# Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for the Net-SNMP package

FAQ Maintainer: Dave Shield
Email: net-snmp-coders@list.sourceforge.net

## Table of Contents

- GENERAL
  - What is it?
  - Where can I get it?
  - What documentation is available?
  - Are there binaries available?
  - What's the difference between UCD-SNMP and Net-SNMP?
  - What operating systems does it run on?
  - What happens if mine isn't listed?
  - Does it run on Windows?
  - How do I find out about new releases?
  - How can I find out what other people are doing?
  - How do I submit a patch or bug report?
  - Can I reuse the code in my commercial application?
  - What's the difference between SNMPv1, SNMPv2 and SNMPv3?
  - What are all these different SNMPv2's anyway?
  - Which versions of SNMP are supported in this package?
  - Can I use SNMPv1 requests with an SNMPv2 MIB (or vice versa)?
  - Where can I find more information about network management?
  - Is ucd-snmp thread safe?
- APPLICATIONS
  - How do I add a MIB?
  - How do I add a MIB to the tools?
  - Why can't I see anything from the agent?
  - Why can't I see values in the <INSERT ENTERPRISE HERE> tree?
  - Requests always seem to timeout, and don't give me anything back. Why?
  - I can see the system group, but nothing else. Why?
  - The agent worked for a while, then stopped responding. Why?
  - Requesting an object fails with "Unknown Object Identifier" Why?
  - Why do I get "noSuchName" when asking for "sysUpTime" (or similar)?
  - Why do I sometimes get "End of MIB" when walking a tree, and sometimes not?
  - I cannot set any variables in the MIB.
  - Variables seem to disappear when I try to set them. Why?
  - I still can't change sysLocation, though the access settings allow it. Why not?
  - I get an error when trying to set a negative value - why?
  - I get an error when trying to get a string-indexed table value - why?
  - How do I send traps and notifications?
  - How do I handle traps and notifications?
  - My traphandler script doesn't work when run like this - why not?
  - The ucdShutdown trap OID received by my manager is wrong. Why?
  - Why does snmptrapd complain about AgentX?
  - How do I use SNMPv3?
  - How big can an SNMP request (or reply) be?
  - How can I monitor my systems (disk, memory, etc)?
  - Applications complain about entries in your example 'snmp.conf' file. Why?
  - OK, what should I put in snmp.conf?
- PERL
  - Where can I get the perl SNMP package?
  - How do I install the Perl SNMP modules?
  - But compiling this fails! Why?
  - Compiling the perl module works OK, but 'make test' fails. Why?
  - The perl 'make test' fails on the OID tests. Is it safe to continue?
  - I'm trying to use mib2c (or tkmib) and it can't locate SNMP.pm?
  - I'm trying to use mib2c (or tkmib) and it can't load SNMP.so?
  - I'm trying to use tkmib and it can't locate Tk.pm?
  - I've got a problem with the Net-SNMP module. Can you help?
- MIBS
  - Where can I find a MIB compiler?
  - I can't load any of the mib files, and they seem to be missing the first two characters of the filename. What's happening?
  - Why aren't my mib files being read in?
  - I'm getting answers, but they're all numbers. Why?
  - What does "Cannot find module (XXX-MIB)" mean?
  - What about "unlinked OID"?
  - The parser doesn't handle comments properly. Why not?
  - How do I replace MIB values with new ones?
  - How can I get more information about these MIB file problems?
  - What's this about "too many imported symbols"?
- AGENT
  - What MIBs are supported?
  - What protocols are supported?
  - How do I configure the agent?
  - How do I add a MIB to the agent?
  - What's the difference between 'exec', 'sh' and 'pass'?
  - What's the difference between AgentX, SMUX and proxied SNMP?
  - What about 'dlmod' - what's that about?
  - Which should I use?
  - Can I use AgentX when running under Windows?
  - How can I run AgentX with a different socket address?
  - How can I combine two copies of the 'mib2' tree from separate subagents?
  - What traps are sent by the agent?
  - Where are these traps sent to?
  - How can I send a particular trap to selected destinations?
  - Why does calling 'send_v2trap' generate an SNMPv1 trap (or vice versa)?
  - When I run the agent it runs and then quits without staying around. Why?
  - After a while the agent stops responding, and starts eating CPU time. Why?
  - How can I stop other people getting at my agent?
  - How can I listen on just one particular interface?
  - How do I configure access control?
  - I don't understand the new access control stuff - what does it mean?
  - How do I configure SNMPv3 users?
  - The 'createUser' line disappears when I start the agent. Why?
  - What's the difference between /var/ucd-snmp and /usr/local/share/snmp?
  - My new agent is ignoring the old snmpd.conf file. Why?
  - Why am I getting "Connection refused"?
  - I'm getting errors about "bad security model" - why?
  - I'm getting errors about "bad prefix match parameter" - why?
  - Why can't I see values in the UCDavis 'extensible' or 'disk' trees?
  - Why can't I see values in the UCDavis 'memory' or 'vmstat' tree?
  - What do the CPU statistics mean - is this the load average?
  - How do I get percentage CPU utilization using ssCpuRawIdle?
  - What about multi-processor systems?
  - The speed/type of my network interfaces is wrong - how can I fix it?
  - The interface statistics for my subinterfaces are all zero - why?
  - What does "klread: bad address" mean?
  - What does "nlist err: wombat not found" (or similar) mean?
  - How about "Can't open /dev/kmem"?
  - The agent is complaining about 'snmpd.conf'. Where is this?
  - The system uptime (sysUpTime) returned is wrong!
  - How can I reduce the memory footprint?
- COMPILING
  - How do I compile with 'cc' instead of 'gcc'?
  - But gcc doesn't compile it successfully on my new Solaris system. Why not?
  - On RedHat 8.0 or up I get "/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lelf". Why?
  - I'm getting an error "autoheader: not found" - what's wrong?
  - What about a failed dependency on 'libcrypto'? Where can I get that?
  - Why is the project workspace empty under Visual C++?
  - Why does 'make test' skip five tests?
  - Why does 'make test' complain about a pid file?
- CODING
  - How do I write C code to integrate with the agent?
  - How does the agent fetch the value of a variable from the system?
  - Mib2c complains about a missing "mib reference" - what does this mean?
  - Mib2c complains about not having a "valid OID" - what does this mean?
  - Why doesn't Mib2c like the MIB file I'm giving it?
  - Mib2c ignores my MIB and generates a pair of 'mib-2' code files. Why?
  - Mib2c complains about "configuration files". What's this for?
  - Which mib2c configuration file should I use?
  - How can I have Mib2c generate code for both scalars and tables?
  - Are there any examples, or documentation?
  - I've created a new module with 'mib2c' but it doesn't work. Why not?
  - Where should I put the files produced by 'mib2c'?
  - Mib2c only handles a single table in my MIB. How can I fix this?
  - How can I support a large table, with more than 256 column objects?
  - How can I get the agent to generate a trap (or inform)?
  - What if I'm using an AgentX sub-agent instead?
- MISC
  - Why are packets requesting the same information larger with UC-Davis SNMP?
  - What ASN.1 parser is used?
  - What is the Official Slogan of the net-snmp-coders list?

      GENERAL
      =======

      What is it?
      ----------

        - Various tools relating to the Simple Network Management Protocol
          including:

      	* An extensible agent
      	* An SNMP library
      	* tools to request or set information from SNMP agents
      	* tools to generate and handle SNMP traps
      	* a version of the unix 'netstat' command using SNMP
      	* a graphical Perl/Tk/SNMP based mib browser

          This package is originally based on the Carnegie Mellon University
          SNMP implementation (version 2.1.2.1), but has developed significantly
          since then.

      Where can I get it?
      ------------------

        Download:
          - http://www.net-snmp.org/download/
          - ftp://ftp.net-snmp.org/pub/sourceforge/net-snmp/
        MD5 Sums:
          - http://www.net-snmp.org/md5/
        Web page:
          - http://www.net-snmp.org/
        Sourceforge Project page:
          - http://www.net-snmp.org/project/
        Mirrors (note that sourceforge download servers are mirrored themselves):
          - US:          ftp://ftp.freesnmp.com/mirrors/net-snmp/
          - Bulgaria:    http://rtfm.uni-svishtov.bg/net-snmp/    (appears to be out of date)
          - Japan:       ftp://ftp.ayamura.org/pub/net-snmp/      (may only work inside Japan)
          - Germany:     ftp://ftp.mpg.goe.ni.schule.de/pub/internet/net-snmp/  (unknown host)
          - Greece:      ftp://ftp.ntua.gr/pub/net/snmp/net-snmp/

        The old ucd-snmp.ucdavis.edu web site and ftp server is now
        offline and should not be accessed any longer.

      What documentation is available?
      -------------------------------

      	This FAQ (!)
      	README and individual READMEs for various platforms
      	README.thread (discusses threading issues)
      	INSTALL
      	PORTING
      	EXAMPLE.conf
      	man pages for the individual tools, files and the API
      	A guide for extending the agent
      	Tutorials for both ucd-snmp v4 and net-snmp v5
                 at  http://www.net-snmp.org/tutorial/
                 and http://www.net-snmp.org/tutorial-5/ respectively

            Most of this documentation (plus archives of the mailing lists)
      	 is also available on our web page:

              	http://www.net-snmp.org/

      Are there binaries available?
      ----------------------------

        - There are binaries for some systems available in the binaries
          directory on the ftp site.

      What's the difference between UCD-SNMP and Net-SNMP?
      ---------------------------------------------------

        Not a great deal, really.
        Although the project originally started at UC Davis (hence the name),
        and it has always been based there, most of the contributors have had
        little or no connection with this institution.

          The move to SourceForge was intended to provide a more flexible
        environment for the project, and to distribute the administrative
        workload more evenly.  The change of name simply reflects this move,
        which was the last remaining link with UC Davis.

          The 4.2.x line is the last release line that uses the ucd-snmp name,
        and all releases under this banner will be bug-fixes only.  Release
        5.0 is the first version using the net-snmp name, and all new features
        and significant development will be released under this name.
          (Though the dividing line between a bug-fix and a new feature is
        something of a vague one, so some changes in the 4.2.x line may be
        relatively non-trivial!)

          Starting with the 5.0 release, we are also trying to review and
        rework the underlying code base to improve the readability and
        maintainability of the package.  The 5.0 changes have mostly
        concentrated on the agent architecture, though there have been some
        significant changes to the library as well.  Future releases may
        include further restructuring of the library.
          This process will probably result in some changes to the API,
        though we will attempt to retain some form of backwards
        compatibility as far as possible, and clearly mark anything that has
        changed.  The most significant change with the 5.0 release is a
        restructuring of the header file organisation - not least a change
        from <ucd-snmp/xxx.h> to <net-snmp/yyy.h>.

      What operating systems does it run on?
      -------------------------------------

        Both the applications and the agent have been reported as running
        (at least in part) on the following operating systems:

      	* HP-UX (10.20 to 9.01 and 11.0 -- see README.hpux11)
      	* Ultrix (4.5 to 4.2)
      	* Solaris SPARC/ULTRA (2.8 to 2.3), Intel (2.9) and SunOS (4.1.4 to 4.1.2)
      	* OSF (4.0, 3.2)
      	* NetBSD (1.5alpha to 1.0)
      	* FreeBSD (4.1 to 2.2)
      	* BSDi (4.0.1 to 2.1)
      	* Linux (kernels 2.4 to 1.3)
      	* AIX (4.1.5, 3.2.5)
      	* OpenBSD (2.8, 2.6)
      	* Irix (6.5 to 5.1)
      	* OS X (10.1.1 and 10.1.2)
      	* Dynix/PTX 4.4
      	* QNX 6.2.1A

        We have also been informed about a port to the Stratus VOS.
        See http://ftp.stratus.com/vos/network/network.html for details.

        See the next question but one for the status of Windows support.

        Certain systems (e.g. HP-UX 11, Irix?) fail to compile particular
        portions of the agent.  These can usually be persuaded to compile
        (at the loss of some functionality) by omitting the modules affected.
        See the next question for more details.

        Also note that the presence of a particular configuration in this
        list does not imply a perfect or complete implementation.  This is
        simply what various people have reported as seeming to work. (Or more
        frequently, the configurations people have reported problems with
        that we think we've fixed!)

      What happens if mine isn't listed?
      ---------------------------------

          It's probably worth trying to compile it anyway.  If your system
        is reasonably similar to another supported configuration, it may
        well compile with little or no difficulty.  The most likely source
        of problems will be MIB modules within the agent, as this tends to
        be where the most system-specific code is found.

          If only a few modules fail to compile, try removing them from
        the agent by running "configure --with-out-mib-module=xxx,yyy",
        and re-compiling.  If a large number of modules fail, then it
        might be easier to start from a relatively bare system, using
        "configure --enable-mini-agent --with-defaults".  Then if this
        minimal agent compiles and runs successfully, try adding the
        missing mibgroups using the configure option '--with-mib-module'.

          If configure fails with "invalid configuration" messages, or
        you get completely stuck, contact the coders list for advice.
        Similarly, if you manage to get this working on a new system,
        please let us know both details of the hardware you're using,
        and what versions of the operating system you've tried it on.
        The entry 'host' in the file 'config.status' will show this
        information.  Oh, and congratulations!

      Does it run on Windows?
      ----------------------

          The suite should compile and run on Win32 platforms, including
        the library, command-line tools and the basic agent framework.
        Note that the agent now includes support for the MIB-II module,
        but this requires Microsoft's Core Platform SDK.  Instructions
        for how to install this are given in README.win32.

          Some other MIB modules, including the UCD pass-through extensions,
        do not currently work under Windows.  Volunteers to assist in
        these missing modules are likely to welcomed with open arms :-)

          Further details of Windows support (currently Visual C++ and
        Cygnus cygwin32) is available in the file README.win32

      How do I find out about new releases?
      ------------------------------------

        There is a mailing list for these announcements

        	net-snmp-announce@lists.sourceforge.net

        To be added to (or removed from) this list, visit
        http://www.net-snmp.org/lists/net-snmp-announce/.  Or you can send a
        message to the address
        'net-snmp-announce-request@lists.sourceforge.net' with a subject
        line of 'subscribe' (or 'unsubscribe' as appropriate).

