Introduction to SNMP
1-1
1
Introduction to SNMP
The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is a complete but
simple mechanism for network management. Network management
is a broad term, including workstation configuration, assignment of
IP addresses, network design, architecture, network security, and
topologies. All this can fall within the scope of a network manager.
Any protocol for managing networks must allow virtually all
network devices and systems to communicate statistics and status
information to network management stations (network managers).
This communication must be independent of the primary network
transmission medium and impose little effect on the efficiency of the
network. Network managers must be able to obtain status
information from managed devices, and make changes in the way the
managed devices handle network traffic. SNMP is one way of
meeting these requirements.
Network Management using SNMP
SNMP is designed on the manager-agent paradigm, with the agent
residing in the managed device. Information is exchanged between
agents (devices on the network being managed) and managers
(devices on the network through which management is done).
Administrators can use SNMP to manage the switch configuration,
faults, performance, accounting, and security from remote SNMP
management stations.
There are many possible transactions between agents and managers.
These transactions vary widely with the different types of devices
To Next Page