Configuring SNMP
Now that the sample network in this chapter has been configured
and is operational, the switches should be configured so that management
stations can gather information via the Simple Network Management Protocol
(SNMP). SNMP is used to gather statistics, counters, and tables in the
Management Information Base (MIB) of a device.
The SNMP framework consists of three parts:
-
SNMP manager
-
SNMP agent
-
MIB
The SNMP manager is a host that monitors the activities of
network devices using SNMP. The SNMP manager is typically referred to as the
Network Management Station (NMS). The SNMP agent is software running on the
device being monitored by the SNMP manager. A MIB is a virtual storage area for
network management information consisting of collections of managed objects.
MIBs are written in the SNMP MIB module language as defined in RFCs 2578, 2579,
and 2580. SNMP agents can be configured to allow read-only or read-write access
to the device. Management stations like CiscoWorks use the read-only functions
of the agent to monitor the device, and can use the read-write functions of the
agent to make changes to the device configuration. SNMP uses passwords called
community strings to grant access to the SNMP
agent. Access to the agents can be further limited via SNMP access lists.
A detailed discussion of SNMP and network management is beyond
the scope of this book. SNMP MIB information for each Cisco device can be found
on Cisco.com.
You should configure SNMP on each Cisco device to be monitored
by NMS. A sample SNMP configuration is shown on SW1 in Example 7-55.
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