HP Systems Insight Manager 5.2 Update 2 Technical Reference Guide

widest range of network devices implementing the Internet protocols. Examples of these objects include
network protocols such as TCP/IP and network systems such as Ethernet network interfaces.
• Vendor MIBs. These MIBs represent objects that are unique to an individual vendor's product or
product line. Over 500 vendors and organizations have created their own vendor MIBs. HP was the
first personal computer company to develop a MIB-enabled SNMP management of system hardware.
SNMP supports both read and write (GET and SET) commands on attributes. Some vendors do not support
the SET command because of the potential to allow an unauthorized person to alter critical parameters on
a network element. HP SIM primarily only uses the SNMP GET command.
SNMP is associated with TCP/IP and used for monitoring systems on Ethernet networks because of its long
association with the Internet.
Since its inception, SNMP itself has undergone several updates, including SNMP V2c and SNMP V3. HP
SIM supports the original V1-compliant agents and the compilation of V1 and V2 MIBs. SNMP uses UDP
port 161 for monitoring systems, while traps are received on port 162.
If your CMS is an HP-UX or Linux system, HP SIM might need to co-exist with other applications using port
162. To accomplish this, use the following procedure to assign HP SIM to use a different port.
1. Open the globalsettings.props file located at
/etc/opt/mx/config/globalsettings.props.
2. Locate the SnmpTrapPortAddress property: SnmpTrapPortAddress=162 .
3. Modify this property by changing the port value to a different port number.
4. Restart HP SIM.
NOTE: HP SIM will not receive traps from the application using port 162 unless the application is configured
to forward traps to the port assigned to HP SIM.
NOTE: If the SnmpTrapPortAddress entry is deleted, HP SIM will default to port 162.
SNMP communication between systems is used to gather information about a system. HP SIM attempts SNMP
communications based on the number of SNMP retries you specify and only stops when the communication
is successful or the number of retries is exceeded. HP SIM also waits for SNMP responses between retries,
based on the timeout period. Finally, HP SIM can only communicate through SNMP when the community
string specified on the system and the community string specified for that system in HP SIM match. The
community string, "public," is a commonly used default. However, you can specify any community string
needed for your security requirements.
NOTE: Community strings on the managed system and the HP SIM community strings for the system must
match to manage the system through SNMP. Some SNMP management agents also provide IP address
filtering. Be sure the HP SIM IP address is in the allow list for any given SNMP agents.
DMI
The Desktop Management Task Force (DMTF), formed in 1992 and composed of leading PC industry vendors
and corporations, established a common, platform-independent process for specifying methods of managing
desktop hardware and software components. HP is a Steering Committee member of the DMTF and helped
to define the task force's two pieces of technology: the Desktop Management Interface (DMI) software and
the Management Information Format (MIF) language. DMI software serves as the liaison between
desktop-resident management programs, manageable hardware, and software components on the computer.
DMI is most commonly used for obtaining information from desktops, but some HP servers and workstations
do support DMI.
HTTP
HP SIM also takes advantage of the industry-standard HTTP protocol (used to transfer information over the
World Wide Web) for transportation of management information. Many systems support some kind of
configuration "home page" that is supported over HTTP or the secure HTTPS protocol. HP SIM attempts to
find HTTPS servers running on systems if the Global Protocol Settings page has this enabled. See “Setting
global protocols” for more information.
580 Administering systems and events