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Course Goals:

  • Understanding and using SNMP, IPMI and custom checks with Zabbix
  • Creating Templates for trending utilization and notification of network devices both OS based and Appliance based
  • Working with Triggers and Actions to create notifications (Polling and Traps)
  • Understanding and configuring ITIL service monitoring with Key Performance Indicators rolled up from server, process, service and dependency checking using Zabbix

Simple Network Management Protocol "SNMP": is a network protocol used to exchange server and application management data.  * There are 3 versions of SNMP v1, v2c and v3 with varying levels of security, controls and support by vendors.

  • The machine that recieves traps or sends queries to clients is called the SNMP Management Station.
  • There are 2 methods of exchanging data between the SNMP management station and the SNMP client - TRAP and POLLING (sometimes called discovery)
  • Data that can be retrieved from devices, applications and operating systems varies greatly between vendors but there is some standardization.  Most data is in the form of Attribute/Value Pairs or Tables that are made availble to SNMP by the vendor. 
  • A/V Pairs are defined by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and are assigned to institutions for private use in what is defined as an ARC generally at an enterprise level.  Rice's defined ARC in OID format is 1.3.6.1.4.1.134 which translates to .iso.org.dod.internet.private.enterprises.Rice.
  • Management Information Base (Mibs) are a heirarchical representation of SNMP data, its data type definitions, OID and syntax.  MIBs provide the OID to Mib map and are provided by vendors or are based on IETF standards for standards based resources such as TCP/IP networking, printing, SMTP email, LDAP and other resources.
  • A open source client suite of software CLI tools is provided called net-snmp that is availbale for Windows, Mac and Linux at http://www.net-snmp.org/download.html
    • snmpget - used to querey hosts for information.
    • snmpwalk - used to traverse the SNMP OID tree that is supported by a client.
    • snmptable  - used to querey host for table information.
    • snmptranslate - used to translate between mibs and oids.

Where to Begin

  1. Install and/or configure an snmp client on the device that will be used as an SNMP client.  Most hardware and some software come with built in SNMP capabilities.
    1. Linux Installation - "yum install net-snmp" this will download and install all of the snmp client software, you will need to configure it yourself. We suggest a simple configuration with a read only community string of public.  If the machine is public facing, restrict SNMP to the monitoring station access and any equipment that you will test from.
    2. Windows Installations - Installation is from the Add or Remove Software/Hardware section of the Control Panel and choose Windows Components, Management and Monitoring Tools, SNMP with configuration done in Control Panel / Services.
    3. Once installed and configured you can use CLI tools to test your access controls and data.
  2. There are a number of resources used to find out what data is available from an operating system, a hardware component, a network resource or an application.
    1. Use snmpwalk to traverse the entire tree of available A/V Pairs.  "snmpwalk -v2c -cpublic <hostname or IP of client>
    2. Use snmpget to  querey for a specific oid for its value.  "snmpget -v2c -cpublic <hostname or IP of client> 1.3.6.1.4.1
    3.  
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