The host specification may be either a host name or an internet address specified in "dot notation"
The community specifies the community name for the transaction with the remote system.
For example
snmpget netdev-kbox.cc.cmu.edu public system.sysdescr.0 system.sysUpTime.0
will retrieve the variables sysDescr.0 and sysUpTime.0:
Name: system.sysDescr.0
OCTET STRING- (ascii): Kinetics FastPath2
Name: system.sysUpTime.0
Timeticks: (2270351) 6:18:23
If the network entity has an error processing the request packet, an error packet will be returned and a message will be shown, helping to pinpoint in what way the request was malformed. If there were other variables in the request, the request will be resent without the bad variable.
The agent and applications are all SNMPv1/SNMPv2c/SNMPv2u compatible. The version is that the application will use is selected by inspecting the first character of the community string provided to the application, as follows:
A community string that begins with a slash selects
the SNMPv2u protocol. The "community" string is parsed to build the parameters
for the communication. The format of the string is: /userName/[authKey]/[privKey]/[contextSelector]
Trailing slashes may be omitted. Both authKey and privKey may be specified
as hex or as a human readable password. To specify a hex key, the key
must begin with "0x" and be followed by exactly 32 hex digits (to form
a 16 octet key). If a human readable password is entered, the password
is passed through the "password to key algorithm" to generate the 16 octet
key. The password to key algorithm is specified in the "User-Based Security
Model for SNMPv2" RFC.
A "+" or "/" character may not start a SNMPv1 community string and may not be contained within any SNMPv2 parameters (this is an *implementation* restriction).
Some "community" string examples:
/joe -- qos=noAuth/noPriv, context="", userName="joe"
/boneless/chicken/ranch
-- qos=auth/priv, context="", userName="boneless"
authKey=pw2key("chicken"),
privKey=pw2key("ranch")
*note* privacy not supported, trying this
will generate
a UnsupportedQoS report.
/maplesyrup/sugarbush//other
-- qos=auth/noPriv, context="other", userName="maplesyrup"
authKey=pw2key("sugarbush",agentID)
/glenn/0x4ca25023b00a6689ef21cb1b6fa9cb0e
-- qos=auth/noPriv, context="",
userName="glenn"
authKey=4ca25023b00a6689ef21cb1b6fa9cb0e
(the
authKey is keyed using an agentID)
+public -- SNMPv2c using public as the
community string
public -- SNMPv1 using public as the community string