SNMP Overview

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is the main protocol of Network Management. With SNMP, network devices are easily managed and conttolled by a central mechanism. It is an application protocol that provide the messaging between the controlled device and the management system. In this lesson, we will focus SNMP Overview, SNMP Port, SNMP versions and more. We will also talk about SNMP Configurations, in other lessons.

Basically with SNMP, network devices are managed, their performance can be measured, any troubleshooting actions can be determined and the next level growth of the network can be easily done.

Any device in a network can be managed by Network Management Sytem with the help of SNMP. This can be a router, a switch, a PC or any other devices.

Table of Contents

SNMP Terms

Network Management via SNMP consist of some different terms. These SNMP terms are:

• NMS (SNMP Manager)
• Managed Device
• SNMP Agent
• MIB
• SNMP
• SNMP Port

Firstly, we can talk about NMS. NMS is the Network Management System that manages the SNMP Operations and by doing this controls the Managed devices. The network monitoring and controling facilities is done here. This can be a dedicated device or an application on any device.

Second important term about SNMP is Managed Devices. Managed Devices are the nodes that will be managed and controlled by Network Management System (NMS).

Then, SNMP Agent is the software part of the managed device. It collects the information for the device and reports to the NMS (SNMP Manager).

Beside, MIB is the storage database for the network management information. It contains the managed device information.

we use SNMP Protocol in Network Management. It runs on IP and UDP. IT provides different message exchange during the operations. SNMP has three versions.

Lastly, SNMP Port, is the port that is used for the SNMP Communication. By default UDP Port 161 and UDP Port 162 are used as SNMP Port.

SNMP Port

SNMP uses UDP Port 161 by default. And UDP Port 162 is used for SNMP TRAP⁄INFORM. SNMP can also run over TCP (Transmission Control Protocol).

SNMP Manager sends commands to SNMP Agents over UDP Port 161.If an SNMP Agent respond to the SNMP Manager, it uses UDP Port 162.

SNMP Versions

As other Network Protocols, SNMP has also some versions. For now, SNMP has three versions. These versions are :

1. SNMPv1
2. SNMPv2
3. SNMPv3

SNMPv1 is the first SNMP version. Only requires a plain-text community string for packet authenticaiton. It has performance and security limitations.