System information

344 Observer Suite: SNMP Management
malfunctioning. When an agent is down, the Event Log displays a message indicating that
SNMP Management Console exceeded the number of retries while attempting to poll the
agent. Another type of error is reply packet parsing errors. If these errors appear, either the
SNMP agent is malfunctioning or it's sending reply objects not supported by SNMP
Extension.
Collecting SNMP Agent Information
After opening an Agent Information window, you may collect information from SNMP
agents for display in charts, lists, forms, or tables. Charts are used for time-dependent
information. Lists and tables are used for both time-dependent and time-independent
information. Forms display SNMP data in a graphical format. Each collection mode is
discussed below.
Collecting Chart Information
Chart displays are limited to numerical time-dependent information; therefore, MIB
objects such as IP addresses, octet strings, hardware addresses, bitfields, enumerated
integers, and different constant integers are not candidates for chart requests. In general,
three types of variables do not fit well in charts:
• Non-numerical variables that cannot be displayed in any reasonable way in the chart
format (e.g., names).
• Constants: change of a value in time (the differential of the value) will always be
equal to zero.
• Table objects are not displayed in charts.
Chart requests are created and modified using the MIB Editor. See “Using the MIB
Editor” on page 354.
To receive chart information from an agent, select the Charts tree item in the SNMP Agent
Requests area. Then double-click on the chart you would like to view. This will display