Cisco Routers for the Desperate, 2nd Edition

SNMP

The most common network management glue is the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). Many different products and tools use SNMP to gather and accumulate network and device performance information. All of these include support for Cisco routers.

SNMP can be used in both read-only and read-write modes. Using read-write SNMP requires that your router be tightly secured. Because your router is usually the border device on your network, sitting outside your firewall, this is difficult. Read-only access is a much safer idea. (You can also use an access list to prevent random people from being able to query your router; check Cisco's website for details.)

An SNMP-enabled device uses a community name to provide basic security. This is much like ...