        Major code revisions may be announced more widely (e.g. on the
        SNMP mailing lists, or comp.protocols.snmp) but this list is the most
        reliable way to keep in touch with the status of this package.

        Patches to fix known problems are also made available via the web site:

              http://www.net-snmp.org/patches/

      How can I find out what other people are doing?
      ----------------------------------------------

        There is a general purpose discussion list

        	net-snmp-users@lists.sourceforge.net

        To be added to (or removed from) this list, visit
        http://www.net-snmp.org/lists/net-snmp-users.  Or you can send a
        message to the address 'net-snmp-users-request@lists.sourceforge.net'
        with a subject line of 'subscribe' (or 'unsubscribe' as appropriate).

        To find out what the developers are doing, and to help them out, please
        read the PORTING file enclosed with the package.

        There is also an net-snmp IRC channel set up on the freenode.net IRC
        chat servers (you can use irc.freenode.net to connect and/or see
        http://www.freenode.net/ for getting started with irc).  Multiple
        core developers hang out there on a regular basis.

      How do I submit a patch or bug report?
      -------------------------------------

        All bug reports should be submitted to the bug database through the
        interface found at http://www.net-snmp.org/bugs/.  Be
        sure to include the version of the package that you've been working
        with, the output of the command 'uname -a', the precise command that
        triggers the problem and a copy of the output it produces.

          All patches should be submitted to the patch manager at
        http://www.net-snmp.org/patches/.  If possible, submit a
        bug report describing the patch as well (referencing it by its patch
        number) since the patch manager doesn't contain a decent description
        field.

          Questions about using the package should be directed at the
        net-snmp-users@lists.sourceforge.net mailing list.  Note that this
        mailing list is relatively busy, and the people answering these
        questions are doing so out of the goodness of their hearts, and in
        addition to their main employment.  Please note the following:

           - use plain text mail, rather than HTML
           - don't resend questions more than once
                (even if no-one answered immediately)
           - include full details of exact commands and error messages
                ("I've tried everything, and it doesn't work" isn't much use!)
           - do *NOT* send messages to -users and -coders mailing lists
                (most developers read both anyway)
           - don't mail the developers privately - keep everything on the list

        Remember that this is basically an unsupported package.  Fundamentally
        it's Open Source, so you have the source code.  If you need something
        fixing badly enough, it's up to you to do the work.

          We can't promise to be able to solve all problems, but we'll
        certainly try and help.  But remember that this is basically an
        unsupported package.  It's Open Source, so if you need something
        fixing badly enough,  fundamentally it's up to you to do the work.

      Can I reuse the code in my commercial application?
      -------------------------------------------------

      The details of the COPYRIGHTs on the package can be found in the
      COPYING file.  You should have your lawyer read this file if you wish
      to use the code in your commercial application.  We will not summarize
      here what is in the file, as we're not lawyers and are unqualified to
      do so.

      What's the difference between SNMPv1, SNMPv2 and SNMPv3?
      -------------------------------------------------------

      What are all these different SNMPv2's anyway?
      --------------------------------------------

        A full description is probably beyond the scope of this FAQ.
        Very briefly, the original protocol and framework was described
        in RFCs 1155-1157, and is now known as SNMPv1.

          Practical experience showed up various problems and
        deficiencies with this, and a revised framework was developed to
        try and address these.  This was described in RFCs 1441-1452, and
        known as "SNMPv2 classic".
        The changes proposed include:

      	* new ways of defining information (MIB structure)
      		(SMI, Textual conventions, conformance statements)
      	* new protocol packet types and transport mappings
      	* new mechanisms for administration and security
      	* mechanisms for remote configuration

        Unfortunately, while many of these were generally accepted, there
        was some disagreement in these last two areas, security/admin
        and remote configuration.  This resulted in a number of variants and
        alternative proposals:

      	SNMPv2c		Contains the new protocol and MIB structure elements,
      			using the existing SNMPv1 administration structure.
      			This is the de-facto SNMPv2 standard (described in
      			RFCs 1901-1908), superseding SNMPv2 classic, and is
      			known as "Community-based SNMPv2" or simply "SNMPv2".

      	SNMPv2 usec	} Alternative proposals to address the
      	SNMPv2*		} limitations of SNMPv1 administration
      			} These are both super-sets of SNMPv2c

      	SNMP-NG		An attempt to reach agreement between
      			the proponents of usec and v2star.

        The formal successor to the SNMP-NG work has been termed SNMPv3.
        This has now been effectively finalised, and is described in RFCs
        2571-2575.  This is currently a Proposed Standard, but is likely
        to progress to full Standard in the relatively near future.

      Which versions of SNMP are supported in this package?
      ----------------------------------------------------

        This package currently supports the original SNMPv1, Community-based
        SNMPv2 (i.e. RFCs 1901-1908), and SNMPv3 (i.e. RFCs 2571-2575).
          The agent will respond to requests using any of these protocols,
        and all the tools take a command-line option to determine which
        version to use.

        Support for SNMPv2 classic (a.k.a. "SNMPv2 historic" - RFCs 1441-1452)
        was dropped with the 4.0 release of the UCD-snmp package.

      Can I use SNMPv1 requests with an SNMPv2 MIB (or vice versa)?
      ------------------------------------------------------------

          Yes.

          The version of the syntax used to define a MIB file
        is better referred to as SMIv1 or SMIv2, and is purely
        concerned with defining the characteristics of the
        various management objects.  This is (almost) completely
        unrelated to the versions of the protocol operations.
        So it is quite reasonable to use SNMPv1 requests on
        objects defined using SMIv2, or SNMPv2 (or SNMPv3)
        requests on objects defined using SMIv1.

          The one exception is objects of syntax Counter64,
        which are only accessible using SNMPv2 or higher.
        SNMPv1 requests will either treat such objects as an
        error, or skip over them completely.

      Where can I find more information about network management?
      ----------------------------------------------------------

        There are a number of sites with network management information on
        the World Wide Web. Three of the most useful are

            http://www.snmpweb.org/
            http://www.snmplink.org/
            http://www.mibdepot.com/

        There are two Usenet newsgroups which are relevant.
      	'comp.dcom.net-management'
      		which discusses general issues relating to network management
      	'comp.protocols.snmp'
      		which is specifically concerned with use of SNMP in particular

        (though there is a large overlap between these two groups).
        The SNMP group also has an FAQ (split into two parts) which discusses more
        general issues related to SNMP, including books, software, other sites,
        how to get an enterprise number, etc, etc.
        This is available from

            ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.protocols.snmp/

        or via any of the Web sites above.

      Is ucd-snmp thread safe?
      -----------------------

        Strictly speaking, no.  However, it should be possible to use the
        library in a thread-safe manner.  This is covered in detail in the file
        README.thread (shipped with the standard distribution), but can be
        summarised as follows:

          -	Call 'snmp_sess_init()' prior to activating any threads.
      	This reads in and parses MIB information (which isn't thread-safe)
      	as well as preparing a session structure for subsequent use.

          -	Open an SNMP session using 'snmp_sess_open()' which returns an
      	opaque session handle, which is essentially independent of any
      	other sessions (regardless of thread).

          -	Resource locking is not handled within the library, and is the
      	responsibility of the main application.

        The applications and the agent have not been designed for threaded use.

      APPLICATIONS
      ============

      How do I add a MIB?
      ------------------

        This is actually two separate questions, depending on whether you
        are referring to the tools, or the agent (or both).
          See the next question or the next section respectively.

      How do I add a MIB to the tools?
      -------------------------------

        Firstly,

      	cp MY-MIB.txt /usr/local/share/snmp/mibs

                or

              mkdir $HOME/.snmp
              mkdir $HOME/.snmp/mibs
      	cp MY-MIB.txt $HOME/.snmp/mibs

        And then,

      	export MIBS=+MY-MIB

                or alternatively:

              echo "mibs +MY-MIB" >> $HOME/.snmp/snmp.conf

        Note that you need *both* steps.
        The first command copies the file defining the new MIB to a
        expected location for MIB files.  This defaults to
        /usr/local/share/snmp/mibs (or PREFIX/share/snmp/mibs if the the
        suite was installed into a different base location).  Some
        ready-packaged distributions (such as Linux RPM packages) may look
        for MIB files in a different location, such as /etc/snmp/mibs - put
        the new file in this directory instead.  This makes it available for
        everyone on the system.
        The tools will also look for mibs in your personal $HOME/.snmp/mibs
        directory, but this will only work for you.

        The second command tells the tools to load in this new MIB file as well
        as the default set.   Note that the tools do *not* load every MIB found
        in the directory - this is to avoid slowing them down excessively when
        there is a large collection of MIB files.  If you do want the tools to
        load all the MIB files, set the environmental variable MIBS to the special
        value "ALL".

           Note that the value for this variable is the name of the MIB module,
        *not* the name of the MIB file.   These are typically the same (apart
        from the .txt suffix), but if in doubt, check the contents of the file.
        The value to use is the token immediately before the word DEFINITIONS
        at the start of the file.  Of course, if you load 'ALL' mibs, then this
        distinction is irrelevant.

          Most of the tools (apart from 'snmptable') will work quite happily
        without any MIB files at all, as long as you are prepared to work with
        numeric OIDs throughout.  The MIB files are only used for translating
        between numeric and textual forms for queries and responses.
          The same holds true for the agent - see the AGENT section for details.

      Why can't I see anything from the agent?
      ---------------------------------------

        There are two main general causes of problems retrieving information
        from the agent.   Firstly, the variable (or variables) specified may
        not be recognised by the tools as valid names.  In this case, the
        tools will typically reject the request without ever contacting the
        remote agent.

          Alternatively, the tool may be happy with the request, but the agent
        does not return the corresponding value(s).  It may return an explicit
        error message instead, or the request may time out without any response
        being sent back at all.  The next few entries look at these in more detail.

      Why can't I see values in the <INSERT ENTERPRISE HERE> tree?
      -----------------------------------------------------------

        Having said that there are two main reasons for not getting a response,
        the most likely cause of this problem is actually something else again.

        The 'snmpwalk' command takes a point in the overall MIB tree, and tries
        to display all the values that lie within this subtree.  However, it
        actually does this by issuing a series of "getnext" requests, until
        the variable returned lies outside the subtree of interest.  If the
        very first request returns such an undesired value, then the command
        will terminate, without having displayed anything at all.

          If an expicit starting point is given to 'snmpwalk', then it is reasonably
        clear what is happening, and that there is simply nothing in the subtree
        specified.  However, if 'snmpwalk' is called without giving an explicit
        starting point, then it will display the contents of the 'mib-2' subtree.
        It will not attempt to traverse any 'private.enterprise' subtree, such as
        the UCD-specific objects (including any local extensions).

          To walk the whole tree, specify a starting point of '.iso'
        To walk a specific enterprise subtree, specify the root of this as
        the starting point - e.g:

      	snmpwalk -v1 -c public localhost ucdavis

        Or, of course, you can walk a selected portion of an enterprise subtree
        by specifying the appropriate starting point - e.g:

      	snmpwalk -v1 -c public localhost ucdavis.version

        If you still can't see any information, keep reading.  The next few
        questions will probably help you.

      Requests always seem to timeout, and don't give me anything back.  Why?
      ----------------------------------------------------------------------

        There are a number of possible causes of this.

        The most likely are the agent access control settings (who is allowed
        access by the agent itself), or firewall/packet filtering settings
        (who is allowed access by the underlying operating system).

        A fuller list of possible causes (with indications of how to check
        for each) is as follows:

      	- is the machine you are querying up and running?
      		(Does it respond to 'ping' or similar requests?)
      	- is there an SNMP agent running on it?
      		(Run 'ps -ef | grep snmp' or 'netstat -an | grep 161')
      	- are the requests arriving, or being blocked (e.g. by a firewall)?
      		(Restart the agent using 'snmpd -f -L -d'
      		 and see if it shows the incoming packet dumps)
      	- is the agent simply taking a long time to respond?
      		(The 'snmpd -f -L -d' command should show a series of
       		 incoming PDUs, followed eventually by the outgoing PDUs.
      		 Try the request again with a long timeout value,
      		 e.g. 'snmpcmd -t 120 ....')
      	- does the agent's control settings allow this request?
      		(The 'snmpd -f -L -d' command will show a series of
       		 incoming PDUs with *no* corresponding outgoing PDUs)

        Note that if the agent is not configured to allow access for a
        particular community, then the SNMP specification declares that no
        error response should be sent at all.  The Net-SNMP tools will retry
        the request a number of times, before reporting a timeout error.

          If the agent is configured to allow partial access for a given
        community, then requests that fall outside this authorised access
        *will* result in an error response.
          (SNMP agents can be very fussy over who they talk to!)

          See the entries on access control in the AGENT section for how to
        configure the Net-SNMP agent to allow suitable access.  For other
        vendors' agents, you will need to consult the relevant documentation.

      I can see the system group, but nothing else.  Why?
      --------------------------------------------------

        This is probably the same as the previous question - a problem with
        the access configuration of the agent.  Many pre-configured systems
        (such as most Linux distributions) will only allow access to the system
        group by default, and need to be configured to enable more general access.

          The easiest way to test this is to try a GETNEXT request, that ought
        to return the entry of interest.
        e.g.
      	snmpgetnext -v1 -c public localhost ucdavis.version.versionTag
        instead of
      	snmpget     -v1 -c public localhost ucdavis.version.versionTag.0

        If the agent responds with "end of MIB" or a different object, then
        either the agent doesn't implement that particular object at all, or
        the access control won't allow you access to it.

        See the entries on access control in the AGENT section for how to
        configure the Net-SNMP agent, or consult the agent's own documentation.

      The agent worked for a while, then stopped responding.  Why?
      -----------------------------------------------------------

        Assuming that the agent hasn't crashed completely, the most likely
        explanation is that it's simply overloaded, and is taking longer to
        respond than the querying tool is waiting.  Since the agent handles
        each request in turn, without regard to earlier activity, and most
        tools will retry a request when it times out, the list of outstanding
        requests can grow longer and longer.

          To determine whether this is the cause or not, try leaving the
        agent undisturbed for a while, and then probe it using a longer
        timeout (e.g. '-t 120').  This should give the agent time to handle
        each request first time round, and avoids overloading it with
        duplicate requests.

        This is not a full solution, of course, but at least it should
        allow you to isolate the offending portion of the tree. The
        developers may then be able to offer a more long-term solution.

