Essential SNMP, 2nd Edition

Appendix E. SNMP Support for Perl

This appendix summarizes two SNMP Perl modules. The first is Mike Mitchell's SNMP_util module, which we have used in most of our Perl scripts throughout this book. This module is distributed with Simon Leinen's SNMP Perl module; Mike's module, together with Simon's, can make SNMP programming a snap. You can get these modules from http://www.switch.ch/misc/leinen/snmp/perl or http://www.cpan.org.

The second module is the one that comes with Net-SNMP. It allows you to write SNMPv1, SNMPv2, and SNMPv3 Perl scripts since it basically wraps the Net-SNMP C libraries. It comes with the Net-SNMP distribution at http://www.net-snmp.org.

For those of you who wish to review the Perl language, you can find an excellent introduction to the language at http://search.cpan.org/~rgarcia/perl-5.9.2/pod/perlintro.pod.

SNMP_Util

Perl scripts need two use statements to take advantage of the SNMP Perl module:

    use BER;
    use SNMP_Session;

The BER and SNMP_Session modules make up the core of Simon's package. The SNMP_util module discussed in this appendix makes using this package a little easier. It requires only one use statement:

    use SNMP_util;

Mike's package uses the other two modules, so it's not necessary to include all three in your scripts.

MIB Management Routines

The following sections describe a set of routines for working with MIBs.

snmpmapOID()

The MIB objects in RFC 1213 (MIB-II) and RFC 2955 (Frame Relay) are preloaded by the routines in this package. This means that ...