Chapter 5: SNMP and RMON Management

5. SNMP and RMON Management

This chapter describes the switch’s Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and Remote Monitoring (RMON) capabilities.

5.1 Overview

RMON is an abbreviation for the Remote Monitoring MIB (Management Information Base). RMON is a system defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) document RFC 2819, which defines how networks can be monitored remotely.

RMONs typically consist of two components: an RMON probe and a management workstation:

The RMON probe is an intelligent device or software agent that continually collects statistics about a LAN segment or VLAN. The RMON probe transfers the collected data to a management workstation on request or when a pre-defined threshold is reached.

The management workstation collects the statistics that the RMON probe gathers. The workstation can reside on the same network as the probe, or it can have an in-band or out-of-band connection to the probe.

The switch provides RMON capabilities that allow network administrators to set parameters and view statistical counters defined in MIB-II, Bridge MIB, and RMON MIB. RMON activities are performed at a Network Management Station running an SNMP network management application with graphical user interface.

5.2 SNMP Agent and MIB-2 (RFC 1213)

The SNMP Agent running on the switch manager CPU is responsible for:

Retrieving MIB counters from various layers of software modules according to the SNMP GET/GET NEXT frame messages.

Setting MIB variables according to the SNMP SET frame message.

Generating an SNMP TRAP frame message to the Network Management Station if the threshold of a certain MIB counter is reached or if other trap conditions (such as the following) are met:

WARM START COLD START LINK UP LINK DOWN AUTHENTICATION FAILURE

RISING ALARM

FALLING ALARM

TOPOLOGY ALARM

MIB-II defines a set of manageable objects in various layers of the TCP/IP protocol suites. MIB-II covers all manageable objects from layer 1 to layer 4, and, as a result, is the major SNMP MIB supported by all vendors in the networking industry. The switch supports a complete implementation of SNMP Agent and MIB-II.

5.3 RMON MIB (RFC 2819) and Bridge MIB (RFC 1493)

The switch provides hardware-based RMON counters in the switch chipset. The switch manager CPU polls these counters periodically to collect the statistics in a format that complies with the RMON MIB definition.

5.4 RMON Groups Supported

The switch supports the following RMON MIB groups defined in RFC 2819:

RMON Statistics Group – maintains usage and error statistics for the switch port being monitored.

RMON History Group – gathers and stores periodic statistical samples from the previous Statistics Group.

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Black Box LEH1104A-4MMSC, LEH906A-2SFP Snmp and Rmon Management, Overview, Snmp Agent and MIB-2 RFC, Rmon Groups Supported

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