      Requesting an object fails with "Unknown Object Identifier"  Why?
      ----------------------------------------------------------------

        If a general snmpwalk shows the entry, but asking for it more
        specifically gives a "sub-identifier not found:" or "Unknown Object
        Identifier" error, then that's a problem with the tool, rather than
        the agent.

          Firstly, make sure that you're asking for the object by the right name.
        Object descriptors are case-sensitive, so asking for 'sysuptime' will
        not be recognised, but 'sysUpTime' will.

          Secondly, the object may be defined in a MIB that hasn't been loaded.
        Try loading in all the MIB files:

      	snmpget -m ALL -v1 -c public localhost sysUpTime.0

        (though if snmpwalk translates it OK, that's less likely to be the cause).

          Thirdly, earlier versions of the UCD software expected "full" paths
        for object names, either based at the root of the whole MIB tree
        (".iso.org.dod.internet.mgmt.mib-2.system.sysUpTime") or the 'mib-2'
        subtree ("system.sysUpTime").  Try:

      	snmpget -v1 -c public myhost system.sysUpTime.0

        These earlier versions of the tools may take a command-line option '-R'
        or '-IR' (depending on vintage) to invoke this "random-access" mode.
        Note that snmptranslate still requires "random-access" to be specified
        explicitly - all other command tools now use this mode by defaults.

        All versions of the UCD and Net-SNMP tools accept the syntax

      	snmpget -v1 -c public myhost RFC1213-MIB:sysUpTime.0

        to denote a particular object in a specific MIB module.  Note that this
        uses the name of the *module*, not the name of the file.  See the second
        question in this section for the distinction.

      Why do I get "noSuchName" when asking for "sysUpTime" (or similar)?
      ------------------------------------------------------------------

        There are a number of possible causes of this (scattered throughout
        this FAQ, so keep reading!).   But one of the most likely snares for
        the unwary is forgetting the instance subidentifier for 'non-table'
        objects.  If you walk the 'system' tree, you'll notice that all the
        results (apart from the sysORTable), have a '.0' at the end of the OID.
        This is the "instance sub-identifier" - which *must* be included for
        a GET request.
           Compare the following:

      	$ snmpget -v1 -c public localhost sysUpTime
      	Error in packet
      	Reason: (noSuchName) There is no such variable name in this MIB.
      	This name doesn't exist: system.sysUpTime
      	$ snmpget -v1 -c public localhost sysUpTime.0
      	system.sysUpTime.0 = Timeticks: (69189271) 8 days, 0:11:32.71

        This is a little less obscure when using SNMPv2c or v3 requests:

      	$ snmpget -v 2c -c public localhost sysUpTime
      	system.sysUpTime = No Such Instance currently exists

      Why do I sometimes get "End of MIB" when walking a tree, and sometimes not?
      --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        This depends on which MIB modules are supported by the agent you are
        querying and what you're asking for.

        Recall that a tree is walked by repeatedly asking for "the next entry" until
        all the values under that tree have been retrieved.  However, the agent has
        no idea that this is what's happening - all it sees is a request for "the
        next entry after X".

        If the object X happens to be the last entry in a sub-tree, the agent will
        provide the next object supported (as requested) even though this will be
        in a different subtree.  It's up to the querying tool to recognise that
        this last result lies outside the area of interest, and simply discard it.

        If the object X happens to be the last entry supported by the agent, it
        doesn't have another object to provide, so returns an "end of MIB"
        indication.  The Net-SNMP tools report this with the message above.

        But in either case, the actual information provided will be the same.

      I cannot set any variables in the MIB.
      -------------------------------------

        There are three possible reasons for this:

        The majority of MIB objects are defined as "read-only" and inherently
        cannot be changed via SET requests.

        Of those that can in principle be changed, not all have been implemented
        as such in this agent.

        Even if SET support has been implemented, the agent may not be configured
        to allow write access to this object.

        The example configuration file shipped with the basic distribution only
        allows write access for the local host itself (and a suitable community
        name must be configured first).
          Ready-installed distributions (such as those shipped with Linux) tend
        to be configured with read-only access to part of the mib tree (typically
        just the system group) and no write access at all.

        To change this, you will need to set up the agent's access control
        configuration.  See the AGENT section for more details.

          Note that neither the community string "public" nor "private" can be
        used to set variables in a typical default configuration.

      Variables seem to disappear when I try to set them.  Why?
      --------------------------------------------------------

        This is actually the same as the previous question - it just isn't
        particularly obvious, particularly when using SNMPv1.  A typical
        example of this effect would be

      	$ snmpget -v1 -c public localhost system.sysLocation.0
      	system.sysLocation.0 = somewhere nearby

      	$ snmpset -v1 -c public localhost system.sysLocation.0 s "right here"
      	Error in packet.
      	Reason: (noSuchName) There is no such variable name in this MIB.
      	This name doesn't exist: system.sysLocation.0

        Trying the same request using SNMPv2 or above is somewhat more informative:

      	$ snmpset -v 2c -c public localhost system.sysLocation.0 s "right here"
              Error in packet.
              Reason: notWritable

        The SNMPv1 error 'noSuchName' actually means:

      	"You can't do that to this variable"

        This might be because the variable doesn't exist, it does exist but
        you don't have access to it (but someone else may do), or it exists
        but you can't perform that particular operation (i.e. changing it).
          Similarly, the SNMPv2 error 'notWritable' means "not writable in
        this particular case" rather than "not writable under any circumstances".

        If you are sure that the object is writable (and has been implemented
        as such), then you probably need to look at the agent access control.
        See the AGENT section for more details.

      I still can't change sysLocation, though the access settings allow it.  Why not?
      -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

          One other possibility for the 'sysLocation' and 'sysContact' objects,
        is that you've got a configuration option in the 'snmpd.conf' file which
        already sets the corresponding value there.

          Earlier versions of the agent would allow you to write to these objects,
        but the new value would be forgotten the next time the agent was re-started.
        More recent versions of the agent reject such write requests if there's a
        value set via the config file.   If there isn't such a config setting, then
        the write request will succeed (assuming the access settings allow it), and
        the new value will be retained the next time the agent restarts.

      I get an error when trying to set a negative value - why?
      --------------------------------------------------------

          This is a different problem.  What's happening here is that the
        routine that parses the arguments to the 'snmpset' command is seeing
        the '-' of the new value, and treating it as a command-line option.
        This normally generates an error (since digits probably aren't valid
        command line option).

          The easiest way to solve this is include the "end-of-option"
        indicator '--' in the command line, somewhere before the new value
        (but after all of the options, obviously).  For example:

      	snmpset -v 2c -c public localhost -- versionRestartAgent.0 i -1

        (This will also fail, since -1 isn't an acceptable value for this
        object, but it will be rejected by the agent, rather than confusing
        the snmpset command!)

      I get an error when trying to get a string-indexed table value - why?
      --------------------------------------------------------------------

          This is probably due to the shell swallowing the quotes, before
        they ever get to the SNMP command's OID parser.  Try escaping them:

      	snmpget .....   vacmSecurityModel.0.\"wes\"
        or	snmpget .....  'vacmSecurityModel.0."wes"'

      How do I send traps and notifications?
      ---------------------------------------

          Traps and notifications can be sent using the command 'snmptrap'.
        The following examples generate the generic trap 'coldStart' and a
        (dummy) enterprise specific trap '99' respectively:

      	snmptrap -v 1 -c public localhost "" "" 0 0  ""
      	snmptrap -v 1 -c public localhost "" "" 6 99 ""

        The empty parameters "" will use suitable defaults for the relevant
        values (enterprise OID, address of sender and current sysuptime).

          An SNMPv2 or SNMPv3 notification (either trap or inform) takes
        the OID of the trap to send:

      	snmptrap -v 2c -c public localhost "" UCD-SNMP-MIB::ucdStart
      	snmptrap -v 2c -c public localhost "" .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.251.1

        (These two are equivalent ways of specifying the same trap).

        Any of these commands can be followed by one or more varbinds,
        using the same (OID/type/value) syntax as for 'snmpset':

      	snmptrap -v 2c -c public localhost "" ucdStart sysContact.0 s "Dave"

        Generating traps from within the agent is covered in the AGENT and
        CODING sections.

        You should also read the snmptrap tutorial at
      	http://www.net-snmp.org/tutorial-5/commands/snmptrap.html
        which will help you understand everything you need to know about traps.

      How do I handle traps and notifications?
      ---------------------------------------

          Handling received traps is done using the tool 'snmptrapd'.
        This can log these traps via the syslog mechanism:

      	snmptrapd -s -l7	(log to 'LOCAL7')

        printed to standard output

      	snmptrapd -f -P

        or pass them to an external command.  This last approach uses
        a 'traphandle' directive in the configuration file 'snmptrapd.conf'.
        A typical file might look something like:

      	traphandle .1.3.6.1.6.3.1.5.1       page_me up
      	traphandle .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.251.1  page_me up
      	traphandle .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.251.2  page_me down
      	traphandle default                  log_it

        where 'page_me' and 'log_it' are the command to be run.  (You probably
        need to specify full pathnames, to ensure that the commands will be
        found.  They're just short here for readability).

        Note that the first entry uses the OID corresponding to the SNMPv1
        'coldStart' trap.  See the co-existence RFC (RFC 2576) for details
        of mapping SNMPv1 traps to SNMPv2 OIDs.

        There's a tutorial with more details on the web site at
      	http://www.net-snmp.org/tutorial-5/commands/snmptrap.html

      My traphandler script doesn't work when run like this - why not?
      ---------------------------------------------------------------

          If a traphandler script works fine when run manually from the
        command line, but generates an error when triggered by an incoming
        notification, then this is probably down to one of two likely causes.

          Firstly, the interactive shell environment may not be precisely
        the same as that for programs executed by the snmptrapd daemon.
        In particular, it's quite possible that the PATH environmental
        variable may not include all the additional directories that are
        commonly set up for a personal login configuration.  To avoid this
        problem (particularly for traphandler shell scripts), it's worth
        giving the full path to all programs used within the script.

          Secondly, the snmptrapd daemon may not always recognise the
        appropriate interpreter to use for a particular trap handler.
        If this is the case, then you can specify this interpreter
        explicitly as part of the trap handle directive:

      	traphandle default /usr/bin/perl /usr/local/bin/log_it

        Note that in this case, it's almost certain that you'll also
        need to give the full path to the traphandle script (as shown)

      The ucdShutdown trap OID received by my manager is wrong. Why?
      -------------------------------------------------------------

          This is due to the way that traps are converted between
        SNMPv1 and SNMPv2 formats.  The algorithm used for converting
        from an SNMPv1 enterprise-specific trap number, to an SNMPv2
        trap OID results in a penultimate '0' subidentifier, before
        the trap number itself.  The definition of the trap objects
        in the UCD-SNMP-MIB file does not include this subidentifier.

          In due course, the intention is to define a new set of MIB
        objects, under the 'net-snmp' enterprise tree.  This will
        include new trap OIDs, which will be designed such that
        this problem does not arise in the future.

      Why does snmptrapd complain about AgentX?
      ----------------------------------------

          Starting from the v5 release, the trap handling daemon has
        implemented the notification logging aspects of the NOTIFICATION-MIB
        (RFC 3014).  This is handled by the trap handler daemon registering
        as an AgentX subagent, to supply this statistical information.

          If there is no AgentX master agent available, this registration
        fails, generating the warning about "failed to connect to the agentx
        master".  This warning only appears between version 5.0 and 5.0.4
        (in 5.0.4 and after the warning was silenced).  This failure does
        not affect the main operation of the trap handler.  It simply means
        that the nsmLog information won't be available for query via SNMP.

          Basically, this is a warning that can safely be ignored.

      How do I use SNMPv3?
      -------------------

          The simplest form of SNMPv3 request (unauthenticated, unencrypted)
        would be something like:

      	snmpget -v 3 -l noAuthNoPriv localhost sysUpTime.0

          An authenticated request would specify a username and pass phrase:

      	snmpget -v 3 -l authNoPriv -u dave -A "Open the Door"
      				localhost sysUpTime.0

          A fully secure request would also specify the privacy pass phrase:

      	snmpget -v 3 -l authPriv -u dave -A "Open the Door"
      			-X "Bet you can't see me"  localhost sysUpTime.0

        In practise, most of these would probably be set via configuration
        directives in a personal $HOME/.snmp/snmp.conf file (note, *not* the
        agent's snmpd.conf file).  The equivalent settings for the third
        example would be:

      	defSecurityName		dave
      	defSecurityLevel	authPriv
      	defAuthPassphrase	"Open the Door"
      	defPrivPassphrase	"Bet you can't see me"

        If the AuthPassphrase and the PrivPassphrase are the same, then you
        can use the setting
      		defPassphrase	"Open the Door and see me"
      							instead

        For how to configure the agent to respond to SNMPv3 requests, see
        the AGENT section.

      How big can an SNMP request (or reply) be?
      -----------------------------------------

          The protocol definition specifies a "minimum maximum" packet size
        (484 bytes for UDP), which all systems must support, but does not
        attempt to define an upper bound for this maximum size.  This is left
        to each individual implementation.

          The UCD software uses a fixed size buffer of 1472 bytes to hold the
        encoded packet, so all requests and responses must fit within this.
        Unfortunately, it's not possible to predict how many varbinds this
        corresponds to, since it depends on the type and actual values being
        sent, as well as the corresponding OIDs.

          As a rule of thumb, sending 400 integer-valued varbinds seems to
        work OK, while 300 string-valued varbinds triggers an overrun.

          The Net-SNMP releases handle packet buffers rather differently,
        and are not subject to the same fixed restrictions.

      How can I monitor my systems (disk, memory, etc)?
      ------------------------------------------------

          In general, the Net-SNMP suite consists of relatively low-level
        tools, and there is nothing included that is designed for high-level,
        long-term monitoring of trends in network traffic, disk or memory
        usage, etc.

          There are a number of packages available that are designed for this
        purpose.  Two of the most widely used are MRTG (http://www.mrtg.org/)
        and Cricket (http://cricket.sourceforge.net/).  There are details of
        how to set up Cricket to monitor some of the UCD extensions at
        http://www.afn.org/~jam/software/cricket/

           We have also set up a page that describes in detail how MRTG
        can be set up to monitor disk, memory and cpu activity at
        http://www.net-snmp.org/tutorial-5/mrtg/index.html

          There is also a web-based network configuration system "Net-Policy",
        based upon SNMP.  This is not strictly connected to the Net-SNMP project,
        but a number of the core developers are also involved with that system.
        See http://net-policy.sourceforge.net for more details.

      Applications complain about entries in your example 'snmp.conf' file.  Why?
      --------------------------------------------------------------------------

          The example configuration file 'EXAMPLE.conf' is designed as a config
        for the agent, and should be installed as 'snmpd.conf' (note the 'd').
        The file 'snmp.conf' is intended for general configuration options,
        applicable to all applications (via the SNMP library).
          Rename (or merge) the 'snmp.conf' file to 'snmpd.conf', and this should
        fix the problem.
          Note that there is no example snmp.conf shipped with the standard
        distribution.

      OK, what should I put in snmp.conf?
      ----------------------------------

          This is used to set common configuration values for most of the
        applications, to avoid having to specify them every time.  Examples
        include the SNMPv3 settings mentioned above, defaults for which MIBs
        to load and where from, and the default SNMP version, port and
        (if appropriate) the community string to use.

          Some of these (such as the MIB file location), might belong in a
        shared snmp.conf file (typically /usr/local/share/snmp/snmp.conf or
        /etc/snmp/snmp.conf) to apply to all users of the system.  Others
        (particularly the SNMPv3 security settings), are more likely to refer
        to a particular user, and should go in a personal snmp.conf file
        (typically $HOME/.snmp/snmp.conf).

          Note that the Net-SNMP package does not come with an example snmp.conf
        file.  See 'snmpget -H' and/or the snmp.conf(5) man page for more details.

          You can also use the "snmpconf" command to help you generate your
        snmp.conf configuration file (just run it and answer its questions).

      PERL
      ====

      Where can I get the perl SNMP package?
      -------------------------------------

        Joe Marzot's excellent perl SNMP module, which requires the ucd-snmp
        library, is now included in the ucd-snmp source release.  It's
        located in the perl/SNMP subdirectory of the ucd-snmp source tree.

        It can also be found at any Comprehensive Perl Archive Network
        (CPAN) site mirror in modules/by-module/SNMP.  To find the CPAN site
        nearest you, please see http://www.cpan.org/SITES.html.

        With the v5 release of the Net-SNMP suite, this is now accompanied by
        a number of perl modules grouped together under the NetSNMP namespace.

        Consult the README file in the SNMP perl module distribution to find
        out what version of the ucd-snmp library it needs to be linked against.

      How do I install the Perl SNMP modules?
      --------------------------------------

        Assuming you have a reasonably new (and properly configured) perl system,
        this should be simply:

              cd perl		(for 5.0.x)
        or    cd perl/SNMP	(for 4.2.x)
      	perl Makefile.PL
      	    (press RETURN when prompted for host and community)
      	make
      	make test
      	make install  (probably as root)

        Note that with the 5.0 release line, there are additional SNMP-related
        perl modules that should probably be installed as well.  These can also
        be found under the 'perl' subdirectory.  At the very least, install the
        'default_store' module.
          This is not necessary with the 4.2.x releases.

      But compiling this fails! Why?
      -----------------------------

        The perl module tends to delve quite deeply into the internals of the
        main Net-SNMP library, and so is quite sensitive to changes within the
        library.  It's important to use the correct version of the module, that
        corresponds to the version of the library you have installed.  If you're
        working with the main Net-SNMP distribution, the appropriate version of
        the perl module is shipped as part of this, but you *must* have
        run "make install" on the main Net-SNMP distribution *first*.

        If you're working with a ready-installed version of the library, make
        sure you obtain a compatible version of the perl module.

          Note that the perl modules will be compiled using the compiler
        (and compiler settings) used for compiling the original perl binary,
        *not* those used for compiling the Net-SNMP (or UCD) library.
        If these are different (e.g. 'gcc' used for one and 'cc' for the other)
        then this may well cause problems.  It's much safer to use a consistent
        environment for both.  This issue is discussed in greater detail in
        the README.solaris file.

          Also note that the v5 Net-SNMP suite *must* be configured to provide
        shared libraries in order for the perl modules to work correctly.  This
        is not necessary with the v4 UCD-SNMP libraries.

      Compiling the perl module works OK, but 'make test' fails. Why?
      --------------------------------------------------------------

        That's difficult to answer in general.
        Some of the perl tests are rather picky, so this may simply be
        some minor inconsistency between your precise setup, and the
        expectations of the test environment.

          Check that you are working with the perl distribution that matches
        the SNMP libraries (use the 'perl/SNMP' in preference to CPAN), and
        that you have installed the main libraries successfully (uninstall
        any old versions if you're having trouble).

          If all this looks OK, and if most of the tests pass, then it's
        probably safe to run 'make install' anyway.   Probably.

      The perl 'make test' fails on the OID tests. Is it safe to continue?
      -------------------------------------------------------------------

        No.  Almost certainly not.  If the "perl/OID" tests fail the first
        four tests, and then crashes out complaining about a "netsnmp_oidPtr",
        then this is a sign of a more fundamental problem.

        The 4.2.x line perl support was a single module, so was independent
        of the way that the C library was configured.  In contrast to this,
        the 5.0.x perl support consist of a number of inter-cooperating modules,
        which rely on sharing a consistent C library environment.  In practise,
        this means that the perl modules *MUST* be configured and compiled using
        a shared version of the C library.   Unfortunately, the default for
        most early versions of the Net-SNMP suite was to compile using static
        libraries unless explicitly configured to use shared libraries.  The
        default should be to use shared libraries from 5.0.7 onwards.

        The error "oid1 is not of type netsnmp_oidPtr" is a fairly sure indication
        that the C library was compiled statically.   You'll need to re-configure
        the main Net-SNMP package using the "--enable-shared" configure flag.
        Then re-install the C library before re-configuring and re-compiling
        the perl module support.

        Note that this problem does not arise when using the 4.2.x version
        of perl support.

      I'm trying to use mib2c (or tkmib) and it can't locate SNMP.pm?
      ------------------------------------------------------------

        That's probably because the SNMP perl module hasn't been installed.
        It's not part of the standard perl distribution, nor is it installed
        by default in RedHat Linux (for example).
          You'll need to install it.  See the previous two questions.

      I'm trying to use mib2c (or tkmib) and it can't load SNMP.so?
      ------------------------------------------------------------

          This is probably the same problem.  Either the SNMP module
        hasn't been installed, or it's the wrong version.  See the
        previous two questions.

      I'm trying to use tkmib and it can't locate Tk.pm?
      -------------------------------------------------

        Tk.pm is another Perl package that needs to be installed before tkmib
        will run.  It's also available on Perl CPAN.  We suggest using version
        "Tk800.011" or later.  It can be installed by issuing the command:

      		perl -MCPAN -e shell ; "install Tk"

      I've got a problem with the Net-SNMP module.  Can you help?
      ----------------------------------------------------------

        Sorry, despite the similar-sounding name, the Net-SNMP (or Net::SNMP)
        module is nothing to do with this package, or the NetSNMP modules.
        Net::SNMP is a "pure-perl" implementation of SNMP support, developed
        by David Town.  The developers of the (C-based) Net-SNMP suite do
        not have any significant experience in using this particular module,
        and you'll probably be better off asking for help via CPAN or some
        other perl-related forum.

      MIBS
      ====

      Where can I find a MIB compiler?
      -------------------------------

        That depends what you mean by a "MIB compiler".  There are at least two
        types of tool that are commonly referred to by this name.

        The first is a tool to check MIB files for validity.  This functionality
        is mostly integrated within the MIB parser (part of the Net-SNMP library)
        and hence included in all the applications.  The tool 'snmptranslate' is
        probably the most appropriate for this purpose.
          Note that the parser is fairly forgiving (see 'What ASN.1 parser is used'
        below), so this should not be regarded as a stamp of approval.

          The second type of tool is one to turn a MIB specification into C code,
        specifically one designed to aid agent implementation.  The command 'mib2c'
        is an example of such a tool for the Net-SNMP agent.
        See the CODING section for more information.

      I can't load any of the mib files, and they seem to be missing
      the first two characters of the filename.  What's happening?
      -----------------------------------------------------------

        This is a problem experienced with Sun systems when the tools have
        been compiled with a mixture of BSD and Solaris environments.
        You'll need to re-configure and compile the tools, making sure that
        '/usr/ucb' is not in your PATH (or at least comes at the end).

      Why aren't my mib files being read in?
      -------------------------------------

          The Net-SNMP library only loads a subset of MIB files by default.
        This list is set at when the suite is first configured and compiled,
        and basically corresponds to the list of modules that the agent supports.
        (This is a simplification, but is a reasonable first approximation).

          You can override this by using the command-line option '-m', the
        environmental variable 'MIBS' or the snmp.conf directive 'mibs'.
        Each of these take a (colon-separated) list of MIB module names
        to load.   Starting the list with a '+' character will add them to
        the default list - otherwise it replaces the defaults.

          Using the special value 'ALL' will load all the MIB files that
        the library can find.

          Alternatively, the tools may be looking in the wrong place.
        The default location for the mib files is /usr/local/share/snmp/mibs.
        Again, this is set when the suite is first configured and compiled.
        This can be changed using the environmental variable 'MIBDIRS'
        or the snmp.conf directive 'mibdirs'.

          Note that this may very well affect you if you've installed a
        new version of the suite manually, replacing one provided by the
        supplier (which typically would use a more 'central' location).

          Finally, are you sure that you've installed the MIB files?
        If you've compiled the suite from scratch, you need to run
        "make install" at least once, before the tools will be able to
        find the MIB files.  This is unlikely to be a problem if you've
        been working with the tools for a while, but can bite those coming
        fresh to the SNMP world.

      I'm getting answers, but they're all numbers. Why?
      -------------------------------------------------

        This is actually the same as the previous question.  Because the tools
        don't read in every MIB module they can find, it is quite possible
        for results from an agent to refer to modules that have not been loaded
        (particularly with GETNEXT requests, or when walking a tree).
           The tools will report the answer quite correctly, but won't translate
        identifiers and enumerations into readable strings.  To fix this, use
        the environmental variables MIBS or MIBFILES (or the '-m' and '-M' flags)
        to read in the relevant module files.

      What does "Cannot find module (XXX-MIB)" mean?
      ---------------------------------------------

          This is similar to the previous questions.   In this case, it's
        stating that it can't find the specified module - either because
        it's not installed properly, or the name used is subtly wrong.

          If it's just one or two modules that are not being found, check
        that the files are in the expected location, are readable, and the
        name being used is correct.  Note that the name reported is the
        name of the MIB module, which is not necessarily the same as the
        name of the file. See the question 'How do I add a MIB to the tools?'
        for more details on this.

          If the tool is generating a whole slew of errors, then it's
        likely that either the MIB files haven't been installed at all,
        or the library is looking in the wrong place.   See the previous
        two questions.

      What about "unlinked OID"?
      -------------------------

          This means that the library has been able to find the MIB module,
        and parse the individual objects defined in it, but is having problems
        linking them together into a consistent tree.  In particular, it
        can't find an object corresponding to the name within the braces
        (i.e. the 'xxx' in '{xxx 99}').

          This is probably due either to a typo in this name (remember that
        names are case sensitive, so a reference to 'xxx' will *not* match
        a definition of 'Xxx'), or else the name is defined in another MIB
        file, and this dependency is missing from the IMPORT clause of this
        MIB file.

      The parser doesn't handle comments properly. Why not?
      ------------------------------------------------------------

        The most likely reason is that the line in question contains two
        (or more) sequences of pairs of dashes.  This is often used to try
        and "comment out" an unwanted line that already contains a comment:

      	--   broken ::= { myMIB 1 }   -- This isn't working yet

        The assumption here is that a comment continues to the end of the line.
        Unfortunately, this assumption is not correct.
          A comment will continue either to the end of the line, or the next
        occurance of a pair of dashes.  Thus in this case, the definition of
        "broken" is commented out (as intended) but the following text is
        treated as part of the MIB, and will generate an error.

          A similar effect can be obtained when a line of dashes has been used
        to try and mark separate parts of a MIB file.

          Most of the applications have a command-line option (-Pc) which will
        work around this problem by treating the whole line as a comment.  But
        this is not strictly legal, and the offending MIB file should really be
        corrected.

      How do I replace MIB values with new ones?
      -----------------------------------------

        The Net-SNMP parser generally takes the first definition it sees for each
        object in the MIB hierarchy.   Even if you specify your file to be read
        first, if the IMPORTS clauses reference a MIB with competing objects,
        those objects will be parsed first.

        When specifying the Replace MIB command-line option (-PR), the parser
        will use definitions sourced from the most recent MIB file.
        The parser will replace MIB objects when the sub-identifier and name match.

        Caution: Using Replace MIB, there is NO guarantee that the resulting
        MIB tree will be correct.  Other MIB objects matching the name but
        not the sub-identifier will persist.  Sub-hierarchies may be reparented.
        In particular, random access searching [see man 1 snmpcmd]
        may give unexpected result.
        The Replace MIB option is experimental, buyer beware, carpe diem, etc.

        Here are a few considerations to help you obtain good results.
        These hold true even if you never use the Replace MIB feature.
        Your suggestions for improvement are welcomed.

          1. The parser searches the specified directories and attempt
             to parse every file whose path does not begin with "." (period).
             Remove (or rename) older MIB files from these directories.
             Rename "README" to ".README" , etc.

          2. Hint: the parser's module list is in LIFO order. You may see better
             results if the directory with the most correct MIB files is
             specified last in the MIBDIRS environment.

          3. Constrain the parser to not read in default MIB files by setting
             the MIBS environmental variable to the appropriate separator character
             (semi-colon on win32, colon everywhere else).
             Setting this to "" may also have the same effect.

          4. The MIBFILES environment can specify the path of the new MIB file.

        Within a program, the call:
      	 /*  4.2.x  */
      	 ds_set_boolean(DS_LIBRARY_ID, DS_LIB_MIB_REPLACE, 1 | 0);

        or, if using the 5.0.x series code:
      	/*  5.0.x  */
      	netsnmp_ds_set_boolean(NETSNMP_DS_LIBRARY_ID,
      			       NETSNMP_DS_LIB_MIB_REPLACE, 1 | 0);

        will enable or disable the Replace MIB feature respectively.
        If you're having problems loading a particular MIB file, this
        call can be used to disable this feature, before using read_mib() to
        load the required file, and then re-enabling the Replace MIB feature.
        (or vice versa, as appropriate).

