Receiving SNMP Traps

SNMP traps can be received by SNMP trap automation and by Event/Automation Service (E/AS). Because SNMP trap automation and E/AS use the same port, they cannot both run at the same time. If both are running, the one that tries to use the port second fails.

An SNMP trap automation task can receive and automate SNMPv1, SNMPv2c, and SNMPv3 traps in both IPv4 and IPv6 networks. Whenever a complete SNMP trap is received, whether over Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or User Datagram Protocol (UDP), an SNMP trap automation task builds a CP-MSU (control point management services unit) and passes it to NetView® automation. Vectors within the CP-MSU contain the data from the trap. You can use multiple SNMP trap automation tasks to distribute the SNMP trap automation workload.

An SNMP trap automation task is configured by setting common global variables that are unique to a specific task. These variables are read by an SNMP automation task. If an SNMP trap automation task receives encrypted SNMPv3 traps, the applicable pass phrase or key information must be provided in an SNMP trap automation task configuration file so that the SNMP trap automation task can decrypt and authenticate the trap data. For more information about configuring the SNMP trap automation task, see the IBM Z® NetView Automation Guide.

E/AS, which runs under UNIX System Services (USS) or an MVS™ started task, can also receive traps. E/AS can convert SNMPv1 traps from SNMP agents into alerts and forward the alerts to the NetView program through the Alert Receiver PPI mailbox.

If the E/AS trap-to-alert conversion (TRAPALRT) function is using the default configuration, it creates an alert for each SNMP trap that it receives. The alerts are sent to the NetView alert receiver and processed by the hardware monitor, which can record the alerts in the hardware monitor database and can pass the alerts to automation. An SNMP trap automation task simply passes SNMP trap CP-MSUs to automation. If you want to record in the hardware monitor database the alerts that contain data from SNMP traps that are received by an SNMP trap automation task, you can use the CNMSALRT sample.

The CNMSALRT sample, when driven by the automation of an SNMP trap CP-MSU, creates a CP-MSU with an alert major vector that contains SNMP trap data that was copied from the SNMP trap CP-MSU and sends the new CP-MSU to the NetView alert receiver. The NetView alert receiver passes the CP-MSU with the alert major vector to the hardware monitor. Depending on the recording filter settings, the hardware monitor can record the alert in the hardware monitor database and can pass it to automation. For details about driving the sample with automation and about the information that the sample puts into the alert major vector of the CP-MSU that it builds, see the sample.