1. Error Messages and SNMP Traps
  2. Diagnostics Through SNMP Traps
  3. How TimesTen Sends SNMP Traps

How TimesTen Sends SNMP Traps

SNMP traps can use either UDP/IP or TCP/IP as communication protocol. TimesTen supports SNMP version 1, 2, and 3 traps.

Topics include:

Generating and Receiving TimesTen SNMP Traps

TimesTen does not send SNMP traps by itself. To generate and receive SNMP traps, you need an installation of Net-SNMP, including the snmptrap utility, and to enable SNMP trap generation in the TimesTen instance configuration file, timesten.conf.

Note:

TimesTen 18.1 (or earlier) used to have its own embedded implementation for SNMP traps generation (SNMPv1 only), which required the TimesTen SNMP configuration file, snmp.ini, to enable them. TimesTen 22.1 (or later) uses a different implementation and no longer supports the snmp.ini file. However, the events triggering a trap and the contents of the trap have not changed from previous releases.

On Linux platforms, consider using SNMPv3 over (D)TLS (DTLS/UDP) for encrypted and authenticated SNMP traps. SNMPv3 over (D)TLS has these prerequisites:

  • Net-SNMP version 5.9 (or later) with the Transport Security Model (TSM) enabled

  • The snmptrap utility

  • OpenSSL version 1.1.1 (or later)

Note:

  • Neither the Net-SNMP packages nor the OpenSSL library is included with TimesTen. If the appropriate net-snmp package is available in the repository for your operating system, you must also acquire and install the net-snmp-utils package for the snmptrap utility.

    Alternatively, the Net-SNMP agent, library, and tools can be downloaded from SourceForge: https://sourceforge.net/projects/net-snmp/.

  • (D)TLS uses X.509 certificates to authenticate client/server connections. Both the SNMP server and client need to have such certificates to use (D)TLS. In this case, the system receiving the SNMP traps and the one hosting the TimesTen instance and the snmptrap utility must have properly configured X.509 certificates.

For other supported platforms, such as Solaris or AIX, consider SNMPv3 over TLS (TLS/TCP) instead.

SNMP traps are only useful if you have a SNMP monitoring tool to receive and log SNMP trap messages. If you do not have a SNMP monitoring tool available, Net-SNMP includes the snmptrapd utility for this purpose.

For information on the Net-SNMP project, see http://www.net-snmp.org/.

Configuring the timesten.conf File

The TimesTen instance configuration file, timesten_home/conf/timesten.conf on UNIX systems, uses several attributes to enable SNMP trap generation.
Attribute Description

snmp_conf_path

Colon-separated list of locations to search for the Net-SNMP configuration files, snmp.conf and snmp.local.conf.

snmp_trap

The location of the utility used to send SNMP traps, snmptrap.

snmp_trap_dests

Space-separated list of destinations for the SNMP traps.

snmp_trap_opts

List of options to pass to the snmptrap utility.

snmp_version

The SNMP version to use.

openssl_path

The location of the OpenSSL library used for encrypted SNMP traps.

Note:

  • The snmp.conf and snmp.local.conf files are the configuration files for Net-SNMP utilities. TimesTen needs the snmptrap utility to be able to read either of these files to send SNMP traps.

  • Only set the openssl_path attribute if you need TimesTen to use a different OpenSSL library from the one used by the system by default, or if the snmptrap utility specified in the snmp_trap attribute requires a specific OpenSSL library.

For more information on the timesten.conf file, see TimesTen Instance Configuration File in Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database Reference.

Example 3-2 Enabling SNMPv3 over (D)TLS traps

This example provides snippets of the timesten.conf and snmp.conf files, which showcase samples of the attributes or directives required for TimesTen to generate SNMPv3 over (D)TLS traps.

To enable SNMPv3 over (D)TLS traps, ensure that the timesten.conf file in your TimesTen instance includes the attributes shown next based on your own environment: 

#SNMP traps settings
snmp_conf_path=/usr/local/etc/snmp
snmp_trap=/usr/local/bin/snmptrap
snmp_trap_dests=dtlsudp:localhost:9161 dtlsudp:myhost:10161
snmp_version=3

Also, ensure that you configure the snmp.conf file for SNMPv3 over (D)TLS traps. The file should include at least the following settings: 

defCommunity public
defSecurityModel tsm
defVersion 3
mibdirs /usr/local/share/snmp/mibs
mibs +TimesTen-MIB

Note:

Ensure that the TimesTen MIB is added to a location used to find and load MIBs. In this example, the /usr/local/share/snmp/mibs directory is one such location. See TimesTen MIB for where to find the TimesTen MIB.

For more information on the SNMP-related attributes for the timesten.conf file, see TimesTen Instance Configuration File in Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database Reference.

For more information on the directives for the snmp.conf file, see the man page for snmp.conf.

Example 3-3 Enabling SNMPv1 traps

This example provides snippets of the timesten.conf and snmp.conf files, which showcase samples of the attributes or directives required for TimesTen to generate SNMPv1 traps.

WARNING:

SNMPv1 does not support encryption or authentication. It is highly recommended that you use SNMPv3 over (D)TLS or TLS for TimesTen SNMP traps.

To enable SNMPv1 traps, ensure that the timesten.conf file in your TimesTen instance includes the attributes shown next based on your own environment: 

#SNMP traps settings
snmp_conf_path=/usr/local/etc/snmp
snmp_trap=/usr/local/bin/snmptrap
snmp_trap_dests=localhost:9161 myhost:10161
snmp_version=1

Also, ensure that you configure the snmp.conf file for SNMPv1 traps. The file should include at least the following settings: 

defCommunity public
defVersion 1
mibdirs /usr/local/share/snmp/mibs
mibs +TimesTen-MIB

Note:

Ensure that the TimesTen MIB is added to a location used to find and load MIBs. In this example, the /usr/local/share/snmp/mibs directory is one such location. See TimesTen MIB for where to find the TimesTen MIB.

For more information on the SNMP-related attributes for the timesten.conf file, see TimesTen Instance Configuration File in Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database Reference.

For more information on the directives for the snmp.conf file, see the man page for snmp.conf.

Trap Truncation on Overflow

The maximum packet size of a single trap is 1024 bytes. If there is more data than can fit into the 1024 byte limit, the trap is truncated to fit. In this case, the trap contains a ttTrapTruncated OID set to 1.

Trapping Out-of-Space Messages

By default, TimesTen records that database space is low based on the region space thresholds of PermWarnThreshold and TempWarnThreshold attributes. For example, if the total memory in use for the permanent memory region surpasses the value set for the PermWarnThreshold attribute, TimesTen records a message indicating that the permanent memory region is out of space. Once the used space for the permanent memory region is once again 10% below the threshold, TimesTen records a second message indicating that the permanent memory region is no longer low on space.

When connecting to a database, you can change the out-of-space threshold by setting the PermWarnThreshold and TempWarnThreshold attributes. See PermWarnThreshold and TempWarnThreshold in Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database Reference.