Monitoring data from a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) server

You can define a data source to monitor an SNMP server. A data source monitors all data from a single SNMP object identifier (OID) and a single host. if you select an element of the OID registration tree under which other objects are registered, a data set is created for each distinct set of scalar or table values. If an object returns scalar data, the data set has a single row. If an object returns tabular data, the data set has multiple rows.

1. On the Agent Initial Data Source page or the Data Source Location page, click Data from a server in the Monitoring Data Categories area.
2. In the Data Sources area, click SNMP.
3. Click Next.
4. On the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Information page, type the display name or click Browse to see all of the objects on the system.
   After you define the data source, you can add an attribute. The OIDs for these attributes can be long and difficult to type correctly. Using the Browse option is an easy way to input the correct OID.

   Note: The browser does not browse the live system, it reads definitions, Management Information Bases (MIBs).

   Note: Clicking the Refresh icon clears the in-memory version of the parsed MIB files and reparses the files in the workspace cache. The cache is in the following location: workspace_directory\.metadata\.plugins\ com.ibm.tivoli.monitoring.agentkit\mibs

   Where:

   workspace_directory

   Identifies the workspace directory that you specified when you initially ran the Agent Builder, see (Starting Agent Builder).

   1. If the MIB that defines the wanted object is not loaded, click Manage Custom MIBs to open the Manage Custom MIBs dialog.
   2. Click Add to browse to the MIB file to add. To delete a MIB from the cache, select it and click Remove.
   3. Click OK to update the cache.
      If there are any errors when the MIBs are parsed, the Manage Custom MIBs dialog remains open. This dialog gives you the opportunity to add or remove MIBs to eliminate the errors.

      Clicking Cancel returns the MIB cache to the state it was in when the dialog was opened.

      Agent Builder includes a set of MIBs:

      • hostmib.mib
      • rfc1213.mib
      • rfc1243.mib
      • rfc1253.mib
      • rfc1271.mib
      • rfc1286.mib
      • rfc1289.mib
      • rfc1315.mib
      • rfc1316.mib
      • rfc1381.mib
      • rfc1382.mib
      • rfc1443.mib
      • rfc1461.mib
      • rfc1471.mib
      • rfc1493.mib
      • rfc1512.mib
      • rfc1513.mib
      • rfc1516.mib
      • rfc1525.mib
      • rfc1573a.mib
      • rfc1595.mib
      • rfc1650.mib
      • rfc1657.mib
      • rfc1659.mib
      • rfc1666.mib
      • rfc1695.mib
      • rfc1747.mib
      • rfc1748.mib
      • rfc1757.mib
      • rfc1903.mib
      • rfc1907.mib
      • rfc2011.mib
      • rfc2021.mib
      • rfc2024.mib
      • rfc2051.mib
      • rfc2127.mib
      • rfc2128.mib
      • rfc2155.mib
      • rfc2206.mib
      • rfc2213.mib
      • rfc2232.mib
      • rfc2233.mib
      • rfc2238.mib
      • rfc2239.mib
      • rfc2320.mib
      • rfc3411.mib

      All of these MIBs are standard, IETF defined MIBs. The MIBs are included because they represent common definitions that can be useful in monitoring. Also, many of the MIBs are necessary so that custom MIBs can resolve the symbols that they import.
   4. Select an object from the list.

      Click the plus sign (+) next to an object to expand and show the levels.

   5. From the list, select the object that you want to specify and click OK.
      The new data source is then listed on the Data Source Definition page.

      Note: If you select an object that defines other objects (objects that are nested underneath the first object), all of these objects are turned into data sources. If you select a high-level object, many data sources are added.
5. On the Simple Network Management Protocol Information page, select the operating systems.
6. Optional: You can test the data source or sources by clicking Test on the Simple Network Management Protocol Information page.
   For more information about testing, see Testing SNMP attribute groups
7. Optional: You can create a filter to limit the data that is returned by this attribute group by clicking Advanced. For more information about filtering data from an attribute group, see Filtering attribute groups
8. Click Next.
9. On the Attribute Information page, specify the information for the attribute.
10. Do one of the following steps:
    • If you are using the New Agent wizard, click Next.
    • Click Finish to save the data source and open the Agent Editor.
11. For more information about adding attributes and supplying the information for them, see Creating attributes.
    In addition to fields that are applicable to all data sources, the Attribute Information page for the SNMP data source has the following fields:

    Metric name

    Arbitrary string

    Object identifier

    Full OID that is registered to the object, not including index values