Administer > Configure Incidents > Manage Incoming SNMP Traps > Send SNMP Notifications to NNMi

Configure Network Devices to Send SNMP Notifications to NNMi

An SNMP notification is a message sent from an SNMP agent (SNMPv1, SNMPv2c, or SNMPv3) on a network device to notify a network management system of an event on the network device. For example, an error occurred on the network device and its SNMP agent sent a notification. The notification might be either of the following:

  • An acknowledged inform (SNMP InformRequest): An inform is an acknowledged notification sent from one SNMP agent to another with the expectation of a reply from the recipient. If no reply is received, the inform message is resent.
  • An unacknowledged trap: A trap is a notification sent from one SNMP agent to another without any expectation of a reply.

Configure SNMP agents in your network environment to send traps to the NNMi management server. Sometimes SNMP agents are configured with a recheck interval, so the trap might be sent to the NNMi management server over and over again until the problem is corrected.

The NNMi Causal Engine analyzes these traps and gathers additional information to determine the root cause. It also provides useful troubleshooting information each time an important SNMP notification is received, including the following information:

  • The name or address of the node from which the notification came (Source Node)
  • The notification identification (SNMP Object ID)
  • Notification-specific variables (varbinds)

When configuring the SNMP agent for each network device, configure the trap-forwarding list (or trap-destination list) to include the NNMi management server's fully-qualified hostname or IP address. Refer to documentation for the SNMP agent for information about how to do this. If the NNMi management server is included on the trap-forwarding list, NNMi receives notice when something goes wrong (even if the device does not show up on your NNMi maps).

For an SNMP notification to be processed by NNMi, it must be configured using the NNMi Incidents folder workspace. Many common SNMP notifications are configured in NNMi by default. See Configure SNMP Trap Incidents and SNMP Trap Incident Configurations Provided by NNMi for more information.