SNMP Custom Monitor is an advanced type of IPHost’s monitors. SNMP, or Simple Network Management Protocol, is a protocol used in many (mostly Unix-type) systems to request and/or modify parameters of a device supporting the protocol. The list includes network devices of many types.
SNMP uses a hierarchy of OIDs (object identifiers) assigned and registered (see IANA OID registry); OIDs are represented as dot-separated sequences of integers (or as ASN.1, Abstract Syntax Notation One – text, more human readable). Note: in the latter case there are possibilities that the same ASN.1 representation can in different contexts map to different OID, depending on the MIB (Management Information Base) used. There are three versions of SNMP protocols; they mostly differ in security model. All other conditions being equal, either v3 (with user authentication) or v2c (using read-only communities) should be used; v1 should be avoided if the target device supports higher versions. SNMP can be set up to store data for every required parameters of the target system; this makes it an universal tool suitable for almost any type of monitoring. However, manual monitoring is rather a complex task. IPHost Network Monitor offers an efficient solution for such tasks.
Although SNMP Monitors are advanced monitors, they are easy to set up. Add a new monitor, select host and on the 3rd page of the New Monitor wizard click on Select button to the right of OID field. SNMP browser opens; load the required MIBs when necessary and select what OID to monitor. Setup other parameters. Counter type may be one of ‘Current value’ (check the current value) and ‘Value Change’ (compare this value and the value from previous poll). Specify port and select credentials from the drop-down list in Credentials section (the credentials in this case contain protocol version and either community name or username/password/encryption key to authenticate). Adjust alerting and performance parameters on Alerting and State conditions tabs respectively. This simple sequence concludes the setup.
SNMP Custom Monitor can be used to retrieve any information. Even if the default OIDs do not provide required information, it is possible to set up SNMP so that the output of a program or script be returned as the value requested. This allows to monitor everything that can be tested with a program. Common cases are: check traffic consumption, check device uptime, test system resources information; test for certain processes being run, test whether a given user is logged on and so forth.
SNMP Custom Monitor can be a ‘heavy’ type of monitor, depending on OID and target device. Wherever possible lighter monitors should be used, either in conjunction with SNMP Custom Monitor, or as its dependencies (e.g., TCP monitor).
Description of other features:
| Monitoring Features | Here you can find the list of monitor types supported in IPHost Network Monitor and brief description of their parameters. |
| Application Templates | Here you can find the list of application templates supported in IPHost Network Monitor and their short description. |
| Network Discovery | Helps you to create a basis of your monitoring configuration and automates the task of detection network hosts and network services. |
| Alerting Features | Here you can find the list of alert types (ways of reaction to the problems happened during monitoring) available in IPHost Network Monitor, and their brief description. |
| Reporting Features | Here you can find the list of report types available in IPHost Network Monitor with brief descriptions. |
| IPHost Network Monitor interfaces and structure |
Here you can find an overview of IPHost Network Monitor components, Windows and web interfaces. |
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