Installation guide

Table Of Contents
Configure SNMP Settings for vCenter Server
To use SNMP with vCenter Server, you must configure SNMP settings using the vSphere Client.
Prerequisites
To complete the following task, the vSphere Client must be connected to a vCenter Server. In addition, you
need the DNS name and IP address of the SNMP receiver, the port number of the receiver, and the community
identifier.
Procedure
1 Select Administration > vCenter Server Settings.
2 If the vCenter Server is part of a connected group, in Current vCenter Server, select the appropriate server.
3 Click SNMP in the navigation list.
4 Enter the following information for the Primary Receiver of the SNMP traps.
Option Description
Receiver URL
The DNS name and IP address of the SNMP receiver.
Receiver port
The port number of the receiver to which the SNMP agent sends traps.
If the port value is empty, vCenter Server uses the default port, 162.
Community
The community identifier.
5 (Optional) Enable additional receivers in the Enable Receiver 2, Enable Receiver 3, and Enable Receiver
4 options.
6 Click OK.
The vCenter Server system is now ready to send traps to the management system you have specified.
What to do next
Configure your SNMP management software to receive and interpret data from the vCenter Server SNMP
agent. See “Configure SNMP Management Client Software,” on page 53.
Configure SNMP for ESX/ESXi
ESX/ESXi includes an SNMP agent embedded in hostd that can both send traps and receive polling requests
such as GET requests. This agent is referred to as the embedded SNMP agent.
Versions of ESX prior to ESX 4.0 included a Net-SNMP-based agent. You can continue to use this Net-SNMP-
based agent in ESX 4.0 with MIBs supplied by your hardware vendor and other third-party management
applications. However, to use the VMware MIB files, you must use the embedded SNMP agent.
By default, the embedded SNMP agent is disabled. To enable it, you must configure it using the vSphere CLI
command vicfg-snmp. For a complete reference to vicfg-snmp options, see vSphere Command-Line Interface
Installation and Reference Guide.
Prerequisites
SNMP configuration for ESX/ESXi requires the vSphere CLI. For information on installing and using the
vSphere CLI, see vSphere Command-Line Interface Installation and Reference Guide.
Procedure
1 Configure SNMP Communities on page 52
Before you enable the ESX/ESXi embedded SNMP agent, you must configure at least one community for
the agent.
Chapter 5 Configuring Hosts and vCenter Server
VMware, Inc. 51