SNMP Over IP: Understanding the Supported SNMP Versions

Simple Network Management Protocols (SNMP) is an "Internet-standard protocol for managing devices on IP networks". There are several versions of the protocol that are available. System Automation supports SNMPv2c and SNMPv3 protocols.

SNMPv2c is Community-based Simple Network Management Protocol version 2 and is defined in RFC 1901 - RFC 1908. Authentication is done based on a Community Name.

SNMPv3 makes no change to the protocol aside from the addition of cryptographic security and user and password authentication and provides more security compared to the SNMPv2c:

Confidentiality - Encryption of packets to prevent snooping by an unauthorized source.
Integrity - Message integrity to ensure that a packet has not been tampered with in transit including an optional packet replay protection mechanism.
Authentication - to verify that the message is from a valid source.