SNMP informs (assured-delivery traps?)
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I have a program that uses Microsoft's WinSNMP to send traps to a configured receiver when certain error conditions occur. This program was pretty much cobbled together using sealing wax and duct tape, as I know very little about SNMP in practice, but it works well. Now someone told me that they would prefer to use SNMP informs instead of traps because the latter, based on UDP, have no assured delivery, whereas the former have an aknowledgement/retry/timeout mechanism to "guarantee" delivery. So I googled on SNMP inform till the cows came home and found a few places that describe what SNMP informs are in a general sense but none that shows exactly how to accomplish it, particularly with WinSNMP. My impression is as described below, and my question to anyone who knows better is whether my impression is correct. If not, can you please point me to how I can accomplish this with WinSNMP? My impression is that SNMP informs basically consist of the sender sending the trap just as it always did, but saving a copy of the message sent until it receives the acknowledgement, or until the sender, independently of WinSNMP, determines that it time to resend. It appears to me that the acknowledgement is not something handled in WinSNMP at all, but is just any kind of message that the sender of the trap and the receiver mutually agree on that the receiver sends back to the sender to tell him that the trap was received. In other words, it appears to me that SNMP inform is not something supported by WinSNMP as distinct from a trap, but is nothing more than a mutually agreed upon conversation between trap sender and receiver. Is this true? :confused: Thanks for any information.
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I have a program that uses Microsoft's WinSNMP to send traps to a configured receiver when certain error conditions occur. This program was pretty much cobbled together using sealing wax and duct tape, as I know very little about SNMP in practice, but it works well. Now someone told me that they would prefer to use SNMP informs instead of traps because the latter, based on UDP, have no assured delivery, whereas the former have an aknowledgement/retry/timeout mechanism to "guarantee" delivery. So I googled on SNMP inform till the cows came home and found a few places that describe what SNMP informs are in a general sense but none that shows exactly how to accomplish it, particularly with WinSNMP. My impression is as described below, and my question to anyone who knows better is whether my impression is correct. If not, can you please point me to how I can accomplish this with WinSNMP? My impression is that SNMP informs basically consist of the sender sending the trap just as it always did, but saving a copy of the message sent until it receives the acknowledgement, or until the sender, independently of WinSNMP, determines that it time to resend. It appears to me that the acknowledgement is not something handled in WinSNMP at all, but is just any kind of message that the sender of the trap and the receiver mutually agree on that the receiver sends back to the sender to tell him that the trap was received. In other words, it appears to me that SNMP inform is not something supported by WinSNMP as distinct from a trap, but is nothing more than a mutually agreed upon conversation between trap sender and receiver. Is this true? :confused: Thanks for any information.
BambooMoon wrote:
Now someone told me that they would prefer to use SNMP informs instead of traps because the latter, based on UDP, have no assured delivery, whereas the former have an aknowledgement/retry/timeout mechanism to "guarantee" delivery.
Instead of UDP (unreliable delivery), I think you'll want to use TCP (reliable delivery).
"Take only what you need and leave the land as you found it." - Native American Proverb
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BambooMoon wrote:
Now someone told me that they would prefer to use SNMP informs instead of traps because the latter, based on UDP, have no assured delivery, whereas the former have an aknowledgement/retry/timeout mechanism to "guarantee" delivery.
Instead of UDP (unreliable delivery), I think you'll want to use TCP (reliable delivery).
"Take only what you need and leave the land as you found it." - Native American Proverb
SNMP is built on top of UDP, not TCP. I'm not looking for an alternative to SNMP. I'm looking for information on how to use SNMP informs. Thanks anyway.
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SNMP is built on top of UDP, not TCP. I'm not looking for an alternative to SNMP. I'm looking for information on how to use SNMP informs. Thanks anyway.
BambooMoon wrote:
SNMP is built on top of UDP, not TCP. I'm not looking for an alternative to SNMP.
Fair enough.
BambooMoon wrote:
I'm looking for information on how to use SNMP informs.
I've not ever come across that term. Does this help?
"Take only what you need and leave the land as you found it." - Native American Proverb
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BambooMoon wrote:
SNMP is built on top of UDP, not TCP. I'm not looking for an alternative to SNMP.
Fair enough.
BambooMoon wrote:
I'm looking for information on how to use SNMP informs.
I've not ever come across that term. Does this help?
"Take only what you need and leave the land as you found it." - Native American Proverb
Thanks for the web site, but unfortunately it uses some product other than Microsoft's WinSNMP. It is interesting in that it claims that to use informs, you just set a flag in the outgoing trap that says it is an inform (and then the document glosses over what it means by handling the acknowledgement). But it doesn't say who decides what goes in the acknowledgement, how the sender of the trap knows that a given acknowledgement is for a certain trap (since it may have sent hundreds of traps all awaiting acknowledgement) or anything else. Thanks, but I need WinSNMP info.