The Simple Network Management Protocol is a standard way of managing devices connected to networks based on the Internet Protocol. Each SNMP "manager" can monitor in detail the operation of remote devices -- "clients" -- such as switches and routers and, in some cases, reconfigure them as well. In particular, the SNMP standard includes a mechanism for having clients send asynchronous notifications -- "traps" -- to managers at the time events deemed significant happen. You can configure your Ubuntu computer to receive and process SNMP traps from clients.
Step 1
Press the "Ctrl", "Alt" and "F1" keys at the Ubuntu login prompt to bring up a text-mode login prompt. Log in as your regular user. Ubuntu will present you with a command-line prompt, a "shell".
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Step 2
Elevate the shell's privileges to superuser by typing the following command:
sudo -l
Press "Enter." Type your password, and press "Enter" again.
Step 3
Download and install the SNMP manager utilities by typing the following command:
apt-get install snmpd
Press "Enter."
Step 4
Open file "/etc/snmp/snmpd.conf" with a text editor, search for the line containing the words "master agentx" and remove the initial "#" character from that line. Save the file and exit the editor.
Step 5
Open file "/etc/snmp/snmptrapd.conf" with a text editor and add the following line at the end of the file:
TRAPDRUN=yes
Save the file and exit the editor.
Step 6
Type the following commands to start the SNMP manager services and the logging of incoming traps:
/etc/init.d/snmpd restart snmptrapd -P -F "%02.2h:%02.2j TRAP%w.%q from %A\n"
Press "Enter" after each line. At that point, snmptrapd will be listening for incoming SNMP traps. When snmptrapd receives a trap, it will log it to standard output, indicating the time of the day, the trap code and the host name of the device that originated the trap.
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