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SNMP Condition
SNMP is a communication protocol for helping network administrators manage devices and peripherals
on their network. It is useful for verifying the status of network printers, as you can retrieve error and
other status messages that printers send out, such as being out of paper or having low toner.
PlanetPress Workflow uses the SNMP protocol in the form of an SNMP Condition, in two ways:
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To check the status of printers on your network against values you set in a condition, and to
return a true or false value. This is called setting a Printer condition in the SNMP condition's Prop-
erties dialog box.
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To check different values of printers or other SNMP compatible devices against conditions you
set, to return a true or false value. This is called setting a User defined condition in the SNMP con-
dition's Properties dialog box. You indicate what is called management information bases (MIB)
and object identifiers (OID) that are extensible and can be vendor specific.
Management Information Base Object Identifiers
A Management Information Base (MIB) is a database of Object Identifiers (OIDs) that can be used to
monitor device objects using SNMP. An MIB OID can point be a printer tray, cartridge or hard disk, or to
modem mode. Using an SNMP condition, PlanetPress Workflow can communicate with a device loc-
ated at a given IP address and request the status of the object identified by a given MIB OID number.
Object Identifiers are typically assigned and registered by device manufacturers. They are based on a
standard known as Abstract Syntax Notation One (often referred to as the ASN.1 standard).
Task properties
General Tab
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Parameters group
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Community: Enter the community name for the printer or other SNMP compliant device
you want to monitor. A community acts like a combination of a user and password granting
you access to an SNMP device. Depending on the community name, the device knows
what rights to grant, for example, read-only or read-write. Community names serve as a
form of organization and security used with SNMP. The community name must allow suf-
ficient access to the SNMP device to monitor it with the condition. Most SNMP devices
come with a public community name that usually gives you read-only and/or read-write
access. It is recommended to increase security on your network by entering community
names allowing varying levels of access depending on the particular device, its users, etc.
The community name tells the device which rights to grant PlanetPress Workflow (required
to perform the test).
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