HP TCPIP Services for OpenVMS SNMP Programming and Reference

This document, "HP TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS SNMP Programming and Reference," dated January 2005 (Version 5.5 for OpenVMS I64 and Alpha 8.2), serves as a guide for experienced OpenVMS and UNIX system managers.

It details the features of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and the extensible SNMP (eSNMP) Application Programming Interface (API) provided with HP TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS.

The manual covers the eSNMP architecture, which supports SNMP Version 2 with a master agent and multiple subagents, including two resident subagents for Host Resources MIB and MIB II. Key topics include:

• eSNMP Architecture and Request Handling: An overview of how the master agent and subagents interact, and how SNMP requests (Get, GetNext, GetBulk, Set) are processed.
• Provided MIBs: Descriptions of the Host Resources MIB (RFC 1514) for operating system objects and MIB II (RFC 1213) for TCP/IP kernel objects, including their implemented groups, objects, and specific restrictions.
• Creating Subagents: A detailed guide on using the eSNMP API to develop custom MIB subagents. This involves defining MIB specifications using ASN.1, processing them with the MIB compiler to generate C modules, and then compiling, linking, and integrating these subagents into the OpenVMS startup and shutdown procedures.
• SNMP Utilities: Information on command-line tools provided for testing and analysis, such as the MIB browser (snmp_request), trap sender (snmp_trapsnd), and trap receiver (snmp_traprcv).
• eSNMP API Routines: Comprehensive reference information for the various API routines, categorized into interface routines (e.g., esnmp_init, esnmp_register, esnmp_trap), method routines (for Get and Set operations), and support routines (for data manipulation and OID handling).
• Troubleshooting: Aids for diagnosing eSNMP problems, including modifying subagent error limits, adjusting timeouts, and understanding the system's logging facilities.

The document assumes a working knowledge of TCP/IP networking and terminology, and is aimed at developers and system managers configuring and extending SNMP services on OpenVMS.