5.4 CONFIGURING SNMP COMMUNITY NAMES
Community names are passwords used by the SNMP agent to restrict access to information provided by the MIB. In order to retrieve information from the MIB, NNM needs to be configured with the community name of every device. The global default for community names in NNM is set to "public." This allows SNMP read access to devices that do not have a read community name configured.
5.4.1 SNMP Manager Configuration
You can configure community names in NNM by selecting Options
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Similarly, if you would like to specify a range of IP addresses with the same community name use the target
156.155.*.1
You can also combine IP address wildcards and ranges:
156.155.[201-210].1
156.[150-153].*.1
5.4.2 SNMP Agent Configuration
The agent configuration, not to be confused with the management station configuration, will vary based on the type of system. One area that may cause some confusion is the fact that the management station itself also must have an SNMP agent running on it. In this respect, it is just like any other managed node. Most Unix systems have a configuration file such as /etc/snmpd.conf. To configure the SNMP agent, modify the get-community-name and set-community-name entries. Sample entries in the snmpd.conf are shown. The trap-dest will usually be set to your NNM management station. This is the location to which to send agent initiated SNMP traps. Multiple trap destinations can be defined in this file in the case that more than one SNMP management station exists.The SNMP agent configuration should include the following entries:
After the changes have been made to the SNMP agent configuration, you will need to restart the SNMP agent. This process varies based on the agent you are running. NNM ships with the SNMP Research® EMANATE agent. This agent uses a master/sub-agent technology, which requires a restart of the SNMP master agent and the sub-agents. Use the following steps to add community names and restart the EMANATE agent:UNIX:
get-community-name: mickey
set-community-name: mouse
trap-dest: 156.155.204.8
- Modify /etc/snmpd.conf with the get-community-name and the set-community-name.
get-community-name: mickey set-community-name: mouse
- Stop the master and sub-agents.
/sbin/init.d/SnmpMaster stop
- Start the master and sub-agents.
/etc/snmpd
- Verify SNMP communication to the hostname.
snmpwalk <hostname> system
- Use the Notepad[4] editor to modify the file
[4] Some editors cannot handle files with four character extensions.
%OV_CONF%\ SNMPAgent\snmpd.conf with the get-community-name and the set-community-name as follows:get-community-name: mickey set-community-name: mouse
- Restart the SNMP agent service. The Services are accessible from Control Panel for Windows NT and the MCC for Windows 2000. Scroll down the list until you reach the SNMP EMANATE Adapter for Windows and SNMP EMANATE Master Agent.
- Select the Windows Adapter and Stop the process. You will be prompted for confirmation.
- Select the Master Agent and Start the process.section 5.1.3 for troubleshooting. You can test the set-community-name through the NNM GUI by attempting to set a read-write MIB variable such as system contact. Follow these steps to test the set-community-name of a MIB variable:
- From the NNM GUI, select a node that has a set-community-name configured and start the MIB Browser by selecting
Tools
SNMP MIB Browser
- Traverse the subtree:
mgmt.mib-2.system
- Select the variable sysContact and click [Start Query] .
- Verify the MIB value. You should see the instance[6] 0 and no contact information unless the contact was previously set.
[6] The instance will always be 0 unless there are multiple instances for the variable. For example, if there are multiple file systems there will be a unique instance number for each file system and the instance will begin with 1.
- Set the sysContact by entering the MIB Instance 0, the set-community-name and click [Set] . The SNMP Set Value must match the set-community-name string you entered in the snmpd.conf (or the agent configuration) file.
- From the NNM GUI, select a node that has a set-community-name configured and start the MIB Browser by selecting