CS6551- Computer Networks

5.5 SNMP ( SIMPLE NETWORK MANAGEMENT

PROTOCOL)

• Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an

application layer protocol that monitors and manages
routers, distributed over a network.
• SNMP uses the concept of manager and agent.
Manager is a host that runs SNMP client program
(GUI), whereas agent is a router that runs SNMP server
program.
• SNMP uses services of UDP on two well-known ports:
161 (agent) and 162 (manager).

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5.5 SNMP

• SNMP is supported by two protocols:

1.Structure of Management Information (SMI)
2. Management Information Base (MIB).
5.5.1 SMI Object Identifier
 SMI defines rules for naming objects using Abstract
syntax notation one (ASN.1).
 Basic Encoding Rules (BER) encoding is used to
transmit data over the network.
 Object identifiers are hierarchical that begins with root
and uses lexicographic ordering.

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5.5 SNMP

5.5.1 SMI Object Identifier

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5.5 SNMP
5.5.2 MIB Groups
 Each agent has its own MIB, which is a collection of
objects to be managed.
 SNMP objects are located under mib-2 object, identifiers
beginning with 1.3.6.1.2.1
 MIB-II (version 2) classifies objects under 12 groups.

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5.5 SNMP
5.5.2 MIB Groups
• sys (system)-information about the node such as name,
location, lifetime, etc.
• if (interface)-information about interfaces attached to the
node such as physical address, packets sent and received on
each interface, etc.
• at (address translation)-information about ARP table
• Ip-information about IP such as routing table, datagrams
forwarded/dropped, etc
• tcp-information related to TCP such as connection table,
time-out value, number of TCP packets sent / received, etc.
• Udp-information on UDP traffic such as number of UDP
packets sent/received. 5
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5.5 SNMP
5.5.3 MIB Variable
 MIB variables are of two types namely simple and table.
 Simple variables are accessed using group-id
(1.3.6.1.2.1.7) followed by variable-id and 0 (instance
suffix). For example, udpInDatagrams is accessed as
1.3.6.1.2.1.7.1.0
 Tables are ordered as column-row rules, i.e., column by
column from top to bottom.
 Leaf elements are only accessible in a table type, with
group id followed by table id, leaf element and instance
suffix. For example, udp LocalAddress id is
1.3.6.1.2.1.7.5.1.1.3
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5.5 SNMP
5.5.3 MIB Variable(Cond..)

Fig:UDP variables

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5.5 SNMP
5.5.4 Protocol Data Unit(PDU)
 SNMP is request/reply protocol that supports various
operations using PDUs:
 GET used by manager to retrieve value of agent variable.
 GET-NEXT used by manager to retrieve next entries in a agent's
table.
 SET used by manager to set value of an agent's variable.
RESPONSE sent from an agent to manager in
response to GET/GET-NEXT that contains value of
variables.
 TRAP sent from agent to the manager to report an
event such as reboot.
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5.5 SNMP
5.5.4 Protocol Data Unit(PDU)
 When administrator selects a piece of information,
manager puts identifier for the MIB variable and sends
request message to the agent
 Agent maps the identifier, retrieves value of the variable,
and sends encoded value back to the manager.