Chapter 2. SNMPv3 and Network Management


Having seen the reasons why network management is needed, we now delve a little more deeply into SNMPv3. We look at the SNMPv3 message formats and see how this version of SNMP provides some useful new message types as well as strong security. We then review some of the problems affecting all versions of SNMP.

We described in Chapter 1, "Large Enterprise Networks," that SNMP is essentially a network management data access technology. As such, SNMP is an enabler for a variety of applications including NMS products. However, other applications, such as MIB browsers, also use SNMP. We take a look at some sample output from one of our two handcrafted SNMP applications, described later in Chapter 7, "Rudimentary NMS Software Components ."

MIBs are one of the cornerstones of this book, so we take a closer look at the main elements of one of the IETF MPLS MIBs. All of our discussion so far has aimed toward providing a clear picture of the purpose and structure of a typical NMS. An analogy for an NMS is briefly explored to solidify the concepts.

The purpose of an NMS is to manage networks of devices or NEs. We briefly review some typical software components of an NE before presenting our first chunk of MPLS technology.



Network Management, MIBs and MPLS
Network Management, MIBs and MPLS: Principles, Design and Implementation
ISBN: 0131011138
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 150

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