SNMP-based network-management packages up and running with very little effort

Abstract EN

The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an Internet-standard protocol for managing devices on IP networks.

Many kinds of devices support SNMP, including routers, switches, servers, workstations, printers, modem racks, and Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPSs).

The ways you can use SNMP range from the mundane to the exotic: it's fairly simple to use SNMP to monitor the health of routers, servers, and other pieces of network hardware, but it can also use it to control network devices and even send pages or take other automatic action if problems arise.

This paper is aimed toward system administrators who would like to begin using SNMP to manage their servers or routers and but who lack the knowledge or understanding to do so.

We try to give a basic understanding of what SNMP is and how it works; beyond that, we show how to put SNMP into practice, using a number of widely available tools.