maintain compatibility. The renaming of inventory tables and header formatting does not affect user workflows or integrations.