SNMP Configuration for STA

Note – SNMP v3 is the recommended protocol for SNMP communications between STA and the libraries. Depending on your site requirements, however, you may choose to use v2c. This section describes the recommended v3 configuration. See Appendix A, “Configuring SNMP v2c Mode” for information on configuring the v2c protocol.

Communication between the STA server and the libraries it monitors is done through the SNMP interface. The libraries send data to STA through SNMP traps, and STA retrieves library configuration data through SNMP get functions.

Note – For additional information about SNMP implementation on the libraries, see the StorageTek Modular Libraries SNMP Reference Guide.

To set up communication between the STA server and the libraries, you must perform some configuration procedures on the libraries and some on the STA server. This chapter describes the procedures you must perform on the libraries. See Chapter 2, “Configuring SNMP in the STA Application” for the procedures you must perform on the STA server.

SNMP Communication

STA uses the v3 SNMP protocol to communicate with the library; however, in some cases, the initial communication handshake between a library and the STA server is done through the v2c protocol. Refer to “Ensure an SNMP v2c User” to see if a v2c user is required for your library for the initial handshake.

The traps and get functions are done through the v3 protocol. The authentication, encryption, and message integrity features in SNMP v3 provide a secure mechanism for sending library data.

To set up SNMP v3 communication on each library, you define the library as a v3 user and the STA server as a v3 trap recipient. In addition, you must specify authorization and privacy mechanisms and passwords. For STA, the authorization method is always SHA (Secure Hash Algorithm), and the privacy method is always DES (Data Encryption Standard).

Unique v3 User

STA supports one and only one SNMP v3 library user. Therefore, the same v3 user must be defined on all libraries monitored by a single STA server. Your libraries may already have one or more v3 users, and you can use one of these for STA communication. However, it is highly recommended that you set up a new, unique v3 user for this purpose. See “Create an SNMP v3 User” for detailed instructions.

SNMP Engine IDs

The SNMP v3 protocol requires each SNMP device to have a globally unique engine ID. Therefore, the STA server and the libraries each have their own unique engine IDs. In the case of SL8500 library complexes, each library in the complex also has its own SNMP agent, and therefore its own unique engine ID. The engine ID contains a maximum of 31 hexadecimal characters.

According to the SNMP protocol, traps use the sender’s engine ID; therefore you must specify the library engine ID when you define STA as the SNMP v3 trap recipient.

See “Create an SNMP v3 User” and “Create an SNMP v3 Trap Recipient” for detailed instructions.