SNMP

When developing an SNMP suite, we examined the various products on the market and then opted for the Net-SNMP (formerly the UC Davis, or UCD-SNMP) package. By and large we found this product to have a number of advantages over competing proprietary versions of SNMP. While you will certainly find SNMP offerings in the proprietary world that are very good (Elmic Systems) the question always boils down to 'how much bang for your buck'.

For all of our SNMP implementations, Navosha has found Net-SNMP to be more than adequate.

Net-SNMP is developed and maintained by Wes Hardaker and his associates at Sourceforge. They are currently on Version 5.2. For more information on the Net-SNMP package, the following link is to The Net-SNMP Home Page.

Here is a brief list of the advantages we have found when using Net-SNMP:

• ROBUSTNESS - Net-SNMP has evolved over the years with an active group involved in eliminating bugs and adding new features.
• POPULARITY - In part due to its non-proprietary beginnings, Net-SNMP has attracted and kept a large following of programmers. It has an active bug tracking list, as well as a responsive mailing group. Turnaround time on the mailing group is usually less than one day.
• COST - Most companies develop SNMP packages on their communications equipment as an afterthought. Unless your whole business is SNMP development, then you probably place SNMP on your product during the productization phase, after it has been developed. If so, then Net-SNMP should be considered. Besides being simple to use, it comes with no site licensing or odious royalty scheme. You must simply make note of its copyright in your product documentation.
• INSTALL & CONFIGURATION - Net-SNMP is designed to run under a number of environments. Installation is fairly straightforward. Reconfiguring the Net-SNMP agent is also fairly easy, and like many SNMP agents out there, it can simultaneously handle v1, v2c and v3 traffic (although v1 has been obsolesced).