ZyXEL Communications ES-1528 Manuel D’Utilisation

ES-1528 User’s Guide

This chapter describes how to user Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to manage 
and monitor the switch.

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 57   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 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.