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Jarne
Asked: 2019-10-08 00:57:10 +0800 CST

What is the differece between snmp, snmpd and snmptrapd?

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I am new to the SNMP protocol. I try to configure SNMP-traps for Zabbix but I am confused what daemons I have to use. I need to install snmptrapd, but somehow snmpd is required for that:

sudo apt install snmptrapd
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  snmpd
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  snmpd snmptrapd
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 75 not upgraded.

What is the relationship between these 2 packages? Am I right that these 2 are daemons?

And what is inside the Ubuntu SNMP-package? What's the relationship between the snmp and snmpd packages?

snmp

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    A basic understanding of the SNMP protocol is really broader than what can be squeezed into this answer (and I'm probably not familiar enough to do a competent job) but in brief

    • snmp contains tools to talk to SNMP "agents".
    • snmpd contains a server which you can install on a device to implement such an "agent". It listens for SNMP client connections and delivers responses to requests for status reports.
    • snmptrapd is a server for listening to and reacting to a particular kind of messages from agents.

    A device which supports SNMP can tell you when something happens via a trap message. It can also provide statistics about its operation which you can request when you need them.

    So in an example scenario, you might install snmpd on a machine to report its disk usage, CPU, etc when you need these numbers, and in addition, perhaps configure it to generate a trap and send it to a central location when the disk utilization crosses a particular threshold. The central server connects periodically to collect statistics, and in addition, is prepared to receive a trap at any time.

    http://www.net-snmp.org contains a better and more comprehensive overview of the protocol and the components in this package.

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