Simple Network Management Protocol

(SNMP).
• Role of SNMP: SNMP defines the format of packets
exchanged between a manager and an agent. It reads
and changes the status of objects (values of variables)
in SNMP packets.
• Role of SMI: SMI defines the general rules for naming
objects, defining object types (including range and
length), and showing how to encode objects and
values.
• Role of MIB: MIB creates a collection of named
objects, their types, and their relationships to each
other in an entity to be managed.
• A network is a complex system, both in
terms of the number of nodes that are
involved and in terms of the suite of
protocols that can be running on any
one node.
• Even if we consider nodes within a
single administrative domain, such as a
campus, there might be dozens of
routers and hundreds—or even
thousands—of hosts to keep track of.
• If you think about all the state that is
maintained and address translation
tables, routing tables, TCP connection
state, and so on—managing all of this
information is very difficult
• It is easy to imagine wanting to know
about the state of various protocols on
different nodes.
• For example, you might want to monitor
the number of IP datagram reassemblies
that have been aborted,
• so as to determine if the timeout that
garbage collects partially assembled
datagrams needs to be adjusted.
• As another example, you might want to
keep track of the load on various nodes
(i.e., the number of packets sent or
received) so as to determine if new
routers or links need to be added to the
network.
• Of course, watch for evidence of faulty
hardware and misbehaving software.
• What we have just described is the
problem of network management,
• problem of network management is
an issue that pervades the entire
network architecture.
• use the network to manage the
network. This means we need a
protocol that allows us to read, and
possibly write, various pieces of state
information on different network
nodes.
• The most widely used protocol for this
purpose is the Simple Network
Management Protocol (SNMP).
• SNMP is a specialized request/reply
protocol that supports two kinds of
request messages: GET and SET.
• GET is used to retrieve a piece of state
from some node, and
• SET is used to store a new piece of
state in some node.
• SNMP also supports a third operation,
GET-NEXT
• . A system administrator
interacts with a client program
that displays information about
the network.
• This client program usually has
a graphical interface. playing user
the same role as a web informati
browser. SYSTEM INTERACT CLIENT DISPLAY
on about
• Whenever the administrator ADMINISTRATO PROGRAM the
selects a certain piece of network.
information that he or she
wants to see, the client
program uses SNMP to request GRAPHICAL SNMP to node
that information from the node INTERFACE request that
in question ROLE OF information SNMP
• An SNMP server running on WEB from the node server
that node receives the request, SERVER in question
locates the appropriate piece of
information, and returns it to receives the
the client program, which then request,
selects a certain piece of information locates the
displays it to the user.
returns appropriate
piece of
information
• SNMP depends on a companion
specification called the management
information base (MIB).
• The MIB defines the specific pieces of
information—the MIB variables—that
you can retrieve from a network node.
• The current version of MIB, called
MIB-II, organizes variables into 10
different groups.
• The objects in MIB2 are categorized
under 10 different groups: system,
interface, address translation, ip, icmp,
tcp, udp, egp, transmission, and snmp.
 This object defines
general information
related to SNMP itself

This object (address information related to ICMP,

translation) defines the such as the number of
This object (system) information about the ARP This object defines general
defines general packets sent and received information related to UDP, such
table.
information about and total errors created. as the number of ports and
This object (interface)
the node (system), information number of packets sent and
defines information
such as the name, related to IP, received.
about all of the
location, and such as the
interfaces of the node general information related to
lifetime. routing table
including interface TCP, such as the connection
and the
number, physical table, time-out value, number of
IP address.
address, and IP ports, and number of packets
address. sent and received.
• client stating exactly what information it wants to retrieve from
• a node, having a list of MIB variables is only half thebattle.
• Two problems remain.
• First, we need a precise syntax for the client to use to state which of
the MIB variables it wants to fetch.
• Second, we need a precise representation for the values returned by
the server.
• Both problems are addressed using Abstract Syntax Notation One
(ASN.1).
• Accessing MIB Variables
• To show how to access different variables, we
use the udp group as an example. There are four
simple variables in the udp group and one
sequence of (table of) records.
• Simple Variables
• To access any of the simple variables, we use
the id of the group (1.3.6.1.2.1.7) followed by
the id of the variable. The following shows
how to access each variable.
• udpInDatagrams → 1.3.6.1.2.1.7.1
• udpNoPorts → 1.3.6.1.2.1.7.2
• udpInErrors → 1.3.6.1.2.1.7.3
• udpOutDatagrams → 1.3.6.1.2.1.7.4
• To show the instance or the contents of each
variable, we must add an instance suffix. The
instance suffix for a simple variable is simply a
zero.
• In other words, to show an instance of the
above variables,
• udpInDatagrams.0 → 1.3.6.1.2.1.7.1.0
• udpNoPorts.0 → 1.3.6.1.2.1.7.2.0
• udpInErrors.0 → 1.3.6.1.2.1.7.3.0
• udpOutDatagrams.0 → 1.3.6.1.2.1.7.4.0
• Tables
• To identify a table, we first use the table id. The udp group has
only one table (with id 5),So to access the table, we use the
following:
• udpTable → 1.3.6.1.2.1.7.5
• the table is not at the leaf level in the tree structure. We cannot
access the table; we define the entry (sequence) in the table
(with id of 1)
• udpEntry → 1.3.6.1.2.1.7.5.1
• This entry is also not a leaf and we cannot access it. We need to
define each entity(field) in the entry.
• udpLocalAddress → 1.3.6.1.2.1.7.5.1.1
• udpLocalPort → 1.3.6.1.2.1.7.5.1.2
• These two variables are at the leaf of the tree. Although we can
access their instances, we need to define which instance.
• To access the instance of the local address for the first
row, we use the identifier augmented with the
instance index:
• udpLocalAddress.181.23.45.14.23 → 1.3.6.1.2.7.5.1.1.181.23.45.14.2
• Note that not all tables are indexed the same way.
Some tables are indexed using the
• value of one field, some using the value of two fields,
and so on.
 SNMP message
This element is a sequence that
can be very complex, depending
The Version field is an on the type of security
INTEGER data type provision used in version 3.
that defines the The last element
version. The current contains
version is 3. two simple data type an
the actual PDU..

The GlobalData field

is a sequence with
four elements of
simple data type:
ID, Max-Size, Flags,
and Security Model.
Workinf of SNMP
• . The SNMP client puts the ASN.1 identifier for the MIB variable it
wants to get into the request message, and it sends this message to
the server.
• The server then maps this identifier into a local variable (i.e., into a
memory location where the value for this variable is stored), retrieves
the current value held in this variable, and uses ASN.1/BER to encode
the value it sends back to the .client
• two kinds of request messages: GET
and SET.
• GET is used to retrieve a piece of state
from some node, and
• SET is used to store a new piece of
state in some node.
• SNMP also supports a third operation,
GET-NEXT- This operation, when
applied to a particular variable ID,
returns the value of that variable plus
the ID of the next variable,
• for example, the next item in the table
or the next field in the structure.This
aids the client in “walking through”
the elements of a table or structure.
• SECURITY
• SNMPv3 has added two new features to
the previous version:
• security and
• remote administration.
• SNMPv3 allows a manager to choose one
or more levels of security
• when accessing an agent. Different
aspects of security can be configured by
the manager to allow message
authentication, confidentiality, and
integrity.
• SNMPv3 also allows remote configuration
of security aspects without requiring the
administrator to actually be at the place
where the device is located.