| OverviewThis practical guide for network and system administrators
introduces SNMP along with the technical background to use
it effectively. But the main focus is on practical network
administration: how to configure SNMP agents and network
management stations, how to use SNMP to retrieve and modify
variables on network devices, how to configure management
software to react to traps sent by managed devices. Covers
all SNMP versions through SNMPv3. Editorial ReviewsProduct DescriptionThe Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an Internet-standard protocol for managing hosts on an IP network. Devices that typically support SNMP include routers, switches, servers, workstations, printers, modem racks, UPSs, and more. Essential SNMP is a practical introduction to SNMP for network and system administrators. It starts with the basics of SNMP and how it works, along with the technical background to use it effectively. The book covers OIDs, MIBs, community strings, traps, and other technical elements. But the main focus is on practical network administration: how to configure SNMP agents and network management stations, how to use SNMP to retrieve and modify variables on network devices, how to configure management software to react to traps sent by managed devices. Essential SNMP explores both commercial and open source packages, including HP's OpenView, Castle Rock's SNMPc, the Net-SNMP tools, Simon Leinen's Perl SNMP support, and MRTG. Administrators will come away with ideas for writing scripts to help them manage their networks, create managed objects, and extend the operation of SNMP agents. In addition to SNMPv1 and v2, the book covers SNMPv3, which has just started to appear in commercial products as of this printing. | Amazon.com ReviewWithout Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), network administrators might have to actually get out of their chairs and go see what's up with all of the network-connected equipment under their authority. Perish the thought. Essential SNMP explains how the management protocol works and how it's implemented by several operating systems and pieces of equipment. More importantly, this book shows its reader--who should be a network administrator who's familiar with the problems of running a distributed network--how SNMP can earn its place as a network administration tool. In other words, this book examines SNMP as a strategic resource as well as a technical phenomenon. Because it's oriented toward SNMP as a tool, much of the coverage in this book has to do with software that uses SNMP to provide network monitoring and control services. After a strengths-and-weaknesses overview of a number of SNMP packages, the authors use mainly HP OpenView, Castle Rock SNMPc, and Net-SNMP (the last in combination with Perl scripting) to demonstrate how SNMP works and how to take advantage of it. It's the scripting that really distinguishes this book from other SNMP books, by the way. It's integral to the authors' presentation, and the latter half of this book is packed with shell and Perl listings. --David Wall Topics covered: Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and its applicability as a network management tool. Details like object identifiers (OIDs), management information bases (MIBs), traps, and community strings are defined and explained. The configuration of SNMP agents is detailed for several software packages and operating systems, and the integration of SNMP and scripts (in shell languages and in Perl) is covered nicely. |
Other Readers Also Read | Top Sellers in This Category | Browse Similar Topics | | | Top Level Categories:Sub-Categories: | | | |
Reader Reviews From Amazon (Ranked by 'Helpfulness') Average Customer Rating: based on 19 reviews. thorough coverage of SNMP, 2008-07-08 Reviewer rating: i knew nothing about the protocol. great resource in explaining from the ground up. | SNMP for Users, not Programmers, 2008-04-13 Reviewer rating: Essential SNMP didn't quite hit the nail for me.
I needed introductory documentation on the design of MIB files and the implementation of agents, but this book provides more of a quick overview of the usage of SNMP from the perspective of a network manager.
There are lots of basic examples on data collection, but researching on the internet helped me much more than this book. Especially the Net-SNMP website covers much of the internal workings of the SNMP protocol and the advanced usage of OIDs, like tables, octet string indexes and multiple indexes. But I still had to search and experiment a lot before finding the relevant information. | Disappointing, 2007-05-25 Reviewer rating: Most of the books in this series are very technical and go into serious details. This one reads like a compendium of owner's manuals. A really good book on SNMP is needed and this one is not it.
| 1/4 good, 2007-05-03 Reviewer rating: This book is good up till you get 1/4 of the way through it. The first quarter of the book is good and it goes over general SNMP stuff then history different versions etc. The last 3/4 of this book cover configuring proprietary monitoring systems like open view and solar winds.
