Enabling SNMP on HP-UX 11.11

[Joe Profaizer]

I have been told that I need to enable read access for SNMP on three of my HP-UX hosts. One is running 11.23 (Itanium). The other two or 11.11 (PA-RISC).
When I run ps -ef|grep snmp, I receive the following:
# ps -ef|grep snmp
root 1082 1 0 Jul 16 ? 0:00 /usr/sbin/snmpdm
oracle 3951 1 0 04:46:02 ? 0:00 /bin/sh /orasys/ora9205/bin/dbsnmpwd
root 12232 10495 0 14:23:44 pts/0 0:00 grep snmp
oracle 3954 3951 0 04:46:02 ? 1:11 /orasys/ora9205/bin/dbsnmp


So, is snmp configured for read access by default? They also provided me with a community string. I'm just not sure what files to modify in /etc/rc.config.d and other files I need to configure for SNMP read access and to work with such community string.

Thanks.

SNMP Novice

[Rick Garland · Accepted solution]

The setting of community strings is done in the /etc/snmp.conf file.

Changes to this file need to be followed by recycling the processes related to snmp.

[Joe Profaizer]

Currently there is no file. Do I just create it with the community string? I'm still kind of at a loss here.

Thanks!

[DCE]

Joe,

your snmp.conf file should look like this ( I copied from a working system - names changed to protect thr innocent)

#
get-community-name: public
set-community-name: # enter community name
#contact: # enter contact person for agent
#location: # enter location of agent
#max-trap-dest: # enter max no. of trap-dest entries to be maintained.
#trap-dest: # enter trap destination

[Joe Profaizer]

Thanks. So I just create the .conf file, then restart SNMP and I should be good to go?

[DCE]

yep

[Steven E. Protter]

The parameters in the snmp.conf file are usually set by someone who is responsible for making sure machines are on the network.

The strings are meaningless if not recognized by a central server that monitors.

Note 1:

There are is some clear text information/authentication, especially with older versions of SNMP.

Note 2:

The person that told you that you must implement SNMP needs to tell you what the community string and such should be.

Note 3:

There are MIB's that need to be installed to control what is monitored and what privledges the central SNMP server has on your machine.

Note 4:

There are some denial of service exploits that use SNMP to overwork machines and deny service to users. A look at security is in order as part of this project.

SEP

[Joe Profaizer]

OK. Last question. I see the following in /sbin/rc2.d. Do I restart them all?
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root sys 23 Apr 6 2004 /sbin/rc2.d/S560SnmpMaster -> /sbin/init.d/SnmpMaster
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root sys 23 Apr 6 2004 /sbin/rc2.d/S565SnmpHpunix -> /sbin/init.d/SnmpHpunix
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root sys 21 Apr 6 2004 /sbin/rc2.d/S565SnmpIpv6 -> /sbin/init.d/SnmpIpv6
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root sys 21 Apr 6 2004 /sbin/rc2.d/S565SnmpMib2 -> /sbin/init.d/SnmpMib2
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root sys 20 Apr 6 2004 /sbin/rc2.d/S565SnmpNaa -> /sbin/init.d/SnmpNaa
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root sys 23 Apr 6 2004 /sbin/rc2.d/S565SnmpTrpDst -> /sbin/init.d/SnmpTrpDst
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root sys 22 Apr 6 2004 /sbin/rc2.d/S576SnmpFddi4 -> /sbin/init.d/SnmpFddi4

[Joe Profaizer]

Thanks. I have it working now.