Configuring SNMP

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an Internet standard protocol used to manage components on an IP network. Its main use is to query the system for information and to monitor components in the network for messages that indicate that components require administrative attention. SNMP can be used to monitor the OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance system and performance, and can be configured using the OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance Configuration Tool.

Net-SNMP is a software suite to use and deploy SNMP. SNMP typically uses administrative machines which are referred to as managers. They monitor a group of components (machines, other devices) on a computer network. An agent is operated at all times on a managed network. This agent, which is a piece of software, reports events back to the applicable manager via SNMP.

OneSpan Authentication Server does not ship with a predefined set of events for which notifications can be sent out via SNMP traps (for more information about SNMP traps, see  System monitoring, notifications, and OS traps). Using the OneSpan Authentication Server Configuration Utility or the OneSpan Authentication Server Administration Web Interface, server administrators can define their own set of events for which they want to send out notifications. These events, raised via SNMP traps, are called security alerts. OneSpan Authentication Server uses a OneSpan vendor-specific SNMP trap definition to send out SNMP traps for these security alerts.

Monitoring OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance via a management application

It is possible to monitor OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance via a management application and an SNMP server. This feature allows you to request information from OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance via SNMP.

Additional information can be added to the SNMP server, when OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance performance monitoring is enabled (see  Performance monitoring).

Configuring SNMP settings

To monitor the OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance events via SNMP, the SNMP settings need to be configured.

To configure SNMP settings

1. Launch the OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance Configuration Tool and enter your credentials (see  Accessing OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance Configuration Tool and OneSpan Authentication Server Administration Web Interface).
2. Select Settings > SNMP.

3. Select the appropriate version of SNMP and add the related authentication information to use when querying the OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance SNMP server:

   • For version 2c or earlier: Type the read community password and the source address (Allow Query From) (see Figure: Configuring SNMP v2c).
   • For version 3: Type an authentication user name and select the types and passwords for the kind of authentication and privacy (see Figure: Configuring SNMP v3).

     
     Figure:  Configuring SNMP v2c

4. (OPTIONAL) Specify contact and location information for the management application in the Settings section.
5. Click Save.

The user name and password with SNMP version 3 for a managing application to authenticate with OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance can be freely chosen and defined in the monitoring settings. These credentials are not associated with a user account in the Administration Web Interface.

Additional references

For more information about the SNMP server configuration fields, refer to the OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance Administrator Reference.

Querying the SNMP server (Examples)

Here are examples outlining how to query the OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance SNMP server via an SNMP tool.

Ensure that all relevant MIB files are correctly found by the Net-SNMP tool you are using. For more information about third-party MIB files, refer to the documentation of the respective software tool. For more information about downloading OneSpan MIB files provided for OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance, see  Downloading OneSpan MIB files.

Query system information via SNMP version 2c with a MIB translated name system

snmpwalk -Os -v2c -c mycommunity 192.0.2.1 system
sysDescr.0 = STRING: "IDENTIKEY Appliance 3.6.7.99.5"
sysObjectID.0 = OID: linux
sysUpTimeInstance = Timeticks: (734) 0:00:07.34
sysContact.0 = STRING: "Unknown"
sysName.0 = STRING: "qa-auto-test"
sysLocation.0 = STRING: "Unknown"
sysServices.0 = INTEGER: 76

Query system information using SNMP version 2c and an SNMP OID number

snmpwalk -Os -v2c -c mycommunity 192.0.2.1 .1.3.6.1.2.1.1
sysDescr.0 = STRING: "IDENTIKEY Appliance 3.6.7.99.5"
sysObjectID.0 = OID: linux
sysUpTimeInstance = Timeticks: (734) 0:00:07.34
sysContact.0 = STRING: "Unknown"
sysName.0 = STRING: "qa-auto-test"
sysLocation.0 = STRING: "Unknown"
sysServices.0 = INTEGER: 76

Query system information using SNMP version 3 and an SNMP OID number

#snmpwalk -Os -v 3 -l authPriv -u my_user -a MD5 -A MyAuthPassword1 -x AES -
X MyPrivPassword1 192.0.2.1 .1.3.6.1.2.1.1
sysDescr.0 = STRING: "IDENTIKEY Appliance 3.6.7.99.5"
sysObjectID.0 = OID: linux
sysUpTimeInstance = Timeticks: (3505) 0:00:35.05
sysContact.0 = STRING: "Unknown"
sysName.0 = STRING: "qa-auto-test"
sysLocation.0 = STRING: "Unknown"
sysServices.0 = INTEGER: 76