Configuring SNMP Support

The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) defines a set of protocols that describe management data and the protocols for exchanging that data between systems. This management data is a set of defined variables called the Management Information Base (MIB).

Three primary functional entities are defined for SNMP: managers, agents, and subagents. A manager is a network management application, like Netview or HP OpenView. The agent is a server that responds to request for management data from a network manager. Subagents provide support for particular MIBS to the agent.

The primary function of an SNMP environment and the communication between these functional entities is to enable the network manager to poll a device or application to inquire about specific management data that the device or application is monitoring. The device or application can alert the network manager of certain conditions by sending traps to reflect the status of that condition. Traps are asynchronous, unsolicited messages sent to the network manager, when the agent and/or subagent detect certain conditions.

IBM® Connect:Direct® provides support for an SNMP agent to send SNMP traps to alert a network manager of certain events. An event is any IBM Connect:Direct message that is written to the console using IBM Connect:Direct members. Each event is triggered by the IBM Connect:Direct message ID and the trap text (short message text of that IBM Connect:Direct message). The IBM Connect:Direct events generated are defined by category and type.

The IBM Connect:Direct Trap Table can hold up to 127 entries. It is built using the input from the data set specified by the SNMP.DSN initialization parameter. One entry is generated for each message that can trigger a SNMP trap. The predefined IBM Connect:Direct traps are triggered by 61 messages. A maximum of 66 additional user messages can be used to trigger SNMP traps. To see information about each SNMP trap defined in the table along with its status, see INQUIRE SNMP Command Displays the SNMP Trap Table.

Define message traps using the SNMP.DSN initialization parameter and a data set that contains the variables associated with traps.