Sidewinder G2 6.1.2 Administration Guide - Glossary of Technical ...

Figure 195: Community
name within an SNMP
message
Chapter 15: Configuring the SNMP Agent
SNMP and Sidewinder G2
The management station displays a graphical representation of a network’s
topology through a Windows-based environment. In general, network
managers can monitor each SNMP node (including the Sidewinder G2) by
clicking an icon representing each node in the network’s topology.
A management station in the internal or external network can request
information from a managed node’s SNMP agent. The SNMP management
station sends a managed node Get and GetNext SNMP messages to retrieve
node-specific parameters and variables, called objects. The message
response from the managed system provides the SNMP administrator with
information on a node’s device names, status, network connections, etc.
Important: SNMPv1 agents typically allow Get, GetNext, and Set requests from the
management station. However, the Sidewinder G2 SNMPv1 agent does not
support Set requests. This prevents a management system from sending
commands to change variables or parameters in the Sidewinder G2.
Each managed node can send an unsolicited event notification message,
called a trap, to a management station when it detects certain system events.
For example, you can configure the SNMP agent in the Sidewinder G2 to issue
a trap whenever an unauthorized user tries to read, write, or execute a
protected file on the Sidewinder G2. (Refer to “Sidewinder G2 SNMP traps” on
page 579 for a list of all traps supported by Sidewinder G2.)
When setting up SNMP management, a network administrator assigns the
management station and the nodes it will manage a community name. As
shown in Figure 195, the community name is in the authentication header in
each SNMP message exchanged between a management station and a
managed node.
VERSION
COMMUNITY
NAME
SNMP COMMAND: GET, GETNEXTREQUEST, ETC.
The SNMP agent treats the community name like a password to validate the
identity of a management station. For example, suppose a management
station sends a get request to retrieve information from a managed node’s
SNMP agent. If the community name within the get request is not also used by
the SNMP agent, the agent will not return information to the management
station.
Caution: To increase security on your network, do not use common default names
such as “public” or “private,” which can be easily guessed.
Both the management station and the managed node also contain
Management Information Bases (MIBs) that store information about the
managed objects. Currently, the SNMP agent on Sidewinder G2 supports
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