Essay on SNMP Protocol in Management

 SNMP or Simple Network Management Protocol is actually a protocol of application-layer that is defined by the IAB (Internet Architecture Board) for exchanging information regarding management between various network devices. It is one of the most broadly accepted protocols for monitoring and managing elements of network. Many network elements at a professional-grade seem to come with a bundled agent of SNMP. These agents require configuration and activation for communicating with the NMS or Network Management System. Recently, SNMP has become quite popular in some specific areas of management. In order to understand why it has been so, it is important to realize the most important functions of an SNMP agent.

            An SNMP agent is widely used in the area of network management because it collects and accumulates management information regarding its own local environment, retrieves and stores this information just as it is defined in the MIB, signals different events to the Manager, and also acts as a proxy for some network nodes which cannot be managed by an SNMP. An SNMP protocol is used in all the management areas where monitoring of devices and equipment that constitute a network is required. System and network administrators use it for gathering operational statistics like evaluating the bandwidth traffic of a network, usage of the CPU, or available space of hard drive along with different parameters of setting system. Some basic SNMP controlled technologies include Network Device Monitor and SolarWinds Network Device Manager. The former one is used for monitoring real-time performance along with the availability statistics for almost any device present in the network and compiling custom MIBs for virtually monitoring every type of statistic on a network device that is SNMP-enabled. The latter one is also widely used for due to its ease of use and it has almost the same functions as the former one. There are some other complex systems as well that are capable of managing the complete network. Their other functions include sending text alerts as a system fails, performing inventory, and generating reports (Teltumde, Meshram and Bansod).

            It wouldn’t be wrong to say that an SNMP agent is confined to only the area of network management because its main functions include monitoring and managing devices which are used in a network. An organization has various other areas of management and it relies on different technologies other than the manpower. For instance, data and information are more than just a little important for a company because they basically predict the future on the basis of information that they collect. In order to keep the track of information, manage it, clean it, and modify it, a DBMS or Database Management System is used and the prime example is Microsoft Access (Villars, Olofson and Eastwood).

References of SNMP Protocol in Management

Teltumde, Prakash S., B. B. Meshram and T. M. Bansod. "Management of networks using SNMP." IJEIR 1.2 (2012): 189-192.

Villars, Richard L., Carl W. Olofson and Matthew Eastwood. "Big data: What it is and why you should care." White Paper, IDC 14 (2011): 1-14.