Overview
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is part of the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol suite. SNMP is an application layer protocol that defines how management information between network devices is exchanged. SNMP provides a means to monitor and control network devices.
An SNMP-managed network consists of the following three key components:
- managed network devices such as the DSC Platform
- SNMP Agents such as individual processes within the DSC Platform
- SNMP Manager that monitors and controls managed devices
- An SNMP Manager can manage and monitor a network device using
- traps which are unsolicited alarms from SNMP Agents that notify the system of significant events
- interaction that allows you to actively view, add, delete and modify the managed device.
The traps are identified by sequence numbers and the last 1000 traps raised in the trap log are available for viewing using the Web UI (see Configuring the Trap Log ) or SNMP.
The DSC Platform supports SNMPv1, SNMPv2c, and SNMPv3 features the following:
- security to ensure that the message has not been tampered with during transit
- authentication to verify that the message is from a valid source
- message encryption to prevent snooping by an unauthorized source
You must be logged onto the system as a root user to perform system provisioning using SNMPv3 (see DSC Password Management).
Most configuration tasks should be executed using the Command Line Interface (CLI) with the exception of the following tasks which can be executed using the Web UI:
configuring SNMP system information (see SNMP Configuration)
- enabling or disabling snmpv2 (see SNMPv1, SNMPv2c, and SNMPv3 Configuration)
- configuring snmpv2 communities (see To configure SNMPv2 community directives)
- adding or deleting an snmpv3 user (see SNMPv1, SNMPv2c, and SNMPv3 Configuration)
- restarting the SNMPD (see Restarting the SNMP Daemon)
This section provides you with some information about configuring the SNMP on the DSC Platform. However, to understand traps and to fully provision the DSC Platform using SNMP commands you require the following:
- be an expert user of SNMP
- be an expert user of the DSC Platform
- read this document and understand the content
For information about using SNMP, see the appropriate tutorials and user guides available on the Web for this protocol. For information about provisioning the DSC Platform, refer to the relevant documentation for this platform (see About the Documentation Library).