1. Mastering SNMP Notes 25/12/2010

2. Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an application-layer protocol that provides a message format for communication between SNMP managers and agents. SNMP provides a standardized framework and a common language that is used for monitoring and managing devices in a network. The SNMP framework is made up of three parts: SNMP manager The SNMP manager is a system that controls and monitors the activities of network hosts using SNMP. The most common managing system is an NMS. The term NMS can be applied either to a dedicated device used for network management or to the applications used on such a device. Several network management applications are available for use with SNMP and range from simple command-line applications to applications that use GUIs, such as the CiscoWorks2000 products. SNMP agent The SNMP agent is the software component within a managed device that maintains the data for the device and reports this data, as needed, to managing systems MIB A MIB is a virtual information storage area for network management information and consists of collections of managed objects. Within a MIB are collections of related objects defined in MIB modules. MIB modules are written in the SNMP MIB module language, as defined in STD 58, RFC 2578, RFC 2579, and RFC Individual MIB modules are also referred to as MIBs; for example, the Interfaces Group MIB (IF-MIB) is a MIB module within the MIB on your system. An SNMP agent contains MIB variables whose values the SNMP manager can request or change through Get or Set operations. A manager can get a value from an agent or store a value in that agent.

7. Example

14. The CLI command show snmp mib ifmib ifindex allows you to view the SNMP Interface Index Identification numbers assigned to interfaces and subinterfaces. An NMS is not required.