An interrupt- base system has the managed device send messages to the server when some conditions warrant

it. This way, the server knows of any problems immediately-unless the device crashes, in which case noticification must be from another device that tried to connect to the crashed device. Interrupt-based devices have their own problems, too. Primary among the problems is need assemble a message to the server, Which can require a lot of CPU cycles, all of which are taken away from the devices normal task. This can cause bottlenecks and other problems on that device. If the message to be sent is large, as it would be if contains a lot of statistics, the network can suffer a lot of statistics, the network can suffer a noticeable degradation while the message is assembled and transmitted. If there is a majour failure some where on the network, such as power grid down and uninterruptible power supplies kicking in, each SNMP-managed device may try to send interruptdriven message to the server at the same time to report the problem. This can swamp the network and result in incorrect information at the server. A combination of polling and interruption is often used to get by all these problems. The combination called trap-directed polling, involves the server polling for statistics at intervals or when directed by the system administrator. In addition, each SNMP-managed device can generate an interrupt message when certain conditions occur, but these tend to be more rigorously defined than in a pure interrupt-diven system. For example, if you use interrupt-only SNMP, a router may report load increases every 10 percent. If you use trap-directed polling, you will know the load from the regular polling and can instruct the router to send an interrupt only when a significant increases in load is experienced. After receiving an interrupt message with trap-directed polling, the server can further query the device for more details, if necessary. An SNMP server software package can communicate with the SNMP agent and transfer or request a number of different type of information. Usually, the server will request ststistics from the agent, including number of packets handled, status of the device, special conditions associated with the device type (such as out of paper indications or loss of connections from a modem), and processor load. The server can send instructions to the agent to modify entries in its database (the Management Information base). The server can also send thresholds or conditions under which the SNMP agent should generate an interrupt message to the server, such as when CPU load reaches 90 percent.

Communication between the server and the agent are accomplished in a fairly straightforward manner, although they tend to use abstract notation for message contents. For example, the server might send a What is your current load message and receive back a 75% message.The agent never sends data to the server unless an interrupt is generated or a poll request is made. This means that some long-standing problems can exist without the SNMP server knowing about them, simply because a poll wasnt concluded or an interrupt generated.

Management Information Base

Every SNMP- managed device maintains a database that contains statistics and other data. This database is called a Management Information Base, or MIB. The MIB entries have four pieces of information in them: an object type, a syntax, an access field, and a status field. MIB entries are usually standardized by the protocols and follow strict formatting rules by Abstract syntax Notation One (ASN.1). The object type is the name of the particular entry, usually as asimple name. The syntax is the value type, such as a string or integer. Not all entries in an MIB will have avalue. The Access field is used to define the level of accessible. The status field contains an indication of whether the entry in the MIB is mandatory (Which means the managed device must implement the entry), optional (the managed device may implement the entry), or obsolete (not used). There are two types of MIB in use, called MIB-1 and MIB-2.The structures are different. MIB-1 was used starting in 1988 and has 114 entries entries in the table, divided into groups. For a managed device to claim to be MIB-1-compatible, it must handle all the groups that are applicable to it. For example, a managed printer doesnt have to implement all the entries that deal with the exterior Gateway protocol (EGP), which is usually implemented only by routers and similar devices. Instead, to be MIB-1-compatible, it needs to address only those issues a printer has to deal with. MIB-2 is a 1990 enhancement of MIB-1, made up of 171 entries in 10 groups. The additions expand on some of the basic group entries in MIB-1 and add three new groups. As with MIB-1, an SNMP device that claims to be MIB-2-complaint must implement all those groups applicable to that type of device. You will find many devices that are MIB-1-complaint but not MIB-2-complaint.