Netw420 Snmp

Simple Network Management Protocol

(SNMP)

NETW420 – Advanced Network Management

January 2013 Session

2/17/2013

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an application layer protocol defined by the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) in RFC1157 for exchanging management information between network devices. It is a part of the Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol suite. SNMP is a simple request/response protocol. The network-management system issues a request, and managed devices return responses.

Currently, there are three versions of SNMP defined: SNMP v1, SNMP v2 and

SNMP v3. Both versions 1 and 2 have a number of features in common, but SNMPv2 has a larger command set. SNMP Version 1 and 2 both use community strings that operate as simple passwords as their authentication mechanism. SNMP v3 adds security and remote configuration capabilities. SNMPv3 provides three levels of security. The highest security level is with authentication and privacy, followed by authentication and no privacy, and finally no authentication or privacy. (CISCO GROUPS)

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) allows for monitoring many networked devices or applications from a single managed location. This is accomplished by having SNMP agent software running on each of the monitored network devices. A NMS (Network Management Station) allows a system administrator to monitor the network. Communication between the SNMP agent and the NMS is via UDP which makes the protocol essentially unreliable since UDPs are not acknowledged. (SNMP.ORG)

The SNMP architecture is composed of three major elements:

Managers are responsible for communicating and managing network devices that implement SNMP Agents.

• Agents reside in network devices such as workstations, switches, routers, fiber-optic modems, microwave radios, printers, etc. and provide device information to Managers.

• MIBs (Management Information Base) describe data objects to be managed...