      How can I get more information about these MIB file problems?
      ------------------------------------------------------------

        The command 'snmptranslate' is used to translate between numeric
        and symbolic forms of OIDs.  It uses the same routines as the
        'active' commands, but does not rely on communicating successfully
        with a network management agent.  As such, it is a useful tool
        for identifying problems with reading in MIB files.

          In particular, the following options may be useful in
        identifying problems:
      	-Pw  warns about conflicting symbols
      	-PW  prints more verbose warnings about other problems as well
      		(in both cases, ignore the 'xmalloc' reports)
      	-T   provides sub-options for various views of these entries

        There are other '-P' options to control various aspects of MIB parsing.
        See the 'snmptranslate(1)' and 'snmpcmd(1)' man pages for more details,
        or the tutorial at
      	http://www.net-snmp.org/tutorial-5/commands/snmptranslate.html

      What's this about "too many imported symbols"?
      ---------------------------------------------

        Any MIB file starts with an (optional) list of identifiers that
        it "imports" from other files.  The parser implements this using
        a fixed size buffer to hold the import information.
          There are two circumstances in which this can result in the
        error message shown above.

          Firstly, if the MIB file refers to an unusually large number
        of external identifiers.  Handling this case requires a (trivial)
        patch to the parsing code.  Contact the coders list for advice.
           (This is extremely rare - the only example that
            we've come across is the Cabletron Trap MIB).

          Much more common is a syntax error in the IMPORTS clause of the
        MIB file in question.  In particular, check that this ends in a
        semicolon, before going on to the main definition section.

      AGENT
      =====

      What MIBs are supported?
      -----------------------

        The following MIBs are supported (at least in part and on some systems):

      	- MIB-2  General network statistics (RFC 1213)
      	- UCD agent extensions
      		(processes, disks, memory, load average,
      		 shell commands, error handling)
      	- Host Resources (RFC 1514 and 2790)
      	- SNMPv3 MIBS (RFCs 2571-6)

        The SNMPv2 Party and Manager-to-Manager MIBs (RFCs 1447 & 1451) have been
        withdrawn.

      What protocols are supported?
      ----------------------------

        The agent supports all three current versions of SNMP (v1, v2c and v3),
        over both UDP and TCP transports, as well as a SMUX (RFC 1227) master
        agent, AgentX (RFC 2257 ) in both master and subagent roles, and SNMP
        proxying.

      How do I configure the agent?
      ----------------------------

        That depends on what you want it to do.  See the snmpd.conf(5) manual
        page for the possibilities.

        You can also run the "snmpconf" perl script to help you create this
        file.  Start off with 'snmpconf -g basic_setup' to get you going.

      How do I add a MIB to the agent?
      -------------------------------
      How do I add functionality?
      --------------------------

        While simply adding a file to the MIB directory (and possibly tweaking
        the list of MIBs to load) is sufficient for the tools, unfortunately
        extending the functionality of the agent to include this is not so simple.
        In fact, the agent makes little or no use of these files, and will work
        quite happily without them.  All the information about the syntax and
        scope of the variables supported is hardwired into the implementation
        of the agent.

        There are a number of alternative ways to add functionality for a new
        MIB to the agent.

        Firstly, it is possible that the agent distribution already includes
        the desired functionality, but this has simply not been configured in
        to the running version.  This is done using the configure option
      		--with-mib-modules="list"
        (where "list" is a space-separated list of modules to include) then
        recompiling the agent.
        Note that some functionality concerned with monitoring and managing
        unix hosts is included in the UCD extension modules, which are located
        within the 'private' branch of the MIB tree.  This is covered in a later
        question in this FAQ.

        Secondly, it is possible for the agent to run commands or shell scripts
        in response to queries.  These can obtain and report the necessary
        information, or perform actions as required.
        Detailed information and examples are provided in the snmpd(8) and
        snmpd.conf(5) manual pages, and the EXAMPLE.conf file.
        This is known as "pass-through" support.

        Thirdly, it may be possible to link another agent (which already
        supports the desired MIB), as a "subagent" of the Net-SNMP master
        (or vice versa).  The possibilities here are SMUX, AgentX or proxied
        SNMP (see the next question but one).

        Finally, the agent itself can be extended to support additional MIB
        groups, by writing the necessary C code, and including this within
        the main agent - either statically compiled in, or dynamically loaded.
        This is covered further in the next section.

          Note that there is no visible difference between 'pass-through'
        MIB support, subagents, and modules implemented within the main agent
        itself. Tools querying the agent will see a single MIB structure.

      What's the difference between 'exec', 'sh' and 'pass'?
      -----------------------------------------------------

          'exec' will fork off the specified command and return the exit status
        and/or the output.  Arguments are passed directly to the command.

          'sh' is similar, but invokes a shell to run the command line given.
        This means that quoted arguments will be recognised as such, and also
        allows redirection, and other similar shell interpretation.

        Neither of these mechanisms require the command to have any knowledge
        of the fact that they are being used in this manner.  Note that return
        values are cached within the agent for 30 seconds, rather than invoking
        the command for every request.

          'pass' is a more general mechanism for extending the agent, and the
        command given will be invoked for any request within the specific MIB
        subtree.  Details of precisely how this command will be called in
        various circumstances is given in the 'snmpd.conf(5)' man page.

          'pass-persist' is similar, but the command will continue running
        even once the initial request has been answered.

        See 'snmpd.conf(5)' for more details.

      What's the difference between AgentX, SMUX and proxied SNMP?
      -----------------------------------------------------------

          All three are protocols that can be used to make two or more agents
        appear as one to the querying application.  In each case, one agent
        takes the role of "master", and delegates requests to one of the others
        as and where this is appropriate.  The differences between them mainly
        relate to how data is represented, and the mechanisms for communication
        between master and subagents.

          SMUX and proxy SNMP both essentially use the standard SNMP packet format.
        The main difference is that a proxy SNMP subagent need not be aware that
        it is acting in such a role.  It typically listens on a non-standard port,
        and simply receives requests as usual, forwarded from the master agent.
        The main issue to be aware of is that such requests will usually appear
        to come from the local host, and this may affect how the access control
        mechanisms need to be set up.

          SMUX uses a similar packet format, but the subagent "registers" with
        the master agent, providing a suitable password.  The Net-SNMP (and UCD)
        agent includes the possibility of acting as a SMUX master agent, but the
        suite does not include a subagent API.   Note that the SMUX protocol has
        essentially been superceded by AgentX, but is still provided in order to
        support existing SMUX subagents.
          See the file 'agent/mibgroup/README.smux' for details.

          AgentX uses a more compact (and simpler) packet format, with a richer
        range of administrative commands, and provides a more flexible and reliable
        extension mechanism.  The Net-SNMP agent can be used in both master and
        subagent roles, and the agent library can also be used to embed an AgentX
        subagent within another application.
          See the file 'README.agentx' for details.

        Note that support for SMUX is not configured in by default.  You will
        need to run configure with the option

      		--with-mib-modules=smux

        Starting from release 4.2.1, AgentX support is now included by default,
        but needs to be explicitly activated in the master agent.  Do this by
        adding the line

      		master agentx

        to the snmpd.conf file before starting the agent.  Note that there are
        a number of known problems with the AgentX support in the 4.x line, and
        this should not be used on production systems.  The 5.0 AgentX support
        has been significantly improved, and production use is less foolhardy.
          See README.agentx for details.

      What about 'dlmod' - what's that about?
      --------------------------------------

        Dynamically loaded modules are a means of including a MIB implementation
        module within the main SNMP agent (or an AgentX subagent) without needing
        to re-compile and re-link the agent binary.  Instead, details of the
        module(s) to load are specified in the configuration file, and the agent
        locates the files listed, and merges them in at run time.

        See http://www.net-snmp.org/tutorial-5/toolkit/dlmod/ for more information.

      Which should I use?
      ------------------

        That's a difficult question.

        Comparing the three protocols, SNMP was not originally designed
        as an internal subagent-communication protocol, and there are
        certain architectural limitations to SMUX, which were addressed
        as part of the design of AgentX.  These include such aspects as
        reliable handling of SET requests (particularly in the face of
        failures), a common value for sysUpTime, and a mechanism for
        sharing tables across multiple subagents.
          So from a purely functional point of view, AgentX is the most
        appropriate choice for subagent communication.

        In terms of implementation, SMUX is the most mature of the three,
        but is no longer being actively maintained.  The original author
        has moved on, and the current developers don't use this facility.
        It also only includes master agent support - the package does not
        provide a SMUX sub-agent API.
          The AgentX support in the 4.x line has a number of known problems,
        and is not suitable for use in front-line situations (though it's
        probably sufficiently stable and functional for simple day-to-day
        use).  The 5.0 agent has seen a significant amount of development,
        and is a much more reliable beast.
          Bear in mind that the AgentX and proxy SNMP implementations are
        relatively new code, so have not received the same level of active
        service that the core agent has.  But with that caveat, either of
        these options should be suitable for most use.

          This decision will probably be dictated by external considerations
        (i.e. the other agents you need to combine with).  Ideally, you
        should be looking towards AgentX, but this is not always possible.

        Dynamically loaded modules serve a somewhat different purpose,
        and are purely concerned with how the individual MIB implementation
        modules are located.  These can be combined with either a "pure SNMP"
        model, an AgentX subagent or a proxied SNMP agent.  They will involve
        a slightly greater load on agent start-up (plus an extra level of
        complexity if things go wrong) - balanced against the ability to
        avoid re-compiling and re-linking a working binary.

          Note that as far as individual MIB modules are concerned, the
        protocol used to transport the request is more or less irrelevant.
        The same information is being requested (or set) each time, so
        a MIB module ought to be protocol-independent.  This was one of
        the design aims of the AgentX support, and the exact same module
        code can be included as part of a pure-SNMP master agent, or an
        AgentX subagent, either compiled in or dynamically loaded with no
        modifications needed to the MIB module code itself.

      Can I use AgentX when running under Windows?
      -------------------------------------------

        Yes, but there are a couple of things to be aware of.

        Firstly, by default the AgentX master listens on the Unix domain
        socket '/var/agentx/master', which doesn't work under Windows.
        You'll need to tell it to listen on a TCP port, either by using
        the command-line option "-x localhost:705",  or by adding the
        directive "agentxAddress localhost:705" to the snmpd.conf file.

        Secondly, be aware that the security of AgentX connectivity is not
        particularly strong.  The examples given here would allow any process
        running on the local machine to register as an AgentX subagent.  The
        more obvious settings "-x 705" or "agentxAddress 705" would allow
        a system *anywhere* on the network (or even from remote networks) to
        register as an AgentX subagent.  This could potentially be used to
        hijack the agent, or provide false information.

      How can I run AgentX with a different socket address?
      ----------------------------------------------------

        There are two sides to an AgentX connection, and they need to
        agree about which socket address to use.  So if you want to use
        a different socket, you need to configure both sides accordingly.

        For the Net-SNMP master agent, this is done using the command-line
        option '-x'.  The command
      		"snmpd -x localhost:705 ...."
        would start the agent listening on the TCP port 705 for connections
        from the local system.

        The main Net-SNMP agent can also be run in a "subagent" mode, and
        this uses the same command-line option to specify a different
        AgentX socket.  So
      		"snmpd -X -x localhost:705 ...."
        would start it as a subagent, and connect to the master agent
        listening on TCP port 705 on the same system.

        A subagent running embedded within some other application will
        typically not understand the same command-line options.  This
        will need to set the same configuration programmatically.
        For example, the example subagent driving code from the Net-SNMP
        "subagent program" tutorial (on the project web pages) could
        be made to connect to the same TCP port by adding the line
           netsnmp_ds_set_string(NETSNMP_DS_APPLICATION_ID,
                                 NETSNMP_DS_AGENT_X_SOCKET, "localhost:705");
        before the 'init_agent' call.

        However, see the mention of AgentX security (or the lack of it!)
        in the previous entry.

      How can I combine two copies of the 'mib2' tree from separate subagents?
      -----------------------------------------------------------------------

        With the 4.x line agent, you can't.  Sorry about that.

        With the 5.0 agent, this is possible by using the SNMPv3 context string
        to distinguish between parallel MIB trees.  This can be set up for an
        individual MIB implementation module when it registers itself with the
        main agent framework (either directly, or via AgentX).  It can also
        be set up for a proxied subagent as part of the proxy configuration
        entry (see 'snmpd.conf(5)').
          This facility is not currently available for SNMPv1 or SNMPv2c
        requests (although it ought to be possible to use the community
        string in a similar way).

          Another way to handle this would be to tweak one of the subagents to
        use a different set of (non-standard) OID assignments - perhaps by
        relocating the whole of the subtree to another (private) OID.  This
        is not ideal, but should work with all configurations.

      What traps are sent by the agent?
      --------------------------------

        The agent sends a 'coldStart(0)' trap when it first starts up, and an
        enterprise-specific trap 'nsNotifyShutdown' (or 'ucdShutdown') when it
        stops.  It can also be configured to send an 'authenticationFailure(4)'
        trap when it receives an SNMPv1 request using an unknown community name.
        The Net-SNMP agent generates an enterprise-specific trap 'nsNotifyRestart'
        (rather than the standard 'coldStart(0)' or 'warmStart(1)' traps) on
        receiving a HUP signal - typically after being re-configured.

          The agent does not send 'linkUp' or 'linkDown' traps by default.  The
        Net-SNMP agent can be configured to do this using the 'monitor' config
        directive.  See the 'snmpd.conf(5)' man page (under DISMAN-EVENT-MIB)
        for details (including the need for an 'agentSecName' setting).

          Similarly, it does not generate traps by default when one of the
        monitored characteristics (disk usage, running processes, etc) enters or
        leaves an error state.  This can be configured using the 'defaultMonitors'
        config directive (also documented under DISMAN-EVENT-MIB).  Note that
        these facilities are only available with the v5 Net-SNMP agent, and are
        not supported by the v4 UCD agent.

