Snmp Management Stations; Message Delivery - Nortel 5399 User Manual

Chapter 2 Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Book A

SNMP Management Stations

An SNMP Network Management Station is a dedicated or shared network
device that is the client in the client-server model. The management
station can run an application specifically written for the 5399 RAC (or
Remote Annexes) and its MIBs (e.g., Annex Manager), or a generic
application that communicates with other non-Bay Networks devices
(e.g. SunNet Manager, , HP/OpenView, NetView for AIX ). The
generic application must include the definitions of the MIBs supported
by the 5399 RAC.
The SNMP agent processes get, set, get-next commands, returns a
response indicating the command's success or failure, and returns the
requested data for the get and get-next commands (SNMP Commands on
page A-61 describes these commands in greater detail).

Message Delivery

SNMP messages are encapsulated in UDP datagrams. The UDP layer
does not guarantee delivery. The SNMP management station uses a
time-out and retry mechanism to guarantee the SNMP command's
delivery. If a time-out occurs, the SNMP management station does not
know if the agent did not receive the command or if the agent's response
was lost.
The SNMP agent can generate an unsolicited trap command and send it
to one or more network addresses. Receivers of traps, i.e., trap hosts, do
not respond to the SNMP agent (for more details, see Defining Trap Hosts
and Traps on page A-59).
Model 5399 Remote Access Concentrator Network Administrator's Guide for UNIX
A-56