What is SNMP?
SNMP is a network management standard used to manage networks, and is the ellipsis of Simple Network Management Protocol. Network management applications use SNMP to monitor devices attached to the network for any condition that may require administrative intervention. The protocol can be used in collecting information from, as well as configuring servers, hubs, printers, routers and switches on an Internet Protocol (IP) network. In order for the protocol to communicate with network elements, the elements must be equipped with a SNMP agent which many hardware manufacturers provide, like Microsoft Windows Server 2003. This servers’ SNMP agent software works with third party SNMP management software to monitor the devices. SNMP was developed in 1988 mainly to provide network monitoring services for TCP/IP networks and was subsequently accepted as an Internet standard by Internet Architecture Board (IAB) in 1990. Since then, it has gained wide popularity. It has undergone major upgrades as well, even though statistics suggest that many network management system vendors are yet to take advantage of these upgrades. Major operating systems such as Windows and UNIX may be configured using SNMP agents.
Many large networks are almost impossible to monitor in an economically-feasible manner since they involve thousands of nodes. That’s where SNMP comes in. since SNMP is used in Local Area Network, it will facilitate monitoring of network modes from management hosts. SNMP can also be used to monitor network performance, audit network utilization, detect network defects or unauthorized access, and in some cases configure remote devices. Typically, SNMP agents reveal management information on management systems as variables (for example, “free memory”, Number of running processes” and so on). The management systems may then recover the information through GET, GETNEXT and GETBULK protocols, or may simply recover the information without being prompted through TRAP or INFORM protocol operations. Management systems may send configuration updates (which are also known as controlling requests) through a protocol operation called SET. The protocol then actively manages the system. Furthermore, SNMP is designed to be used on as many network devices as possible with minimal effect on managed nodes or transport requirements. SNMP agent can also continue working even when many other network devices have failed. A network being managed by SNMP basically has three components.
1. Managed device(s).
2. Agents.
3. Network Management systems.
A managed device denotes a network node that is embedded with SNMP agent and is to be found on the managed network. The managed devices not only collect management information, they also store it and can then make it available to Network Management Systems using SNMP. Managed devices may include routers, hubs, access servers, IP telephones, printers and many more. An agent on the other hand, is a software module that’s embedded in a management device and has local information on that particular device. The network management system on its part executes the applications that monitor and control managed devices and provides the bulk of processing and memory resources required for network management.
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