Managing SNMP notifications

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is a standard protocol for managing networks and exchanging messages. The system can send SNMP messages that notify personnel about an event. You can use an SNMP manager to view the SNMP messages that the system sends. The system supports both SNMP version 2 and version 3.

About this task

Some systems support setting up SNMP notifications for events. Event notifications are reported to the SNMP destinations of your choice. To specify an SNMP destination, you must provide a valid IP address or fully qualified domain name. If you specify a domain name, a DNS server must be configured on your system. To configure a DNS server for the system, select Settings > Network > DNS. You can also use the mkdnsserver command to configure DNS servers. A maximum of six SNMP destinations can be specified. For version 2 SNMP servers, the community string is required and the default value is public. You can use the Management Information Base (MIB) file for SNMP to configure a network management program to receive SNMP messages that are sent by the system. This file can be used with SNMP messages from all versions of the software. You can use your browser to download the MIB file by clicking Download MIB. The system supports both SNMP version 2 and version 3. SNMP version 3 uses the same base protocol as earlier versions, but introduces encryption and improved authentication mechanisms. Depending on how you authorize with the SNMP agent on a system, you can configure different levels of security.

These different security levels depend on the credentials that you configure to authenticate successfully to the SNMP server.
Table 1. Security levels and required credentials for SNMP version 3 servers
Security Level Description Required security credentials
None No additional authentication or encryption is used to send SNMP notifications.
  • Engine ID
  • Security Name
Authentication Notifications are authenticated, but message content is not encrypted.
  • Engine ID
  • Security Name
  • Authentication Protocol
  • Authentication Passphrase
Authentication and Privacy Notifications are authenticated and message content is encrypted.
  • Engine ID
  • Security Name
  • Authentication Protocol
  • Authentication Passphrase
  • Privacy Protocol
  • Privacy Passphrase

To configure or manage SNMP servers in the management GUI, select Settings > Notifications > SNMP. To configure a new server, select Add SNMP Server or right-click an existing instance and select Modify.

For SNMP Version 3, use a unique engine ID for every system. The system does not automatically generate the engine ID. You can use an existing engine ID from an SNMP server. If you are setting up SNMP for the first time, you must generate a new engine ID.

Note:
  • SNMP will not accept any configuration get requests from SNMP server.
  • Privacy Protocol AES only supports AES128.

To configure the SNMP notification settings, use the following commands:

Procedure

  1. To add an SNMP Version 3 server with full security (AuthPriv), enter the following command:
    svctask mksnmpserver -ip ip_address_or_domain_name -engineid 0x80000002045370656356000000C021800002 -securityname mysnmpcluster -authprotocol sha -authpassphrase cluster_auth_pw -privprotocol aes -privpassphrase cluster_priv_pw
    where ip_address_or_domain_name is the IP address or domain name for the server; 0x80000002045370656356000000C021800002 is the Engine ID; mysnmpcluster is the Security Name, sha is the Authentication Protocol; cluster_auth_pw is the Authentication Passphrase;aes is the Privacy Protocol; and cluster_priv_pw is the Privacy Passphrase for the SNMP v3 server.
  2. To add an SNMP Version 3 server with minimum security (NoAuthNoPriv), enter the following command:
    svctask mksnmpserver -ip ip_address_or_domain_name -engineid 0x80000002045370656356000000C021800002 -securityname mynoauthnopriv
    where ip_address_or_domain_name is the IP address or fully qualified domain name for the server; 0x80000002045370656356000000C021800002 is the Engine ID; and NoAuthNoPriv is the Security Name for the SNMP v3 server.
  3. To create an SNMP version 2 server to receive notifications, enter the following command:
    mksnmpserver -ip ip_address_or_domain_name 

    where ip_address_or_domain_name is the IP address or fully qualified domain name for the server.

    mksnmpserver -ip ip_address_or_domain_name -port  remoteportnumber  
    where ip_address_or_domain_name is the IP address or fully qualified domain name for this server and remoteportnumber is the port number for the remote SNMP server.
  4. To change the settings of an existing SNMP server, enter the chsnmpserver command.
    For example, enter the following command:
    chsnmpserver -name snmp_server_name -ip ip_address_or_domain_name 
    where snmp_server_name is the name of the SNMP and ip_address_or_domain_name is the IP address or fully qualified domain name for the server.
  5. To remove an existing SNMP server from the system, enter the rmsnmpserver command.
    For example, enter the following command:
    rmsnmpserver snmp_server_name
    where snmp_server_name is either the name of the SNMP server to be deleted.
  6. To display either a concise list or a detailed view of the SNMP servers that are detected by the system, enter the lssnmpserver command.
    For example, to display a concise view, enter the following command:
    lssnmpserver -delim :
    To display a detailed view of an SNMP server, enter the following command:
    lssnmpserver snmp_server_name_or_id
    where snmp_server_name_or_id is the name or ID of an existing SNMP server that must be listed.