HP SNMP/XL User's Guide (36922-90036)

A SNMP Variable Description

The following text describes the format of the variable-name parameter

of the snmpget, snmpnext, snmpset, and snmpwalk commands.

SNMP variable names are speciﬁed in the format of Abstract Syntax

Notation One (ASN.1) Object Identiﬁers. Each variable represents an

object speciﬁcation in the Management Information Base (MIB), which

is organized in a hierarchical tree-like manner.

Variables may be represented in several ways. Each variable name is

given in the format of A.B.C.D..., where A, B, C, and D are

subidentiﬁers in one of two forms of notation. Each subidentiﬁer may be

encoded as a decimal integer or as a symbolic name matching those

listed in the following section. The symbolic names are not

case-sensitive.

Fully speciﬁed variables begin with a dot(.).

If there is no leading dot (.) in the variable name, and if the ﬁrst

subidentiﬁer is the symbolic name hp, then the name is formed as if it

was preceded with iso.org.dod.internet.private.enterprises.

If there is no leading dot (.) in the variable name, and if the ﬁrst

subidentiﬁer is not the symbolic name hp, the name is formed as if it

was preceded with iso.org.dod.internet.mgmt.mib.

Variables contain two portions. The ﬁrst portion is the standardized

speciﬁcation of the variable, (that is, system.sysDescr). The second

portion is an instance speciﬁcation used to distinguish different

instances of the object in the same MIB. If there can only be one

instance, this part of the variable name is the subidentiﬁer zero 0, (that

is, system.sysDescr.0). See RFC 1213 for more information on object

instances. Refer to Appendix C , “SNMP Command Examples,” for

command examples.