About Simple Network Management Protocol

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Oracle ILOM supports Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), which is used to exchange data about network activity. SNMP is an open, industry-standard protocol technology that enables the management of networks and devices, or nodes, that are connected to the network. When using SNMP, data travels between a managed device (node) and a management station with network access. A managed device can be any device that runs SNMP, such as a host, router, web server, or other server on the network. SNMP messages are sent over IP using the User Datagram Protocol (UDP). Any management application that supports SNMP can monitor your server.

Because SNMP is a protocol, not an application, you need an application to issue SNMP commands. Your SNMP management software might provide this functionality, or you can use an open-source tool like Net-SNMP, which is available at http://net-snmp.sourceforge.net/.

For a more complete description of SNMP, see the five-part, introductory SNMP tutorial available at http://www.dpstele.com/layers/l2/snmp_l2_tut_part1.php.

Oracle ILOM supports SNMP versions 2c, and 3. Using SNMP v3 is strongly advised since SNMP v3 provides additional security, authentication, and privacy beyond SNMP v2c.

Note - As of Oracle ILOM firmware version 4.0, support for all SNMP set operations and writeable SNMP MIBs have been removed. All permission properties for SNMP communities and users have also been removed. SNMP should be used for system monitoring and not for management. Snmp traps are still supported.

Note - Oracle ILOM users reading this document are assumed to have a working knowledge of SNMP. SNMP client-side commands are used in this text as examples of using SNMP. Users who do not have a working knowledge of SNMP should complete the tutorial at http://net-snmp.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page. This tutorial is more advanced than the introductory tutorial referred to above.