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3/21/12

Manage SNMP With Windows Servers

Manage SNMP With Windows Servers


By Jabez Gan | Aug 4, 2008 | Print this Page http://w w w .enterprisenetw orkingplanet.com/w indow s/article.php/3762946/Manage-SNMP-With-Window s-Servers.htm Simple Netw ork Management Protocol (SNMP) w as introduced in the 1980s w ith the objective of auditing and managing netw ork devices. By using a connectionless protocol User Datagram Protocol (UDP ) SNMP has little to no impact in today's netw ork environment. There are quite some articles on SNMP's concept, so I w on't be touching on them.

A Brief History of Windows and SNMP


Microsoft first implemented SNMP on Window s NT server, using SNMPv1 (version 1). Out of SNMP's three components, only SNMP Agent and SNMP Trap w ere added to Window s NT Server. The problem w ith SNMPv1 is security: Everything is passed in cleartext format, and anybody can sniff the netw ork to gather important data regarding the servers. Window s 2000 Server introduced improvements over SNMP by implementing SNMPv2c. SNMPv2c has better security, performance, confidentiality and communications betw een managers. Additional commands like GETBULK are now supported, w hich allow easier retrieval of data from multiple agents. How ever, Window s 2000 Server did not drop support for SNMPv1, w hich means SNMPv1-only management tools are still able to manage Window s 2000 Server. Window s XP/Vista and Window s Server 2003/2008 all have SNMP built-in like their predecessors, but now IPv6 is natively supported by SNMP in Window s Server 2008 and Window s Vista. What does this mean? SNMP now w orks w ith the IPv6 protocol, but Window s Server 2003 or Window s XP and earlier w ill not be able to respond to queries made to their IPv6 addresses. And here's another catch: Even if the IPv6 protocol stack is installed on Window s Server 2003 or Window s XP, neither w ill be able to respond to SNMP, w hich uses IPv6 addresses, too!

Also On SNMP
Homebrew NMS: Put It Together with Perl and Net::SNMP SNMP f or Ev er bod Make Sense of SNMP/MRTG Alphabet Soup Cacti: SNMP Monitoring Without All the Prickles SNMP - An thing But Simple

Stuck f or a def inition? Look it up at Webopedia:

Go!

Configuring SNMP Agent on a Microsoft Windows Platform


As w ith most tasks on Microsoft Window s platforms, SNMP Agent can be configured through GUI. SNMP Agent can be configured by pulling up the properties of SNMP Agent service, under Services.msc. As show n in Figure 1, you w ill find the settings to configure an SNMP Agent. This dialog asks for the contact person and the location of the netw ork device, in order for the user to know w ho to contact if this particular netw ork device goes dow n. The five service checkboxes tells the management system w hat netw ork services the agent's computer is using. Most, if not all, Window s operating systems have applications that use TCP/IP (thus Applications need to be checked); and are an IP host (thus End-to-End is checked). If you click on the Traps tab, you w ill see the properties as show n in Figure 2. Here, you specify the community name and the trap destinations. If you are not familiar w ith these settings, "community name" acts as a passw ord that is shared by other SNMP hosts. Trap destinations sends out trap messages to the management Figure 1. Click f or a larger image. system w hich are located at the trap destinations IP addresses. Multiple IP addresses can be specified if the trap messages need to be processed by multiple management system. The Security tab, as show n in Figure 3, specifies w hich trap messages are accepted and w hich to disregard. This is done by adding the community name under Accepted Community Names. It is also useful specify w hich hosts you w ant to receive SNMP packets from, otherw ise the management system might be cluttered w ith unneeded SNMP messages. But is this all? There's nothing else to configure on a Window s system? Yes, you are all good by just configuring these three different tabs, and no, there's no command line configuration.

Trapping an Event

Figure 2. Click f or a larger image.

Being able to send reboot or 'I'm alive' trap messages is useful, but it's more useful to send trap messages based on an event. "Event" here refers to an event logged by Event View er, be it an Error, Warning or Informational. Why is this useful?Picture this: Without using any third party tool to push errors from a managed server to a management system, how w ould you know that your managed servers w ent dow n just like that?
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3/21/12

Manage SNMP With Windows Servers

There are tw o tools designed to configure event trapping, and make administrators' lives easier. First is Microsoft's GUI tool evntw in (See Figure 4). Alternatively, administrators w ho love hanging out w ith the black command prompt screen can use evntcmd. As cool as the GUI tool can get, how ever evntw in does not configure Trap Destination.

SNMP's Windows Future


After many years of refinement, SNMP has become a stable and reliable netw ork monitoring protocol. I have been keeping myself updated w ith Microsoft Window s next course of action on how they can improve or implement latest Request For Comment (RFC) on SNMP protocol; how ever it's unfortunate that Microsoft Window s did not include a SNMP Monitoring System for small businesses to take advantage of this very useful protocol. At the moment the most commonly used management systems are proprietary softw are, and only enterpriselevel organizations are able to enjoy the luxury of using SNMP protocol. What about the forgotten small or midsize businesses? Do they not need to have their netw ork devices monitored?
Figure 3. Click f or a larger image.

Figure 4. Click f or a larger image.

Speaking on my ow n, and maybe for the small businesses out there, it's in our interest (and Microsoft's) to include a netw ork management system, maybe in its Microsoft Window s Small Business Server line. Even a very simple management system w ould w ork, w ere it included in Window s Small Business Server line.

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