SNMP Agent

Configuring SNMP Agent
Accessing the Server MIB
Monitoring SNMP elements via Web
Monitoring SNMP elements via CLI/API
Sending SNMP Traps

The CommuniGate Pro Server internal information can be accessed via the built-in SNMP server ("agent").

The SNMP agent receives requests from SNMP clients ("managers") and either returns the information about internal states, counters, problems, or modifies the internal settings by a client request.

The Setting up MRTG for CommuniGate Pro document should help you configure the popular freeware SNMP manager.

By default, the CommuniGate Pro SNMP agent is not activated.

Configuring SNMP Agent

To configure the SNMP agent, use the WebAdmin Interface. Open the Obscure page in the Settings section and find the SNMP Agent panel:

Log

Use this setting to specify what kind of information the SNMP agent should put in the Server Log. Usually you should use the Major or Problems (non-fatal errors) levels. But when you experience problems with the SNMP agent, you may want to set the Log Level setting to Low-Level or All Info: in this case protocol-level or link-level details will be recorded in the System Log as well.

The SNMP agent records in the System Log are marked with the SNMP tag. Please note that SNMP is a binary protocol, so all low-level data is presented in the hexadecimal form.

listener

Use this link to open the UDP Listener page and specify the port number and local network address for the SNMP agent, and access restrictions for that port. When the port number is set to 0, the SNMP agent is disabled.
By default SNMP Manager programs send requests to the UDP port 161.
If your server computer is already running some other SNMP agent, you may want to specify a non-standard port number here and reconfigure your SNMP Manager software to use that port number.

Password

Use this setting to specify the SNMP "community name". The CommuniGate Pro SNMP agent accepts only those SNMP requests that contain the proper "community name" data.

Trap Password

This setting specifies an alternative SNMP "community name". The CommuniGate Pro SNMP agent accepts SNMP requests containing this "community name", and remembers the network (IP) addresses those requests have come from. The module then can send SNMP Traps to all remembered addresses.

Accessing the Server MIB

The MIB (Management Information Base) is a text file describing the internal objects the SNMP agent can display, monitor, and/or modify. You need the CommuniGate Pro MIB file to properly configure the SNMP client ("manager") you want to use for server monitoring.

Different versions of the CommuniGate Pro software support different sets of internal objects, and CommuniGatePro Server generates its MIB by a user request, presenting the most current information.

To access the CommuniGate Pro MIB file, use the WebAdmin interface to access the CGatePro-MIB.txt file:
http://yourservername:8010/CGatePro-MIB.txt

Save this file to a monitoring workstation disk and use it to configure your SNMP manager software.

Monitoring SNMP elements via Web

The SNMP module allows a Server Administrator to monitor the server internal parameters via Web. Open the SNMP page in the Monitors section of the Web Admin Interface. You need to have the Can Monitor Server Server Access Right to open this page.

The page contains the list of the SNMP (MIB) elements and their current values. Each element name is a link. Click the element link to open the Element Monitor page.

You can use the Filter field and the Display button to filter SNMP elements by name.

The Element Monitor page contains a histogram allowing you to monitor how the element value changes over time:

Current:153/sec

300

0

16:46:13 16:50:21

There are time stamps at the bottom of the histogram (the time stamp on the right is the latest sampling time). On the right side of the histogram the graphic scale is indicated.

The histogram traces the current value of the INTEGER-type elements. For the COUNTER-type elements, the histogram traces the difference between the last two sample values, divided by the number of seconds passed between samples.

The WebAdmin Preferences can be used to change the parameters of the SNMP Web Monitor system.

Monitoring SNMP elements via CLI/API

The CLI/API GetSNMPElement command allows a Server Administrator to monitor the server internal parameters via the CLI/API interface and via various CLI "wrappers".

Sending SNMP Traps

The SNMP module can send Traps on certain Events. See the Events section of the manual for more details. Traps can be sent to the network addresses explicitly specified in the Event Handler settings and/or to all remembered network addresses - addresses from which SNMP requests with the "Trap Password" community name have been received.