ZyXEL Communications 2 Plus User Manual

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Chapter 21 Remote Management
ZyWALL 2 Plus User’s Guide
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21.14  SNMP   
Simple Network Management Protocol is a protocol used for exchanging management 
information between network devices. SNMP is a member of the TCP/IP protocol suite. Your 
ZyWALL supports SNMP agent functionality, which allows a manager station to manage and 
monitor the ZyWALL through the network. The ZyWALL supports SNMP version one 
(SNMPv1). The next figure illustrates an SNMP management operation. 
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SNMP is only available if TCP/IP is configured.
Figure 261   SNMP Management Model
An SNMP managed network consists of two main types of component: agents and a manager. 
An agent is a management software module that resides in a managed device (the ZyWALL). 
An agent translates the local management information from the managed device into a form 
compatible with SNMP. The manager is the console through which network administrators 
perform network management functions. It executes applications that control and monitor 
managed devices. 
The managed devices contain object variables/managed objects that define each piece of 
information to be collected about a device. Examples of variables include such as number of 
packets received, node port status etc. A Management Information Base (MIB) is a collection 
of managed objects. SNMP allows a manager and agents to communicate for the purpose of 
accessing these objects.