Can SNMP monitor PC's/Servers?

Hi there,

I've seen some stuff written about SNMP and how it can monitor network devices (e.g routers) that support the SNMP protocol. However i was wondering, can SNMP be used to monitor PC's/Servers running modern operating systems (e.g Windows).

Thanks.

Yes, that is what snmp is for really.
If your asking wheather or not it can monitor browsing, etc.. then no
snmp is just a application level protocol by itself. Used to monitor NICs and such.

here are some referances:

http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/...o_doc/snmp.htm

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/SNMP.html

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/snmp-faq/part1/

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/snmp-faq/part2/

First Page on google

You can use SNMP to monitor networkdevices but you can also use it to monitor cpuload, memory usage, drivespace etc.. of your workstations/servers...

Edit: Just be careful when enabling SNMP on windows servers..
It uses the default community strings public/private (change this!),
it's a clear text protocol (everybody can read your community strings),
because it's UDP it's easy to spoof,
windows snmp will allow you to read/change useraccounts.

SNMPv2 and v3 uses better authentication and/or encryption but IIRC windows only supports v1.

Thanks alot for your replies, that info was very useful.

Do you know whether it is possible to access SNMP from Java ?

Thanks agian.

yes you can use java with snmp.
http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jsp...sageID=3891608
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/...ment/SNMP.html

Some other useful threads
http://www.antionline.com/showthread...highlight=snmp
http://www.antionline.com/showthread...highlight=snmp




Thanks

Sorry to keep banging on about this but i just have one more question relating to SNMP monitoring ...

If SNMP agents use MIB's (mangement information base) to store their information and in order to get to a certain variable of information you need to know the path (e.g. 1.5.2.1.2) down the tree to location it, then how do you know what that path is. I mean is there a standard set of path/variables that works for all devices supporting SNMP or do you need to find for example microsoft documentation in order to work out the MIB structure of their products?

MIBs are like DNS.. The only thing it does is make it easier for the user to remember.

Just like www.antionline.com is actually 63.146.109.212..
So is mgmt.mib-2.system.sysContact the same as 2.1.1.7 but a lot easier to remember.

http://e-docs.bea.com/snmpagnt/v210/mibref/1tmib.html