---
title: "Quick Start: Deploying Switch Port Management"
canonical: "https://docs.infoblox.com/space/netmri754/105942333/Quick%20Start%3A%20Deploying%20Switch%20Port%20Management"
format: markdown
---
The following procedure gives an overview of the deployment process for Switch Port Management.

> ⚠️ The switches and switch-routers have already been discovered by NetMRI. Switch Port Management polls switches for a detailed collection of information on switch port connectivity, the status of ports, and end devices. For information, see *[Running the Setup Wizard](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/netmri754/pages/193626757)*, *[Configuring Network Discovery Settings](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/netmri754/pages/105940654)*<u>,</u> and *[Running Network Discovery on Routed and Switched Networks](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/netmri754/pages/105940974)*.
> ⚠️ 
> ⚠️ NetMRI gives explicitly licensed devices priority in determining which devices to manage. Unlicensed devices continue to be managed by the appliance, but the appliance periodically collects only basic discovery data. See *[Other Network View Operations](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/netmri754/pages/105943582)* for more information.

1. After performing the initial setup and defining your Discovery settings, you must define your global switch port polling settings. Click the **Settings** icon > **Setup** > **Collection** **and** **Groups** > **Global** > **Switchport** **Manager** side tab to define your switch polling settings. Several primary polling options are offered:
  - **Periodic** **Polling**: Define regular polling time periods. Choose a polling interval of 1 or more **Minutes** or **Hours**. This is the default polling behavior for NetMRI. The default polling interval is 60 minutes.
  - **Scheduled** **Polling**: Schedule recurrent polling based on hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly time periods. Click **Add** **New** **Schedule** and select a Recurrence Pattern of **Once**, **Hourly**, **Daily**, **Weekly,** or **Monthly. **In all cases, you must choose an **Execution** **Time.**
  - **On-demand** **polling**: Click **Poll** **Now** to immediately begin polling all switch and switch-router devices in the managed network. For more information, see *[Understanding SPM Polling](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/netmri754/pages/105942441)*.
  - Completely disable switch port polling.
2. After defining global polling settings, you can define more specific polling settings at the Device Group level. For more information, see *[Device Actions in Switch Port Management](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/netmri754/pages/137396274)*.  
After some time, polled switch performance and configuration data appear in the NetMRI UI.
3. Go to **Network Explorer** > **Switch Port Management**.  
The left-side menu provides three categories: **Devices**, **Interfaces, **and **End** **Hosts**.
4. Click any menu item on the left for more information about the switched devices in the network. For more information, see Using the Switch Port Management Console.
5. For port control, you can set any switched interface to administratively** Up** or administratively **Down** by right-clicking the switch interface link and selecting **Set** **Admin** **Status**. The NetMRI Sandbox with the built-in Port Activation Perl script is required for this operation. For more information, see *[Using the NetMRI Sandbox](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/netmri754/pages/125272394)*.
6. You can also assign or change a VLAN assignment for a switch port by right-clicking the switch interface link and selecting **Edit** **VLAN** **Membership**.

> ⚠️ When you execute port control tasks such as **Set** **Admin** **Status** for an SPM port, NetMRI displays a separate window showing the execution state of the command. In some cases, completion may take some time. NetMRI automatically polls the device at regular intervals to check the status and notifies the user when the command completes.