Simple Network Management Protocol SNMP Tutorial

Building a network is only half the job; keeping an eye on it afterwards is just as important. The Simple Network Management Protocol, or SNMP, is the standard tool for that job, and it is used on networks of every size — from a handful of devices to large enterprise infrastructures. Any network administrator is expected to know how it works.

Understanding SNMP

SNMP is built around three components that work together:

• SNMP Manager (also called a Network Management System, or NMS) — software that runs on the administrator’s machine, usually a computer, and is used to monitor the network.
• SNMP Agent — software that runs on each device being monitored, such as a router, switch, or server.
• Management Information Base (MIB) — a structured collection of managed objects. The MIB is what keeps the data exchanged between the manager and the agent organized and consistent.

In practice, monitoring a device comes down to the manager performing GET and SET operations against MIB parameters, which can describe almost anything about a device — its IP addresses, its interfaces, its CPU load, and so on.