Cisco Systems NAM, 5 manual Snmp Agent

Chapter 5 User and System Administration

System Administration

Note NAM 5.0 does not support using IPv6 for the network parameter IP address.

Table 5-2	Network Parameters Dialog Box
Field		Description
IP Address		NAM IP address.
IP Broadcast		NAM broadcast address.
Subnet Mask		NAM subnet mask.
IP Gateway		NAM IP gateway address.
Host Name		NAM hostname.
Domain name		NAM domain name.
Nameservers		NAM nameserver address or addresses.

Step 3 Do one of the following:

•To save the changes, click Submit.

•To cancel the changes, click Reset.

SNMP Agent

An SNMP Agent is a network management software module that resides in a managed device. It has local knowledge of management information and translates that information into a form compatible with SNMP.

With NAM Traffic Analyzer 5.0, you have the ability to manage devices with SNMPv3. The NAM polls the managed device to get its basic health and interface stats. For NAM blades (WS-SVC-NAM-1, WS-SVC-NAM-2 platforms), the managed device is the switch in which the NAM is inserted, and the NAM software negotiates with the switch to use SNMPv2c and a community string to do the polling. This community string is only valid for use with the NAM. For security purposes, the switch associates the community string with the NAM's IP address only, and no other SNMP application can use this community string to communicate with the switch. For more information about community strings, see Working with NAM Community Strings, page 5-4.

Also, to further alleviate any security concerns, the SNMP exchanges between WS-SVC-NAM-1 or WS-SVC-NAM-2 and the switch take place on an internal backplane bus. These SNMP packets are not visible on any network, nor any interface outside of the switch. It is a completely secure out-of-band channel inside the switch.

For other platforms, such as Cisco 2200 Series appliances, you can type in any IP address and use it as the managed device. In this case, the managed device may only want to use SNMPv3 since it is more secure.

Note For a WAAS appliance, SNMPv3 is not required. It is contained within the same chassis, and the NAM Traffic Analyzer uses an internal communications channel, so security is not an issue and the SNMPv3 option is not needed.

User Guide for the Cisco Network Analysis Module (NAM) Traffic Analyzer, 5.0

OL-22617-01 5-3