SNMPv3 Agent

1. What are the differences between SNMPv2 agent and SNMPv3 agent? What additional features does SNMPv3 agent provide?
2. Does SNMP agent provide data security?
3. What are the different security levels of SNMPv3 agent?
4. What should I do to add a new user to view the management information of the SNMPv3 agent?
5. Does SNMP Master agent support SNMPv3?
6. How is Master-subagent concept handled in SNMPv3 agent?
7. Is there any tool available for manipulating USM and VACM tables of SNMP v3 agent during runtime?

1. What are the differences between SNMPv2 agent and SNMPv3 agent? What additional features does SNMPv3 agent provide?

The major difference between SNMPv2 agent and SNMPv3 agent is based on the level of security provided by each type of agents.

SNMPv2 agent provides community-based security level to the users whereas SNMPv3 agent is an advanced version of SNMPv2 agent that provides additional administrative structure, authentication, and privacy through USM and VACM. For more details on advanced security level of SNMPv3 agent, refer to "Configuring SNMPv3 Agents" from the help documentation.

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2.Does SNMP agent provide data security?

Yes. SNMPv3 provides a secured environment during data transmission in the  network. There can be possibilities where SNMP messages are easily intercepted and decoded by unauthorized personnel. To avoid this, SNMPv3 agent provides secured communication of data in the network.

Questions

3. What are the different security levels of SNMPv3 agent?

SNMPv3 agent provides the following three levels of security: 

No Authentication and No privacy ( noAuthNoPriv) 
Authentication but no Privacy (authNoPriv) 
Authentication and Privacy (authPriv) 

A SNMPv3 request can be made on behalf of a user with any one of the above security levels.

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4.What should I do to add a new user to view the management information of the SNMPv3 agent?

Any number of users can be added to view the information of SNMPv3 agents through USM table, which is a default security model provided by SNMPv3. The user entries can be entered to the USM table either before agent startup or during runtime. Refer "Adding More Users for v3 Agents (USM)" of our help documenation for further details. To add new users to the USM table at runtime, refer "SNMP V3 Administration Tool" of our help documentation.

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5. Does SNMP Master agent support SNMPv3?

Yes.

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6. How is Master-subagent concept handled in SNMPv3 agent?

The SNMP Agent Toolkit enables secured transmission of data between the manager application and the master agent by making the master agent SNMPv3.

When the request is sent to the master agent, it processes the request in accordance with the proxy table and sends SNMPv1/v2c request to the sub-agents connected to it.

Questions

7. Is there any tool available for manipulating USM and VACM tables of SNMP v3 agent during runtime?

The contents of USM and VACM related tables can be viewed and manipulated using SNMP v3 Administration Tool during the agent runtime. For more information regarding the usage of this tool, refer the "SNMPv3 Admin Tool" page in our help documentation.