SNMP

Simple Network Management Protocol

 SNMP is mostly used for the remote management of network device.

 SNMP’s focus is primarily on the collection of various statistics from network devices.
 Statistics can be viewed through the CLI or Graphical User Interface (GUI).
 mid-to-large sized networks could be composed of hundreds of network devices
 all of the literary devices need to be monitored for.
environmental conditions (HVAC in Data Center goes out)
capacity warning (CPU/RAM on Router reaching 95%)
capacity planning/forecasting
infrastructure changes (routes being lost, interface changes, etc.
SNMP Components

 SNMP manager (NMS)

 SNMP Agent
 MIB Management Information Base
SNMP Manager

 Also called NMS (network management station)

 Free/paid Software installed onto PC/Server
SNMP Agent

 SNMP Agent
 SNMP software residing on devices that are being monitored, like router/firewall
MIB (Management Information Base)

 MIB is a database
used for managing the entities in a communication network
 Define variables (OID) allowing management software to monitor the network
device
SNMP Messages
SNMP Messages
 SNMP Get
request to query for information on a network entity. 
typically automated to occur at predefined interval
 SNMP Set
Modifying the MIB which, in turn, modifies device configuration
 SNMP Trap
generated by SNMP agent when threshold or error condition occur.
transmitted to NMS (SNMP Manager)
Agent does not receive an acknowledgment.
 SNMP Inform
Similar to an SNMP trap only supported in SNMP version 3
Agent receives acknowledgement from NMS
SNMP Version 1 and 2c

 SNMP Version 1 is very old and not user much

 Both Versions 1 and 2c uses the concept of community strings
 Community Strings.
 Community string must match between NMS and agent
 Sent in clear text
 Read only Community Strings.
 Provides read only access to MIB
 Read/Write Community Strings.
 Provides read/write access to MIB
SNMP Version 3

 Provided the following added security features.

 Message integrity
 Authentication
 Encryption

Level Authentication method Encryption

NOAuthNoInte Username None

AuthNoInte MD5 or SHA None

AuthInte MD5 or SHA DES or DES-56