Re: Net-SNMP basic questions

Hi Dave,
      Thanks for your prompt response and informative details. Just a
few questions more -

(1) Using mib2c utility of Net-SNMP , when I convert my MIB into a C
program which I would certainly compile and load it in my agent. Then
will it be able to respond to any custom parameter values ? Will I need
to modify this auto-generated C to populate needed information ?

Here my main concern is how do the values for custom fields get set. I
am planning to write a net-snmp module which would query and collect
data from my application and provide monitoring facility for my
application.

Thanks,
Sagar.


On Wed, 2006-11-22 at 10:48 +0000, Dave Shield wrote:
> On 22/11/06, Sagar Shukla <[email protected]> wrote:
> > (1) when we do getRequest, from where the information is pulled ?
> >      Is this from the MIBs ?
> 
> No.
> The MIB is best thought of as a "specification document".
> It describes what information is potentially available - how to refer
> to it, and how to interpret the results.   But it does not automatically
> provide the data itself.   That's the role of the agent.
> 
> > (3) What is the role of snmp-agent and snmp-server and snmp-client ?
> 
> "snmp agent" and "snmp server" are basically synonymous.
> This is the program that provides the requested information.
> But where does it get that information from?
>    Typically, this will be retrieved from some other part of the system.
> Perhaps pulled out of the operating system kernel, or by interrogating
> another application.   (And the same information may well be retrieved
> in different ways on different operating systems).
> 
>    The agent is a middle-man, who doesn't really know anything itself,
> but knows who to ask for any particular request. Think of this as a
> librarian - they typically won't know the answer to your question, but
> they know how to find it.
> 
> The snmp client is the tool that talks to the agent, to ask the question.
> 
> > (2) If this information is pulled from the MIBs then do we need to
> > develop a separate application/script to populate the MIBs with correct
> > values ?
> 
> No - that's not how MIBs work.  See above.
> 
> 
> > (4) For every MIB, is it necessary to have a loadable module ? Can we
> > just write few scripts to populate a MIB without having a loadable
> > module ?
> 
> It's necessary to have some form of code, that can respond to requests
> for information from that MIB.  This code can be a loadable module, it can
> be embedded within the agent itself, it can be a "subagent" (embedded
> within another application", it can be an external script.
>    There are various ways of implementing a MIB - but it all comes back to
> the same bottom line - there needs to be *some* code somewhere, that
> knows how to provide these particular values.
> 
>    So it's not really accurate to talk about "populating" a MIB.   Think of
> the MIB as a design document, which needs to be "implemented".
> 
> 
> Dave
> 
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