Template:FAQ:General 15b

There are two main methods of using SNMP for monitoring. One is to regularly query the SNMP agent for information of interest, graphing these values and/or saving them for later analysis. That's not really the focus of the Net-SNMP project - our tools are more low-level, single-shot commands. For this sort of high-level management, you're really looking at a management console application (such as Nagios or OpenNMS), or a data logging application (such as RRDtool, or one of its front-ends - MRTG, Cacti, etc).

The other approach is to configure the SNMP agent to monitor the relevant information itself, and issue an alert when the values pass suitable limits. See the section ACTIVE MONITORING in the snmpd.conf(5) man page for details.

Note that this entry makes no reference as to what you should monitor, or what values might be significant. That's because it is impossible to provide a universal answer to these questions. The information to monitor, and the normal operating values will ultimately depend on your local environment. SNMP is simply a tool to help you manage your systems - it isn't a magic panacea - you still have to think for yourself!