SNMP is a lightweight #Application Layer Protocol# allowing remote and local #management# of items or Network Device on the network. It is part of #Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). SNMP comprises of two entities: agents who are running on managed node and collecting information about the node, and managers who are running on management workstation that requests information about devices on the network.
Note: SNMP doesn’t provide security management to the #Network Management System (NMS). It severely lacks authentication capability.
The managers issue GetRequest
, GetNextRequest
, and SetRequest
messages to port# 161 which the agents should reply with GetResponse
message to the same port. The managers listen to the port 162 in case there is a Trap
message issued by the agents due to changes in Management Information Base (MIB) and underlying node.
There are three specifications of SNMP issued attempting to standardise SNMP implementation:
SNMP is universally supported and portable. It also quite extendible and allows distributed management access.