I dont care about open view.. or solar winds.. i wanted to learn about snmp... not some vendors software package. Im suprised that this got published with such a general title.. when really the book is an snmp intro, followed by how to setup a proprietary monitoring tool. | Great book on SNMP starts from the beginning, 2007-02-20 Reviewer rating: I hadn't seen a new book on SNMP come out in some time, and the older ones I had read were so abstract and unhelpful that I was reluctant to try another one. This book, though not perfect, is much better than the older books I have looked at on the subject. For one thing, it just didn't dive into the subject with a bunch of confusing graphs and object trees assuming I already knew the big picture.
Chapter one is just a general introduction to SNMP and network management. Chapter 2 goes into details on both SNMPv1 and SNMPv2. It talks about how SNMP sends and receives information, how to read MIB files, and about SNMP communities. It looks in detail at three MIB's - MIB-II, Host Resources, and RMON. MIB-II is a very important management group because every device that supports SNMP must also support MIB-II, thus objects from MIB-II are used in examples through the whole book. Chapter 3 introduces SNMPv3, which addresses the security problems present in v1 and v2.
Next the book introduces the idea of a network management architecture. It stresses that you need a plan that helps you use Network Management Stations (NMS's) effectively in order to effectively manage your network. This section includes how to properly choose your hardware and what questions you need to ask yourself. Next the book discusses actually installing and running your software. Specifically HP's OpenView Network Node Manager and Castle Rock's SNMPc Enterprise Edition are discussed. Included are detailed instructions along with screenshots of the application. Next there are instructions on how to configure SNMP agents. You are walked through some standard configuration parameters plus some advanced parameters that sometimes crop up. Once again there are plenty of screen shots to help you know you are on the right path.
Now that you've been walked through the configuration of your system and the installation of software, the book shows you how to use the three basic SNMP operations of snmpget, snmpset, and snmpwalk. A group of Perl scripts are shown that set, get, and walk objects. Next HP OpenView and Net-SNMP are used to perform the same operations from the command line. A third alternative is demonstrated that uses OpenView's graphical MIB Browser. Next is a discussion of how to set up SNMP to poll your devices at certain intervals and to set thresholds that require action if crossed. Again Perl scripts enter the discussion for configuring this set-up. SNMPc and OpenView screen shots show you how to configure this using graphical interfaces, and what to expect. Next the book discusses traps, which are how an agent sends a monitoring station asynchronous notification about certain key conditions that may require action. The book demonstrates how to handle traps using OpenView and Perl scripts. Next the book shows how to read, configure, and even define your own traps.
The book now turns to the problem of agents that need to be extended in their abilities. The book discusses the answer to this problem - extensible SNMP agents - and three of them in particular - the OpenView, Net-SNMP, and SystemEdge agents. Next are some interesting scripts for automating common system administration tasks. Issues covered by these little scripts include determining who is logging into your machine, a port monitor, service monitoring, and switching port control, among others. There is then a discussion on MRTG (Multi Router Traffic Grapher), a trend analysis tool that generates image files and whose output is viewable from a web browser. Complete instructions on installing and using the tool are given. The next tool discussed is RRDtool, which in network management will most likely be used to store and process data collected via SNMP. However RRDtool can be used for many diverse purposes that have nothing to do with computer networks. The last chapter in the book is an odd one on using Java with SNMP. Specifically, the book presents the Java SNMP API known as SNMP4J. It doesn't really seem to add any functionality other than being an alternative for people who don't like to use Perl.
I liked this book very much. It had many good examples and it answered all of the questions I had previously had on SNMP starting from the beginning with what is SNMP and what can it do for you? I would highly recommend it to any network administrator who is planning on workng with SNMP. |
Some information above was provided using data from Amazon.com. View at Amazon > |
| |
|
|