Enterasys SNMP v3 Configuration

In this article, after giving you a brief introduction about SNMP protocol in network switches, we will start SNMP configuration in Enterasys network switches.

SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol)

It is a network management protocol known as Simple Network Management Protocol in Turkish. Although it varies according to brands and models, this protocol is at least publicly available on every network switch and even on all SNMP supported network devices.

Since we do not recommend using Public, we will write SNMP configuration with a different procedure. SNMP has 3 different versions in total, v1, v2 and v3. The use of v1 and v2 is considered a security vulnerability. For this reason, we will mostly use SNMP version 3 in our article.

In general, SNMP protocol is the communication messages that all devices in thedevice-tree in the network communicate among themselves with their MIB codes. These messages are broadcast over the SNMP protocol separately from the network data packets.

Therefore, they are not on the same platform with TCP, UDP or other data packets. When you listen to your network with WireShark network monitor, you can capture Enterasys SNMP packets within 1-2 minutes. These packets consist of MIB codes as content.

In other words, numbers that seem meaningless can actually be analyzed according to the MIB index determined according to the brand and model of the switch you are using. As can be seen in the picture above, Switch, Router, Firewall, Modem, Printer on the network, Server and Storage Network Modules and all Ethernet interfaces can broadcast and receive SNMP packets. These SNMP packets can be filtered and archived with Network Management-Monitoring type software.

SNMP V3 Configuration

Thus, all devices connected to the network can be monitored, traffic and problem detection can be done. Configuration backup, logging, firmware update operations of devices and batch configuration scripts can be run.

Examples are Procurve Manager and Oneview for HP, Cisco Net Management for Cisco, Netsight & OneView for Enterasys. These applications interpret the MIB codes generated in the SNMP protocol and convert them into meaningful and statistical data. In this article, we will prepare the network switches to be added to the Netsight software used for Extreme Networks.

Enabling SNMP 3 Protocol on Edge Switches

In 800 Series Enterasys Switches, Enterasys SNMP v3 can be set by entering the necessary parameters as shown in the pictures below on the Web Managament screen.

As shown in the picture, an SNMP authorization group is created on the Managment>SNMP Settings> SNMP Group Table Settings page of the 800 series switch. Here you can specify the group name as you wish, but make sure to write“CommunityView” in the View name boxes. Finally, select SNMPv3 and Security Level as AuthPriv and then Apply.

At this stage, we will define a user for the SNMP v3 authorization group we just defined. It is applied by typing as in the picture above.

SNMP Commands from Console on Enterasys Switches

800 Series Switches can be defined as follows via Consol Management:

create snmp community System view CommunityView read_only

create snmp group group123 v3 auth_priv read_view CommunityView
write_view CommunityView notify_view CommunityView

create snmp user user123 group123 encrypted by_password auth md5
12345678 priv des 12345678

That’s all we need to do for SNMP on the Switch. After that, we will need to define Credential in Netsight application and assign these Credentials to Switches. We will not touch on Netsight Credential definition for now. However, we will address this issue in our next article. Let’s write an SNMP V3 configuration on Extreme Network Switches.

Extreme Networks (for S,A,B,C series) SNMP v3 Configuration:

set snmp access snmpv3_group security-model usm exact read all write all notify all

set snmp group snmpv3_group user snmpv3_user security-model usm nonvolatile
New Password: **********
Again New Password: **********

set snmp user snmpv3_user authentication md5
New Password: **********
Again New Password: **********

In the next article, we will make Authorization Credential for Netsight Network Manager in the light of this data. Click here to reach the article>>