Netscape CONSOLE 6.0 - MANAGING SERVERS Manual page 210

SNMP Basics
The machine used to monitor and configure managed devices is called a network
management station. A network management station is usually a powerful
workstation running network management applications which graphically show
information about managed devices. For example, a network management
application might show which servers in your enterprise are running and which
are shut down, or the application might report the number and type of error
messages received.
Netscape servers transmit data to a network management station using two types
of agents: SNMP subagents and SNMP master agents. An SNMP subagent gathers
information and sends it to an SNMP master agent. The SNMP master agent
transfers the data to the network management station. Every Netscape server has
an SNMP subagent except for Netscape Administration Server, which either has a
master agent (on UNIX) or no agent (on Windows NT).
A single machine can host multiple subagents, but a machine can only have one
master agent. For example, if you have one instance each of Enterprise Server,
Directory Server, and Messaging Server installed on one host, each will have its
own subagent. All three subagents will report to the same master agent. This
master agent is located on the same host machine as the subagents. Figure 11-1
illustrates this example.
Figure 11-1
210 Managing Servers with Netscape Console • December 2001
Interaction Between a Network Management Station and a Host Computer