36-3
Catalyst 6000 Family Software Configuration Guide—Releases 6.3 and 6.4
78-13315-02
Chapter 36 Configuring SNMP
Understanding SNMP
Understanding SNMP
SNMP is an application-layer protocol that facilitates the exchange of management information between
network devices. SNMP enables network administrators to manage network performance, find and solve
network problems, and plan for network growth.
There are three versions of SNMP:
•
Version 1 (SNMPv1)—This is the initial implementation of SNMP. Refer to RFC 1157 for a full
description of functionality. See the
“Understanding How SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c Works” section
on page 36-5
for more information on SNMPv1.
•
Version 2 (SNMPv2c)—The second release of SNMP, described in RFC 1902, has additions and
enhancements to data types, counter size, and protocol operations. See the
“Understanding How
SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c Works” section on page 36-5
for more information on SNMPv2.
•
Version 3 (SNMPv3)—This is the most recent version of SNMP and is fully described in RFC 2571,
RFC 2572, RFC 2573, RFC 2574, and RFC 2575. The SNMP functionality on the Catalyst
enterprise LAN switches for SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c remain intact; however, SNMPv3 has
significant enhancements to administration and security. See the
“Understanding SNMPv3” section
on page 36-7
for more information on SNMPv3.
SNMP engine
A copy of SNMP that can reside on the local or remote device.
SNMP entity
Unlike SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c, in SNMPv3 the terms SNMP
Agents and SNMP Managers are no longer used. These concepts
have been combined and called an SNMP entity. An SNMP entity
is made up of an SNMP engine and SNMP applications.
SNMP group
A collection of SNMP users that belong to a common SNMP list
that defines an access policy, in which object identification
numbers (OIDs) are both read-accessible and write-accessible.
Users belonging to a particular SNMP group inherit all of these
attributes defined by the group.
SNMP user
A person for which an SNMP management operation is
performed. The user is the person on a remote SNMP engine who
receives the inform messages.
SNMP view
A mapping between SNMP objects and the access rights available
for those objects. An object can have different access rights in
each view. Access rights indicate whether the object is accessible
by either a community string or a user.
write view
A view name (not to exceed 64 characters) for each group; the
view name defines the list of object identifiers (OIDs) that can be
created or modified by users of the group.
Table 36-1 SNMP Terminology (continued)
Term
Definition