Net-SNMP Tutorial -- demons

Net-SNMP provides two server applications, or demons (aka daemons). These servers usually run in the background on a machine, listening for incoming packets and, if necessary, responding to them.

Net-SNMP Agent: snmpd

The first daemon is snmpd, which is a SNMP agent. snmpd listens for SNMP requests. A typical SNMP agent allows a client to query information about the device running the SNMP agent. Some devices also allow configuration to be set via SNMP.

Depending on configuration, snmpd may also act as an AgentX or SMUX master agent. If your situation warrants it, snmpd can even act as a client to an AgentX master agent.

The Net-SNMP agent can be built to monitor things such as

• network traffic
• disk space
• disk IO
• CPU usage
• ... and more

(Note: not all statistic are available on all platforms)

Net-SNMP Trap Receiver: snmptrapd

The second daemon is snmptrapd, which is a SNMP notification receiver. snmptrapd listens for incoming SNMP notifications (traps and informs). When a notification is received, snmptrapd can be configured to

• log the notification
• forward the notification to another notification receiver
• send an email message
• run a script
• any combination of the above

Next: Configuring snmpd | Skip to: Configuring snmptrapd | Back to Top

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rstory at freesnmp dot com