Essential SNMP, Second Edition
F.1. SNMP Agents
As we explained in Chapter 1, the agent is the software that controls all the SNMP communication to and from any SNMP-compatible device. In some devices, such as Cisco routers, the agent software is built into the device itself and requires no installation. On other platforms, you may have to install the agent as an additional software package. Before you can look at what types of agents you need, you must research what types of devices you have on your network and what types of information you would like to receive from each. Some agents are very basic and return only a limited amount of information, and others can return a wealth of information. To start, determine whether you need to receive information from servers (Unix, Windows, etc.) or network devices (routers, switches, etc.). Generally, out-of-the-box network-type devices provide more information than their server counterparts. On the other hand, network devices do not extend very easily, if at all, in part because network hardware usually doesn't have a disk-based operating environment.[*] This keeps the end user from accessing the agent to make modifications or extend it. Table F-1 lists some SNMP agents . [*] See Chapter 11 for a discussion of extensible agents.
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