      Where are these traps sent to?
      -----------------------------

          With all these alerts, the agent also needs to be configured with
        (one or more) destinations to send them to, specifying the type of
        notification (v1 or v2 trap, or v2 inform) and the community name to
        use.  This uses the snmpd.conf directives 'trapsink', 'trap2sink' and
        'informsink' for the destination type, and 'trapcommunity' for the
        community name.  SNMPv3 destinations can be configured using the directive
        'trapsess'.   See the 'snmpd.conf(5)' man page for details.

          Note that these directives control the type of notification that is
        generated.  This is completely separate from the style of API used to
        request that the notification should be sent.  If a module invokes the
        v1-style API 'send_easy_trap', this will still send SNMPv2 notifications
        to destinations configured using 'trap2sink' or 'informsink' (and vice
        versa).

          A configuration block such as

              trapsink   localhost
              trap2sink  localhost
              informsink localhost

        will result in *three* notifications being sent for each call to
        'send_easy_trap' (or 'send_v2trap').  See 'snmp_trap_api(3)' for details.

          Note that all notifications will be sent to all destinations.  The
        agent does not (currently) support notification filtering.

      How can I send a particular trap to selected destinations?
      ----------------------------------------------------------

          With the v4 UCD agent, this isn't possible (or at least not
        easily).  When you request the agent to generate a trap (using
        either 'send_v2trap' or 'send_easy_trap'), this will be sent
        to *all* the known destinations.

          The v5 Net-SNMP agent introduced preliminary support for the
        snmpNotifyFilterTable which is designed to allow this sort of
        selective trap direction, though this is not currently active.
        (The tables are present, but the information is not consulted)
        Documentation on how to use this facility will appear once the
        functionality is working properly.

      Why does calling 'send_v2trap' generate an SNMPv1 trap (or vice versa)?
      ----------------------------------------------------------------------

          The two versions of the trap API calls are concerned with how
        the trap is represented when it is passed *in* to the API, not
        the version of the trap PDU that will actually be generated by
        the agent.  That is determined by the configuration token used
        to set up the trap destination.

          Remember that in general, all traps are sent to all destinations.
        This means that a trap specified using the SNMPv1 trap syntax
        needs to be converted to the SNMPv2 format before it can be sent
        to an SNMPv2 (or SNMPv3) destination.  Similarly, a trap specified
        using the SNMPv2 syntax needs to be converted to the SNMPv1 format
        before it can be sent to an SNMPv1 sink.

          Essentially, the API call to use depends on what you asking for,
        which is not necessarily what the recipients will actually get!
        See 'snmp_trap_api(3)' for a fuller explanation.

      When I run the agent it runs and then quits without staying around. Why?
      -----------------------------------------------------------------------

        Firstly, are you certain that this is what is happening?

        The normal operation of the agent is to 'fork' itself into the
        background, detaching itself so that it will continue running even
        when you log out, and freeing the command line for subsequent use.
        This looks at first sight as if the agent has died, but using 'ps'
        to show all processes should reveal that the agent is still running.

        To prevent this behaviour (such as when attempting to debug the
        agent), you can start it with the '-f' flag.  This suppresses the
        fork, and the agent will run as a 'normal' command.  It's also often
        useful to use the '-L' (or '-Le') flag, to log messages to stdout.

        On the other hand, if 'ps' shows that the agent is not running, then
        this is an error, and probably show that something went wrong in
        starting the agent up.  Check the agent log file for any error messages,
        or run it with '-f -L' and see what it reports.

        One known example of this is the 'ucd-snmp' RPM distributed by RedHat.
        This agent crashes if there is a 'disk' configuration entry in the
        snmpd.conf file.  It is not currently known what causes this, as this
        setting works correctly if the agent is compiled from source.

      After a while the agent stops responding, and starts eating CPU time.  Why?
      --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        This is most commonly seen when performing an "snmpwalk" on an agent
        that's either using a default "vendor provided" configuration
        (typically access to the 'system' group only), or which is trying
        to restrict access for individual users or communities to a subset
        of the whole OID tree.

        The agent implementation of "GetNext" processing is relatively
        inefficient when dealing with inaccessible objects, and it is quite
        easy for the clients to time-out and retry a request, while the agent
        is still trying to process the original.  If this happens continually
        (as is typically the case with an snmpwalk), the agent can get swamped
        by this backlog.

        The 5.0.x line has now addressed this, starting with the 5.0.7 release.
        The 4.2.x line still suffers from this problem, and it is unlikely that
        this will be fixed.  (The 5.0.7 approach relies on some of the new
        features in the 5.0.x line, and it has not proved possible to apply
        this to the 4.2.x code base).

      How can I stop other people getting at my agent?
      -----------------------------------------------

        Firstly, are you concerned with read access or write access?

        As far as changing things on the agent is concerned, there is relatively
        little that can actually be altered (see the answer to " I cannot set
        any variables in the MIB" above).

          If you are using the example config file, this is set up to allow
        read access from your local network, and write access only from the
        system itself (accessed as 'localhost'), both using the community name
        specified.  You will need to set appropriate values for both NETWORK
        and COMMUNITY in this file before using it.
          This mechanism can also be used to control access much more precisely.
        (see the next questions for details)

        Other options include:
      	- Blocking access to port 161 from outside your organisation
      		(using filters on network routers)
      	- Configuring TCP wrapper support ("--with-libwrap")
      		This uses the TCP 'libwrap' library (available separately)
      		to allow/deny access via /etc/hosts.{allow,deny}

        For strict security you should use only SNMPv3, which is the secure
        form of the protocol.

      How can I listen on just one particular interface?
      -------------------------------------------------

          Normally, the agent will bind to the specified port on all interfaces
        on the system, and accept request received from any of them.  With
        version 4.2, the '-p' option can be used to listen on individual
        interfaces.  For example,

      			snmpd -p 161@127.0.0.1

        will listen (on the standard port) on the loopback interface only, and

      			snmpd -p 6161@10.0.0.1

        will listen on port 6161, on the (internal network) interface with address
        10.0.0.1.   If you want to listen on multiple interfaces (but not all),
        then simply repeat this option for each one:

      		snmpd -p 161@127.0.0.1 -p 6161@10.0.0.1

        The v5 Net-SNMP agent has a similar facility, but does not use the '-p'
        command line option flag.  Instead, the ports and/or interfaces to listen
        on are simply listed on the command line, following any other options.  Also,
        the syntax of port and interface is slightly different (interface:port).
          So the three examples above would be

      			snmpd 127.0.0.1:161
      			snmpd 127.0.0.1:6161
      			snmpd 127.0.0.1:161 127.0.0.1:6161

        The AgentX port option ('-x') works in much the same way, using the
        "host:port" syntax (in both 4.2 and 5.0 lines - and yes, this *is* an
        inconsistency in 4.2!)

      How do I configure access control?
      ---------------------------------

          The simplest way is to use the configure directives:

      		rocommunity public	(for SNMPv1/2c)
      		rwcommunity private
        or
      		rouser user1		(for SNMPv3)
      		rwuser user2

        These specify the community names or security names to accept for
        read-only and read-write access to the whole of the supported MIB tree.
        (Obviously you should change these names to match your requirements -
        which is a particularly good idea in the case of 'rwcommunity'!)

        Note that it is *not* necessary (and not advisible) to specify the
        same community name for both rocommunity and rwcommunity directives.
        The rwcommunity setting automatically includes rocommunity access,
        and having both lines (with the same community name) may result in
        apparently inconsistent behaviour.  Only use both settings when
        specifying *different* community names.
          The same holds true for rouser and rwuser.

        All four of these settings can can also be restricted to particular
        subtrees, and/or request sources.  See 'snmpd.conf(5)' for details.

        These directives are effectively wrappers round the core access control
        mechanism, which uses the four directives 'com2sec', 'group', 'view'
        and 'access' to provide a more efficient and flexible control
        over who can access which portions of the tree.

          See the next question for the gory details, and the entry after
        that for setting up SNMPv3 users.

      I don't understand the new access control stuff - what does it mean?
      -------------------------------------------------------------------

        The idea behind the new access control model is to give a more flexible
        way of specifying who can see and do what within the MIB tree.
        It's more complicated to understand than the simple example above, but
        that's because it can do a whole lot more.

          There are four configuration keywords in the new scheme:
      	'com2sec', 'group', 'view', and 'access'

        We'll consider these one at a time, starting with 'access'.
        (Because I feel like starting with the last one, that's why - OK?)

        The "access" keyword has the job of specifying who has access to
        which bits of the MIB tree.  This has eight parameters, so can look
        rather offputting. Most of these can be safely left with default values
        in most cases (so don't you worry your pretty little head about them).
        The syntax is

      	access {group} "" any noauth exact {read-tree} {write-tree} {notify-tree}

        where the entries in braces need to be defined elsewhere (I'm coming
        to that - be patient!), and the rest can be left as shown here.

      	[ If you really want to know, the 'sec.model' field can
      	  be used to have an access line that's only relevant to
      	  particular versions of SNMP (such v1 or v2c) rather than
      	  "any" version, and the 'sec.level' field to ensure that
      	  the request must be authenticated or encrypted.
      	    The context and prefix fields can be used to distinguish
      	  between parallel versions of the same overall OID tree
      	]

        The "view" keyword is used to define particular bits of the MIB tree,
        for use in the last three field of the access entry.
        This has the syntax

      	view  {name}  included/excluded  {subtree}   {mask}

        where {name} is the identifier to be used for this view (i.e. what should
        appear in the access entry), and {subtree} is the portion of the MIB tree
        that this name refers to (in either numeric or named form).
          Note that the name of the view does not have to have anything to do
        with the MIB sub-identifier names - it's purely an identifying tag for
        use within the config file (though choosing a meaningful name is, as
        always, a very good idea).

          The {mask} field can be used to control which elements of the OID subtree
        should be regarded as relevant when determining which view an OID is in.
        Normally, the whole of the OID should be included, and in this case the
        mask field can be omitted.  See snmpd.conf for a description of how this
        might be used.
        The third field can be used to include or exclude particular portions
        of the MIB from the view, and different lines can use the same view name
        to build up a more complicated view, if that's what's needed.

          The three view fields in the access line are used to control which
        portions of the MIB tree a particular {group} can see (GET et al),
        alter (SET), or request NOTIFYs on.

          That's dealt with the "what" - now for the "who".
        This is the role of the "group" and "com2sec" entries.

        The "group" keyword gives general control, by mapping between a "security
        name" (for a particular protocol version), and the internal name used in the
        access line.  Note that the token "any" is no longer acceptable for the
        security model - the original support for this was due due to a misreading
        of the RFC.  You should replace any such line with separate versions for
        each of the desired security models ('v1', 'v2c' & 'usm').

          For SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c, the group line is just an intermediate step
        between the "access" line and the "com2sec" line, which is the last bit
        of the jigsaw.  The "com2sec" entry is used to determine a "security name"
        from the traditional community string, taking into account where the request
        has come from.  Thus the same community string can give access to  different
        portions of the tree, depending on where the request is sent from.

           For example, in an earlier version of the example config file, there
        were two com2sec lines with the community string "public" - one was valid
        from anywhere (with the security name "public") and one was only valid
        from the local network (using the security name "mynet").
           The group lines converted these security names into the groups "public"
        and "mygroup" respectively, and the access lines gave these two groups
        the ability to GET values in the 'system' sub-tree (from anywhere) or
        the 'mib-2' sub-tree (from the local network).  Neither of these could
        SET any values though, (since the write-tree was "none" in both cases).
          Someone on the local machine, using the community string "private",
        had the security name "local" and the group name "local", and hence had
        full access (both GET and SET, as well as NOTIFY) to the whole of the
        MIB tree (or at least everything under .1, which covers most things!)

           Note that the three occurrences of "public", as community string,
        security name and group name, were three totally separate things.
        You can't use a community string in a security name field, or either
        of these as a group name (or vice versa), unless you set up suitable
        entries to map one name onto the other.

          With SNMPv3, the security name is part of the basic protocol, and can
        be used directly in a group definition.

        And here concludes our tour of the view-based access control mechanism.
        Phew!

      How do I configure SNMPv3 users?
      -------------------------------

          Create a file /var/ucd-snmp/snmpd.conf file, containing the line

      	createUser {myUser} MD5 {myPassword} DES

        (where {myUser} and {myPassword} are the appropriate values, _without_
        the braces!).  Then start (or re-start) the snmpd agent.
        This will create the new user.  See the access control entries above
        for how to use this, and the file 'README.snmpv3' for more details.

      The 'createUser' line disappears when I start the agent.  Why?
      -------------------------------------------------------------

          That's deliberate.   The agent removes the (human-readable) 'createUser'
        directive, and replaces it with an equivalent 'usmUser'.  This
        contains the same information, but in a form that's only meaningful
        internally.  This means that the password is not longer stored in
        a human-readable form.  Additionally, the password has been converted
        to a key that can only be used to access the local machine.  If someone
        stole the new usmUser line on this machine, they could not use that
        information to access any of your other agents.

      What's the difference between /var/ucd-snmp and /usr/local/share/snmp?
      ---------------------------------------------------------------------

          Most "static" agent configuration should go in the traditional location
        (typically /usr/local/share/snmp/snmpd.conf or /etc/snmp).   The
        /var/ucd-snmp (or /var/net-snmp) location is used for information set during
        the running of the agent, which needs to be persistent between one run of
        the agent and the next.

          Putting the 'createUser' line in this persistent file is an exception,
        for security reasons (see above).  In general you shouldn't need to put
        anything else here.

      My new agent is ignoring the old snmpd.conf file. Why?
      -----------------------------------------------------

          The most likely explanation is that the new version of the agent is
        looking in a different location than the previous one.  This is commonly
        experienced when replacing a ready-installed version (e.g. from a vendor
        distribution), with the current release installed from the source.

          The default location for this file with the basic distribution is
        /usr/local/share/snmp/snmpd.conf (or PREFIX/share/snmp/snmpd.conf).
        Ready-installed versions often look for the file as /etc/snmpd.conf,
        or /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf.  Try moving the old config file to the new
        location, and restart the agent.

          With release 5.0, the name of the package changed from "ucd-snmp"
        to "net-snmp", and this change was reflected in the name of the persistent
        /var directory.  So a v5 Net-SNMP agent will not look in
        /var/ucd-snmp/snmpd.conf for settings from a v4 UCD agent.

