ZyXEL Communications Plumbing Product metrogigabit switch User Manual

Chapter 39 Access Control

MGS3700-12C User’s Guide

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an application layer protocol 
used to manage and monitor TCP/IP-based devices. SNMP is used to exchange 
management information between the network management system (NMS) and a 
network element (NE). A manager station can manage and monitor the Switch 
through the network via SNMP version one (SNMPv1), SNMP version 2c or SNMP 
version 3. The next figure illustrates an SNMP management operation. SNMP is 
only available if TCP/IP is configured.

Figure 191   SNMP Management Model 

An SNMP managed network consists of two main components: agents and a 
manager. 

An agent is a management software module that resides in a managed switch (the 
Switch). An agent translates the local management information from the managed 
switch 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 switch. Examples of variables include 
number of packets received, node port status and so on. 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.