Words and Phrases
NNMi Communications
Network Node Manager i Software (NNMi) uses Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP ping)) to discover devices and to monitor device status and health.
Note If Web Agents are configured (in addition to SNMP Agents), NNMi can use additional protocols. For example, SOAPSimple Object Access Protocol protocol for VMwareVMware ESX and VMware ESXi software uses SOAP protocol to implement bare-metal hypervisors. environments.
To establish viable communication in your environment, you configure NNMi with the access credentials and appropriate timeout and retry values for different devices and areas of your network. You can disable a protocol in some areas of your network to reduce traffic or to respect firewalls.
The communication values that you configure form the foundation of NNMi discovery and state polling. NNMi applies the appropriate values for each device when making queries for discovery or polling. Thus, if you configure NNMi to disallow SNMP communication within some region of your network, neither NNMi discovery nor NNMi state polling can send SNMP requests to that region.
Caution If your devices use either SNMP v1 or SNMP v2C, note the following:
- SNMP v1 and SNMP v2C send their information packets in clear text.
- To secure your environment, use SNMP v3 or add protections, such as firewall controls, for the flow of SNMP traps and the collection of information from your devices.
This chapter contains the following topics: