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Configuring snmp, Snmp overview, Snmp framework – H3C Technologies H3C SR8800 User Manual

Page 106: Snmp operations, Snmp protocol versions

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Configuring SNMP

This chapter provides an overview of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and guides you

through the configuration procedure.

SNMP overview

SNMP is an Internet standard protocol widely used for a management station to access and operate the

devices on a network, regardless of their vendors, physical characteristics and interconnect technologies.
SNMP enables network administrators to read and set the variables on managed devices for state

monitoring, troubleshooting, statistics collection, and other management purposes.

SNMP framework

The SNMP framework comprises the following elements:

SNMP manager—Works on a network management system (NMS) to monitor and manage the
SNMP-capable devices in the network.

SNMP agent—Works on a managed device to receive and handle requests from the NMS, and

send traps to the NMS when some events, such as interface state change, occur.

Management Information Base (MIB)—Specifies the variables (for example, interface status and
CPU usage) maintained by the SNMP agent for the SNMP manager to read and set.

SNMP operations

SNMP provides the following basic operations:

Get—The NMS retrieves SNMP object nodes in an agent MIB.

Set—The NMS modifies the value of an object node in the agent MIB.

Notifications—Includes traps and informs. SNMP agent sends traps or informs to report events to

the NMS. The difference between these two types of notification is that informs require
acknowledgement but traps do not. The device supports only traps.

SNMP protocol versions

H3C supports SNMPv1, SNMPv2c, and SNMPv3.

SNMPv1 uses community names for authentication. To access an SNMP agent, an NMS must use
the same community name as set on the SNMP agent. If the community name used by the NMS is

different from the community name set on the agent, the NMS cannot establish an SNMP session to

access the agent or receive traps and notifications from the agent.

SNMPv2c also uses community names for authentication. SNMPv2c is compatible with SNMPv1,
but supports more operation modes, data types, and error codes.

SNMPv3 uses a user-based security model (USM) to secure SNMP communication. You can

configure authentication and privacy mechanisms to authenticate and encrypt SNMP packets for
integrity, authenticity, and confidentiality.