      Why am I getting "Connection refused"?
      -------------------------------------

          This is actually nothing to do with the access control mechanism
        (though that's an understandable mistake).  This is the result of
        the TCP wrapper mechanism using the files 'hosts.allow' and 'hosts.deny'
        to control access to the service.  Some distributions may come with
        this enabled automatically - otherwise you need to select it explicitly
        by configuring using '--with-libwrap'.

          The simplest way to avoid this problem is to add the line

      		snmpd: ALL

        in the file /etc/hosts.allow (or wherever this file is on your system).
        Though be aware that doing this removes one level of protection and allows
        anyone to try and query your agent (though the agent's own access control
        mechanisms can still be used to restrict what - if anything - they can see).

        Note that personal firewalls (such as Linux' ipchains or iptables mechanism)
        may have a similar effect (though typically this won't be logged).
        See the earlier entry
          Requests always seem to timeout, and don't give me anything back.  Why?

      I'm getting errors about "bad security model" - why?
      ----------------------------------------------------

        Until release 4.2, the access control handling accepted the token "any"
        to cover all of the recognised security models.  This is explicitly
        forbidden in the relevant RFC, so support for this is being withdrawn.
          As an interim measure, it is currently accepted (with the warning you
        see), but this will not be the case in future releases of the agent.

          You should replace the token 'any' with 'v1', 'v2c' or 'usm' as
        appropriate.  If you want to support all three of these security models,
        you'll need to use three distinct group lines, one for each. See the
        example snmpd.conf file for details.

      I'm getting errors about "bad prefix match parameter" - why?
      ------------------------------------------------------------

        This is similar to the previous question.  With 4.2, the syntax of the
        'access' configure line has changed, and a value of '0' is no longer
        acceptable for the sixth field.  Simply replace this with the word 'exact'.

      Why can't I see values in the UCDavis 'extensible' or 'disk' trees?
      ------------------------------------------------------------------

        Both these trees are designed to report things you ask it to report
        on.  If you don't declare anything in the snmpd.conf file for it to
        monitor, it will not report anything.  See the snmpd.conf manual page
        and the EXAMPLE.conf file for details on configuring the agent.

        Optionally, run snmpconf -g monitoring to help you set up this
        section of the snmpd.conf file.

      Why can't I see values in the UCDavis 'memory' or 'vmstat' trees?
      ----------------------------------------------------------------

        These mib modules are not supported on all operating systems, and
        will not be included on any other system.  Currently, they are only
        supported on Linux, HP-UX (memory only), Solaris, BSDi (vmstat on
        BSDi4 only), Dynix, FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD.
          If you want to help port it to other systems, let us know.

        Note that these subtrees only report the current usage when
        explicitly queried.  They do *not* generate traps when the
        usage strays outside the configured bounds.
        See the earlier FAQ entry
          What traps are sent by the agent?

      What do the CPU statistics mean - is this the load average?
      ----------------------------------------------------------

        No.  Unfortunately, the original definition of the various CPU statistics
        was a little vague.  It referred to a "percentage", without specifying
        what period this should be calculated over.  It was therefore
        implemented slightly differently on different architectures.

          Recent releases includes "raw counters", which can be used to
        calculate the percentage usage over any desired period.  This is
        the "right" way to handle things in the SNMP model.  The original
        flawed percentage objects should not be used, and will be removed
        in a future release of the agent.

          Note that this is different from the Unix load average, which is
        available via the loadTable, and is supported on all architectures.

      How do I get percentage CPU utilization using ssCpuRawIdle?
      -----------------------------------------------------------

        This one of the "raw counters" mentioned in the previous entry.
        You need to take two readings of this object and look at the
        difference between them.  That difference divided by the total
        number of 'ticks' between the two readings (where one tick is
        probably 0.01 seconds) will give you the percentage utilization
        over that period.

      What about multi-processor systems?
      ----------------------------------

          Sorry - the CPU statistics (both original percentages, and the
        newer raw statistics) both refer to the system as a whole.  There
        is currently no way to access individual statistics for a particular
        processor (except on Solaris systems - see below).

          Note that although the Host Resources table includes a hrProcessorTable,
        the current implementation suffers from two major flaws.  Firstly, it
        doesn't currently recognise the presence of multiple processors, and
        simply assumes that all systems have precisely one CPU.  Secondly, it
        doesn't calculate the hrProcessorLoad value correctly, and either returns
        a dummy value (based on the load average) or nothing at all.

          As of net-snmp version 5.1, the Solaris operating system delivers some
        information about multiple CPU's such as speed and type.

          Other than that, to monitor a multi-processor system, you're currently
        out of luck.  We hope to address this in a future release of the agent.
        But you've got the source, so you can always have a go yourself :-)

      The speed/type of my network interfaces is wrong - how can I fix it?
      -------------------------------------------------------------------

          Some operating systems will provide a mechanism for determining
        the speed and type of network interfaces, but many do not.  In this
        case, the agent attempts to guess the most appropriate values, based
        on the name of the interface.
          Version 4.2 allows you to override these guessed values, using the
        configuration directive 'interface', specifying the name, type and
        speed of a particular interface.  This is particularly useful for
        fast-ethernet, or dial-up interfaces, where the speed cannot be
        guessed from the name.
          See the snmpd.conf(5) man page for details.

      The interface statistics for my subinterfaces are all zero - why?
      ----------------------------------------------------------------

          Unfortunately, most kernels that support multiple logical
        interfaces on a single physical interface, don't keep separate
        statistics for each of these.  They simply report the overall
        statistics for the physical interface itself.
          There's no easy way around this problem - the agent can only
        report such values as it can find out.  If the kernel doesn't
        keep track of these figures, the agent can't report them.
          Sorry!

      What does "klread:  bad address" mean?
      -------------------------------------

        This means that the agent was unable to extract some of the
        necessary information from the kernel structures.  This is
        possibly due to:
      	- either looking in the wrong place for kernel information
      		(check the value of KERNEL_LOC)
      	- an error in the implementation of part of the MIB tree
      		for that architecture.  Try and identify which
      		OID is generating the error, and contact the
      		list 'net-snmp-coders@lists.sourceforge.net'
      		Remember to tell us what architecture you have!

      What does "nlist err:  wombat not found" (or similar) mean?
      ----------------------------------------------------------

        This means that the agent wasn't able to locate one of the
        kernel structures it was looking for.  This may or may not
        be important - some systems provide alternative mechanisms
        for obtaining the necessary information - Solaris, for example,
        can produce a whole slew of such messages, but still provide
        the correct information.
          This error only occurs if you have used the flag
        '--enable-debugging' as part of the initial configuration.
        Reconfigure the agent with '--disable-debugging' and these
        messages will disappear.  (It won't fix the underlying problem,
        but at least you won't be nagged about it).

      How about "Can't open /dev/kmem"?
      --------------------------------

        This device is normally restricted to just being accessible by root
        (or possibly by a special group such as 'kmem' or 'sys').  The agent
        must be able to read this device to obtain the necessary information
        about the running system.
          Check that the agent was started by root, and is running with UID 0
        (or suitable GID if appropriate).  The agent will normally continue
        to run without this level of access permission, but won't be able to
        report values for many of the variables (particularly those relating
        to network statistics).

      The agent is complaining about 'snmpd.conf'.  Where is this?
      -----------------------------------------------------------

        It doesn't exist in the distribution as shipped.  You need to
        create it to reflect your local requirement.
          To get started, you can either just create this as an empty file,
        or run snmpconf to help you create one.
          See the snmpd.conf(5) manual page for further details.

      The system uptime (sysUpTime) returned is wrong!
      -----------------------------------------------

        Oh no it's not.
        The defined meaning of 'sysUpTime' is
      	"the time ... since the *network management*
      	 portion of the system was re-initialized."

        In other words, when the snmp agent was started, not when the
        system itself last booted.  This latter information is available
        in the Host Resources MIB as "host.hrSystem.hrSystemUpTime"
        Note that even if the full Host Resources is not supported on
        your system, it's worth configuring in the system portion using

      		'--with-mib-modules=host/hr_system'

        and recompiling.  This particular group is reasonably likely to
        work, even if some of the other more system-specific groups don't.

      How can I reduce the memory footprint?
      --------------------------------------

        In order to reduce the memory footprint (for instance, to
        embed the snmpd into a device), the following configure options
        could be used.

        '--disable-debugging'
           This turns off all compilation of debugging info.

        '--enable-mini-agent' '--with-out-mib-modules=examples/ucdDemoPublic'
           This creates an agent the minimum amount of MIB modules
           compiled in.
           NOTE: If you need more MIB modules add then with the option
           '--with-mib-modules=...' you add of course extra memory footprint.

        '--with-transports=UDP'
           This option specifies the transports domain you need.
           For a simple agent UDP should be sufficient.

         '--without-kmem-usage'
           This can be used in order not to include the code that
           operates on the /dev/kmem. This option cannot be used when
           you do want a MIB module compiled in that depends on it.

         '--with-mibdirs=' and '--with-mibs='
           These options specify not loading the MIB modules for the
           agent. It reduces the memory footprint only during
           runtime.

        On top of this one could even attempt to exclude the complete
        MIB loading functionality, but there is currently no
        configure option for this.

        Once the agent (snmpd) has been linked, you might also try running
        'strip snmpd' to remove un-necessary debug/symbol information.

      COMPILING
      =========

      How do I compile with 'cc' instead of 'gcc'?
      -------------------------------------------

        Run configure with --with-cc=cc

        Note that if you've already run configure once, it will probably have
        detected the presence of 'gcc', cached this information, and may still
        try to use this anyway.   In which case, simply remove the 'config.cache'
        file before re-running configure.

      But gcc doesn't compile it successfully on my new Solaris system. Why not?
      -------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Whenever you upgrade the operating system under Solaris, you need to
        reinstall gcc, and run the 'fixincludes' script.  (This is probably
        a sensible step to take when you upgrade any operating system).
          Under Solaris 2.6, there is also a bug in the gcc 'fixinc.sv4' script.
        This needs an additional line as follows:

      *** fixinc.svr4.cln     Thu Jun 15 22:03:29 1995
      --- fixinc.svr4 Tue Nov 25 09:47:57 1997
      ***************
      *** 191,191 ****
      --- 191,192 ----
                s/__STDC__ - 0 == 0/!defined (__STRICT_ANSI__)/g
      +         s/__STDC__ - 0 == 1/defined (__STRICT_ANSI__)/g

        NOTE: This appears to have been resolved.

      On RedHat 8.0 or up I get "/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lelf"?
      ----------------------------------------------------------

        RedHat 8.0 and up doesn't come with libelf installed (properly) by
        default.  In order to build Net-SNMP you'll need the elfutils-devel
        rpm installed, which you currently don't have.

        Alternatively, this could quickly fix the problem without requiring
        the -devel rpm installed (as this is one of the things the -devel rpm
        does when you install it):

          cd /usr/lib ; ln -s libelf.so.1 libelf.so

        Note that this will only affect you if you are trying to compile in
        the host resources mib support, as it'll try to use the rpm libraries
        which will in turn require that libelf.a or libelf.so be present.

      I'm getting an error "autoheader: not found" - what's wrong?
      -----------------------------------------------------------

          This usually appears when compiling the current development source
        version, obtained via CVS.  Unfortunately, the timestamps on some of
        the configure files are such that make assumes (mistakenly) that the
        configure script needs to be re-generated.
          A similar problem may arise relating to 'autoconf'.

          In both cases, this can be corrected by running the command
        "make -k touchit" before attempting to make the main package.

      What about a failed dependency on 'libcrypto'?  Where can I get that?
      --------------------------------------------------------------------

          This is typically encountered when installing a Linux RPM of
        the ucd-snmp package.  This library is part of the 'openssl'
        suite, so simply install that RPM first, or download the source
        from ftp://ftp.openssl.org and compile and install that.

          When compiling {UCD,Net}-SNMP from source, the configure script
        should detect that this library is not present, and use alternative
        arrangements for MD5-based authentication.

          If encryption (or SHA1-based authentication) is required, then
        this typically requires compiling from source.  Under Linux, both
        the 'openssl' and 'openssl-devel' RPMs should be installed, and the
        'config.cache' file removed before running "configure --with-openssl"
        and re-compiling.

      Why is the project workspace empty under Visual C++?
      ---------------------------------------------------

          This is probably due to the different ways that Unix and Windows
        handle text file line termination.  Older versions of WinZip don't
        handle this properly, and Visual C++ gets confused (poor dear!).
        The latest version of WinZip is reported to unpack this correctly.

      Why does 'make test' skip five tests?
      -----------------------------------

          You mean T053agentv1trap, T054agentv2ctrap, T055agentv1mintrap,
        T056agentv2cmintrap and T113agentxtrap?

          These tests rely upon functionality in the NET-SNMP-EXAMPLES-MIB
        which is not implemented in the default agent configuration.  To
        include these tests, invoke the `configure` script to include
            '--with-mib-modules="examples/example".

      Why does 'make test' complain about a pid file?
      -----------------------------------------------

          Typically it says something like:

          cat:  cannot open /tmp/snmp-test-1-8694/*pid*

          It's trying to tell you the port is blocked - typically because
        another copy of the agent is still running, left over from from a
        previous testing run.

        If you type 'ps -ef' you should notice an orphaned process like:

        snmpd -d -r -U -P /tmp/snmp-test-5-27295/snmpd.pid...

        Kill this process.

        This could be happening for several reasons including:

          1.  You are trying to do concurrent runs of 'make test'.

          2.  On a slow machine, the agent might be taking too long to
            start up. Try changing the value of the variable SNMP_SLEEP
            in testing/RUNTESTS from 1 to something higher - say 3 or 5.

      CODING
      ======

      How do I write C code to integrate with the agent?
      -------------------------------------------------

        At the moment, there are three methods for integrating external C code
        within the agent.

          The code can be included within the agent itself, statically configured
        and linked in when the agent is compiled.  Alternatively, with the 4.2
        release of the agent, it's possible to dynamically load MIB modules once
        the agent is running.  Finally, the agent can be configured to pass certain
        portions of the MIB tree off to one or more subagents.  See the earlier
        question on AgentX, SMUX and proxied SNMP for more details.

