Secure Network Management Protocol (SNMP)

The Secure Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is a UDP-based network protocol. A detailed explanation of the concepts of SNMP is beyond the scope of this guide. The protocol is used in network management systems to monitor devices that may need attention on the network. SNMP supplies device variables, which can be queried by managing applications. SNMP thus allows OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance to be monitored by a managing application.

The authentication and privacy encryption of an SNMP client must be properly configured to connect to OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance. In addition, you can add more information to the SNMP server by enabling the Performance Monitoring Counter plug-in (see Performance monitoring).

Supported SNMP versions

OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance supports the following SNMP versions:

• Version 2c (for use on trusted networks)
• Version 3 (secure communication with authentication and encryption)

SNMP usage in OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance

In OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance, SNMP is used for querying statistics and for system monitoring purposes.

Querying statistics

SNMP is used to query OneSpan Authentication Server statistics and system statistics. Querying OneSpan Authentication Server statistics includes, for instance, the number of authentication requests and failed authentications. Querying system statistics includes memory usage, disk usage, system load etc.

Using SNMP for system monitoring

SNMP is also used for system monitoring purposes to alert system administrators of certain events by creating and sending targets as SNMP traps.

We recommend to monitor the following types of events:

• System OS events
• OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance Configuration Tool events
• OneSpan Authentication Server events

For more information about the practical usage of SNMP with OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance system monitoring, see System monitoring, notifications, and OS traps or refer to the OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance Administrator Guide. For a list of the relevant field and file descriptions, refer to the OneSpan Authentication Server Appliance Administrator Guide.