Use snmp to detect cpu usage

[principles]

I'm quite new to snmp and I need some advice

I have a Lan of 5 computer. I want to monitor the information from the other 4 computers (network bandwith, memory usage, cpu usage etc ) from my computer.

Could I do that using SNMP? And could you brieftly tell me how?

I really need your help. Thanks

 

[nbowden]

Hi,

You need to look at using an SNMP-based network management tool such as MRTG to do this for you.

MRTG will plot the values of a number of SNMP MIB variables that will give you the type of information that you are after. Have a look at

http://www.mrtg.org.

Also, you need to run an SNMP agent on your PC's. This is the piece of software that will respond to the management software when it asks for various performance from your PC's. On Windows, you will have to install the Microsoft SNMP agent, which is a Windows component that you have to install from the Windows CD.

HTH.


Nigel Bowden

http://www.bowden-software.com

 

[principles]

Thanks Nigel. I'll try it to get more information about SNMP.

However, my ultimate object is developing some application using SNMP. That's mean in the long term, I'll need to work on SNMP protocol only, not on a third party application.

I have a may be stupid question: I check MRTG and find out they use this value to detect cpu usage:
1.3.6.1.4.1.9.2.1.58.0

Is it a particular value for MRTG only or it's a standard of SNMP protocol? And this value is only valid for a special device (cisco in this case) or I could poll any of my computer using this value for OID?

 

[nbowden]

Well, the value is not particular to MRTG, it is a value on the SNMP agent of the PC that is being interrogated.

The values are organised in to a MIB (Management Information Base) that is a tree structure of values. It is used to store various values that give information about the device (e.g. disk utilization, partition utilization etc.).

Different MIB tree locations (OID's) correspond to different values. The MIB value of 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.2.1.58.0 actually corresponds to the CPU utilisation of a Cisco router (in a Cisco MIB). On a PC, you will probably want to look at some value in the Host Resources MIB to find out the CPU utilization.

Hope this hasn't confused you too much. You need to get a good book on SNMP and spend some time getting to grips with it. Although the protocol is called Simple Network Management Protocol, its anything but simple when you start to get into the details of it.

HTH

Nigel Bowden

http://www.bowden-software.com