          All three mechanisms use the same module API.  This is described (in
        excruciating detail) in the file AGENT.txt, shipped with the standard
        distribution.  There is also an HTML version accessible via the project
        web page.  This task can be aided using the tool 'mib2c' which generates
        most of the necessary skeleton code from the description in the MIB file.

          Note that the UCD suite does not include support for SMUX subagents.

      How does the agent fetch the value of a variable from the system?
      ----------------------------------------------------------------

        Much of the information is extracted from kernel memory - usually
        by seeking to the appropriate location and reading the structures
        directly.
          Some systems provide cleaner interfaces to such kernel information
        (it would be hard to think of a less clean interface!), via ioctl()
        calls or similar system routines and these mechanisms are usually used
        in preference.

      Mib2c complains about a missing "mib reference" - what does this mean?
      ---------------------------------------------------------------------

          This basically means that it hasn't loaded the MIB file containing
        the definition of the MIB subtree you're trying to implement.  This
        might be because it hasn't been installed, the name is wrong, or
        (most likely), because it isn't in the default list.  See the MIBS
        section for more details.

      Mib2c complains about not having a "valid OID" - what does this mean?
      ---------------------------------------------------------------------

          This probably means that you gave it the name of a MIB file (or
        module), rather than the name of an object defined in that file.
        Mib2c expects the name of a 'root' object, and will generate a
        template for the sub-tree starting from there.

          If you've got a file 'MY-MIB.txt', defining the MIB module
        'MY-MIB' which contains a subtree based on the object 'myMib',
        then you should invoke mib2c as
                  "mib2c .... myMib"
        rather than
                  "mib2c .... MY-MIB.txt"
        or        "mib2c .... MY-MIB"

          Note that you'll probably also have to add your MIB to the list of
        MIBs that are loaded automatically, in order for mib2c to recognise
        the name of this object.  So the command would typically be
                  "MIBS=+MY-MIB mib2c .... myMib"
        or        "MIBS=ALL     mib2c .... myMib"

      Why doesn't Mib2c like the MIB file I'm giving it?
      -------------------------------------------------

          This is the same problem as above.  Mib2c takes the name of a MIB
        object, not the name of a file (or a MIB module).  Try using the
        name of the MODULE-IDENTITY definition.

      Mib2c ignores my MIB and generates a pair of 'mib-2' code files.  Why?
      ---------------------------------------------------------------------

          This is the same problem as above -  giving mib2c the name of
        the file containing the MIB, rather than an object within it.
        Earlier versions of mib2c didn't detect this situation, and
        rather than report an error, it merrily constructed a template
        for a default starting point of the mib-2 node.

        More recent versions issue the error mentioned above, instead.

      Mib2c complains about "configuration files". What's this for?
      ------------------------------------------------------------

          You've probably upgraded to the v5 net-snmp release (from the
        v4 ucd-snmp release).  This introduced a new approach to agent
        module development, including a number of different "helpers".
        The mib2c tool comes with configurations to generate code for
        many of these, but you'll need to select which is most convenient
        for your particular case.

      Which mib2c configuration file should I use?
      -------------------------------------------

          If the MIB contains scalar objects, then use the config file
        'mib2c.scalar.conf'.   This will generate template handlers for
        these scalar objects (ignoring internal structural definitions,
        table objects and notifications).

          If the MIB contains tables, then there are number of possible
        choices.  There are at least four configuration files that will
        generate template handlers for table objects (ignoring internal
        internal structural definitions, scalar objects and notifications).
        Which to use depends on the characteristics of the table being
        modelled (in particular where the data is held), and preferences
        as to the style of code structure.

          The config file 'mib2c.create-dataset.conf' assumes that the
        data is held internally within the agent, and generates a single
        handler routine for each table.  Most of the processing is handled
        internally within the agent, so this handler routine is really
        only needed if particular column objects require special processing.

          The config file 'mib2c.iterate.conf' is aimed at tables which
        model data held external to the agent (not necessarily ordered
        according to the MIB indexing requirements).  It generates a pair
        of "iteration" routines, which can be used to step through the
        table, to select the appropriate row for any given request.
        This row is then passed to the (single) table handler routine,
        which handles the rest of the processing for all of the column
        objects (for both GET and SET requests).

          There is also a similar 'mib2c.iterate_access.conf' which
        builds on this, but generates a series of individual routines
        for handling GET or SET requests for each column object.

          The config file 'mib2c.array-user.conf' is again primarily
        aimed at data held within the agent (although it can also be used
        with external data).  In contrast to the single handler routine of
        the first two approaches, this generates a series of separate
        template routines to handle different aspects of processing the
        request.  As with the 'mib2c.create-dataset.conf' approach, much
        of the processing is handled internally.  Many of the generated
        routines can be deleted if the relevant objects need no special
        processing.

          The most recent 'mfd' (or 'MIBs For Dummies') configuration takes
        this idea of small (often optional) 'stub' routines even further.
        This generates a collection of separate *files*, each of which
        implements a particular aspect of the table processing.  The idea
        here is to have lots of "baby steps", rather than have all the
        processing dealt with in one place.

          There are also some other 'mib2c' configuration files, for more
        specialised requirements (e.g. generating notifications, "watched"
        scalar objects, or code that is compatible with the v4 UCD agent
        API), but these are the main choices for most requirements.

      How can I have Mib2c generate code for both scalars and tables?
      --------------------------------------------------------------

          The v5 Net-SNMP mib2c tool uses separate configuration files to
        generate code for scalar objects, and for tables.  This means that
        it's not possible to automatically generate a single code file
        that supports both scalars and tables.

          Instead, it's necessary to generate the two code files separately,
        and then combine the two files manually.  The handler routines from
        one file can simply be included in the other with no changes needed.
        The corresponding registration of these handlers can then be copied
        from the first initialisation routine into the second.

      Are there any examples, or documentation?
      -------------------------------------------

          Most of the MIB modules shipped with the Net-SNMP agent still
        use the v4 "traditional" MIB module API, but a few use one of the
        newer v5 helper-based handlers.

          The dataset handler is used in the two DISMAN-EVENT-MIB modules
        (disman/mteEventTable and disman/mteEventNotificationTable), as
        well as the 'snmptrapd' implementation of logging incoming traps
        (apps/notification_log)

          The basic iterator handler is used in a number of modules, such
        as the latest TCP and UDP table implementations (mibII/tcpTable &
        mibII/udpTable), VACM context handling (mibII/vacm_context) and
        various tables relating to agent internals (agent/*).  These show
        a number of different approaches to using the iterator helper, so
        it's worth comparing them.

          The two examples/netSnmpHostsTable* modules provide a contrast
        between the iterator and iterator_access helpers.

          The Net-SNMP agent does not currently include any MIB modules
        using the array-user container-based helper.  The best examples
        of this are to be found in the net-policy project.
        See http://net-policy.sourceforge.net/

      I've created a new module with 'mib2c' but it doesn't work.  Why not?
      --------------------------------------------------------------------

          Remember that 'mib2c' generates a template for the MIB implementation.
        It doesn't fill in all the details for you.  In particular, it cannot
        know how to obtain the information needed to answer particular queries.
        That's the job of the MIB module programmer (you!) -  See the previous
        question for how to proceed.

          Essentially mib2c handles the syntax of the MIB implementation,
        leaving you to concentrate on the semantics.

      Where should I put the files produced by 'mib2c'?
      ------------------------------------------------

        If you're using the main source tree to compile your new module, then
        put these two files (mymib.[ch]) in the directory 'agent/mibgroup'.
        You should then re-run configure to add in your new module
        ("configure --with-mib-modules=mymib") and recompile.

          If you've got a number of new modules to add, it might be
        sensible to put them all into a single subdirectory of 'mibgroup'.
        Then create a header file, listing the individual components.
        This might look something like:

      		config_require(mymib/myObjects)
      		config_require(mymib/myTable)
      		config_require(mymib/myOtherTable)

        If this was saved as the file 'mymib.h', then the same configure
        line given above, would pull in all three modules.  See the
        current contents of 'agent/mibgroup' for examples of this.

      Mib2c only handles a single table in my MIB. How can I fix this?
      ---------------------------------------------------------------

          This was a bug in the mib2c script, which was corrected with
        the 4.2 release.  Earlier versions can be fixed by applying the
        following patch:

      	$ diff -u mib2c.cln mib2c
      	--- mib2c.cln   Wed Nov 29 15:12:47 2000
      	+++ mib2c       Wed Nov 29 15:13:18 2000
      	@@ -132,6 +132,6 @@
      	 #============================================
      	 foreach $vtable (@table_list) {
      	     foreach $ptable (@processtable) {
      	-       $variables{$ptable}{'processed'} =
      	+       $variables{$ptable}{'processed'} .=
      	            (eval "\"$variables{$ptable}{'code'}\"") . "\n\n";
      	     }

      How can I support a large table, with more than 256 column objects?
      ------------------------------------------------------------------

          This is a problem (at least apparently) with the v4 UCD module
        API, which uses a "magic number" to distinguish between the various
        column objects implemented by a common variable handling routine.
        Since this field is defined as an unsigned character, it can only
        take values 0-255.   So it would appear that the agent cannot
        support tables (or scalar groups) with more than 256 objects,
        since this would start to duplicate these magic numbers.

          However, the agent doesn't actually care which routine implements
        a given object, and magic numbers only need to be unique within a
        single variable handling routine.  So it is actually perfectly
        possible to implement a larger table by splitting it between two
        (or more) variable handling routines.  These can then re-use the
        magic numbers quite safely:

          struct variable1 [] = {
             {MAGIC1,   ASN_INTEGER, RWRITE, var_myfirst,  1, {  1}},
             {MAGIC2,   ASN_INTEGER, RWRITE, var_myfirst,  1, {  2}},
          		:
             {MAGIC255, ASN_INTEGER, RWRITE, var_myfirst,  1, {255}},
             {MAGIC1,   ASN_INTEGER, RWRITE, var_mysecond, 1, {256}},
             {MAGIC2,   ASN_INTEGER, RWRITE, var_mysecond, 1, {257}},
          		:
             {MAGIC255, ASN_INTEGER, RWRITE, var_mysecond, 1, {510}}
          };

        All that matters is that a given magic number isn't re-used within
        the same variable handling routine.  The v5 table handlers typically
        use an integer variable for holding column information, so aren't
        subject to the same limitations.

          Though I'd have to question whether having such a wide table is
        necessarily a particularly good design strategy!

      How can I get the agent to generate a trap (or inform)?
      ------------------------------------------------------

          Generating a trap is reasonably simple - just call one of the
        trap API routines 'send_easy_trap()' or 'send_v2trap' with the
        relevant information (generic and specific trap values, or a
        varbind list respectively).  See the 'snmp_trap_api(3)' man page
        for details.

          The 'mib2c.notify.conf' configuration file can be used to
        construct a suitable template routine for generating a trap,
        including building the variable list from the MIB trap
        definition.  These variables can then be given suitable values,
        before invoking the 'send_v2trap' call to actually send the trap.

          Note that these APIs are only available within the agent (or
        subagents), and are not available to stand-alone applications.
        The code for 'snmptrap' shows an approach to use in such a case.

          Determining _when_ to generate the trap (either directly or
        via the mib2c-generated routine) is often harder.  If the trap
        is generated in response to some action within the agent, (e.g.
        as the result of a SET), then this isn't too much of a problem.

          But if the trap is intended to report on a change of status
        (e.g. a network interface going up or down, or a disk filling up),
        then actually detecting this is non-trivial.   It's necessary to
        poll the value(s) on a regular basis, save the results and compare
        them with the new values the next time round.

          With the v4 UCD agent, this would have to be done manually,
        using the routines documented in 'snmp_alarm(3)'.  The v5 Net-SNMP
        agent has implemented the Distributed Management Event MIB, which
        provides this functionality in a flexible, standardised manner.
        See the 'snmpd.conf(5)' man page (under DISMAN-EVENT-MIB) for
        details (including the need for an 'agentSecName' setting).

      What if I'm using an AgentX sub-agent instead?
      ---------------------------------------------

          That doesn't matter - the routines described in 'snmp_trap_api(3)'
        can still be used, and the subagent will do the Right Thing.

        One of the original design aims of the AgentX support was that this
        should be transparent to a MIB module implementer.  The agent-module
        interface should be independent of the protocol used to receive the
        original request.  So the exact same MIB module code could be used
        within a traditional SNMP-only agent, or an AgentX subagent, with no
        changes needed.
          In fact, the main agent supplied as part of the package can indeed
        be run as an SNMP agent or an AgentX subagent, simply based on command
        line flags (or similar configuration options).

      MISC
      ======

      Why are packets requesting the same information larger with UC-Davis SNMP?
      -------------------------------------------------------------------------

          This shouldn't happen with version 4.2 or later, but for older
        version the following still applies:

          Some users note that UCD-SNMP applications always generate larger PDUs
        than other SNMP packages, even if the information requested is the same.
        Further, there are some agents that refuse PDUs from UCD-SNMP applications
        but accept PDUs from other applications.

        UCD-SNMP is based on the CMU code from a long time ago which encoded things
        using the long form of length encoding.  Some agents use the short form
        of length encoding only, and do not understand the long form.

          This should not be a problem with UCD v4.2 or higher, or the Net-SNMP
        releases.

      What ASN.1 parser is used?
      -------------------------

        The parser used by both the agent and client programs is coded by hand.
        This parser has recently been re-vamped to allow control of which of
        the available MIBs should be included, and to handle duplicate object
        subidentifiers.
          The source code can be found in the snmplib directory (in 'parse.c'),
        and the parser is usually bundled into the library 'libsnmp.a'

          Note that the parser attempts to be fairly forgiving of some common
        errors and incompatibilities in MIB files.  The Net-SNMP tools accepting
        a MIB file without complaint does *not* imply that the MIB is strictly
        correct.
          Certain MIBs may need some amendments to allow them to be read
        correctly by the parser.  Contact the coders' list for advice.

      What is the Official Slogan of the net-snmp-coders list?
      -------------------------------------------------------

        "The current implementation is non-obvious and may need to be improved."
      	(with thanks to Rohit Dube)

        And an alternate, added 26-Apr-2000:

        "In theory, it shouldn't be that hard, but it just needs to be done."

  Last modified: Sat Mar 20 21:53:39 2004