snmp configuration

[oramacs]

I recently starting using Solarwinds. SNMP is not setup on a lot of my Cisco gear and in the few places it is, it is not consistant. I was wondering if anyone has any exaples on SNMP configuration I could use as an example. This would be for 3560 and 2960 switches.

thanks,

 

[VinceWhirlwind]

Solarwinds actively queries your switches and routers, so all they need is a passive config: Corretc SNMP version, community name and string.

 

[oramacs]

Thank you.

When I add a Cisco device manually to be discovered by SNMP, it comes back as unknown. It test ok when I check the SNMP access.

 

[VinceWhirlwind]

I use Solarwinds to quickly tell me the state of a new network I have never seen before.
It's a bit second nature to me, so I can't think what I do exactly, but it would go something like:

1/ Log into a switch, preferably the "core", note SNMP settings, record IP address, use CDP and LLDP to find neighbours and draw a physical interconnection diagram

2/ Log into each discovered neighbour and repeat until I have a complete diagram, a list of all IP addresses and associated SNMP strings.

3/ Fire up Solarwinds. Add each discovered IP address in as a node and tick ALL objects.

4/ Go and get a coffee. Find all the cute girls in the building/campus and chat them up. Get a general feel for the users' experiences with the network and what they use it for. Talk to the boss and see if he knows what his employees are thinking.

5/ After a couple of hours, check Solarwinds stats. I'm looking for congested interfaces and Interfaces with errors.

Last one I did was hilarious. A couple of hours with Solarwinds and with no effort at all I found a weird routing issue causing traffic to hairpin out somewhere it shouldn't have been. The place had had an ongoing problem for over a year which was in the process of being escalated to the lawyers - all fixed after a couple of hours with Solarwinds.