Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an application-layer protocol that facilitates the exchange of management information between network devices. It is part of the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol suite. By using SNMP to access management information data, network administrators can more easily manage network performance and find and solve network problems and plan for network growth. Two versions of SNMP exist namely:

• SNMP version 1 (SNMPv1)
• SNMP version 2 (SNMPv2)

An SNMP-managed network consists of three key components: managed devices, agents and network-management systems (NMSs). A managed device is a network node that contains an SNMP agent and that resides on a managed network. Managed devices collect and store management information and make this information available to NMSs using SNMP. Managed devices, sometimes called network elements, can be routers and access servers, switches and bridges, hubs, computer hosts or printers.

An agent is a network-management software module that resides in a managed device. An agent has local knowledge of management information and translates that information into a form compatible with SNMP. An NMS executes application that monitor and control managed devices. NMSs provide that bulk of the processing and memory resources required for network management. One or more NMSs must exist on any managed network.