We have done something very similar to try to ease the maintenance burden of
community names, but we don't use the loadhosts command.
Instead, we define our NV collections (or "containers" as you call them) as
an "Object List" of devices that all use the same community name (we have
text files that contain all managed devices in NetView and these same files
are used for web documentation as well as creating our "Object List" NV
collections). We then define this one NV Collection name in the SNMP
Configuration. That way, NV will use the correct community name upon
initial discovery (it will use the global default otherwise and discovery
will be incorrect).
The loadhosts sounds like it should work too. I would verify the community
name in your cache for the specific device(s) using the "xnmsnmpconf -dumpC"
command before the "loadhosts" command and after. I wonder if the
"loadhosts" command is putting the global default community name in
automatically when this is executed? If it is, you can do the "xnmsnmpconf
-clearC" to clear the cache. Once a community name for a given IP address
is defined in the SNMP cache, NV will always use this community name until
the cache is emptied and the first process puts the community name back into
the cache.
We are noticing many problems with the SNMP community name cache in NV
5.1.1, and NV support has not been the most responsive on these issues. The
most common resolution is "define each IP address of every managed IP
interface in the SNMP configuration". Yeah, right, who is going to do
this???
Good luck and report a defect to support if "loadhosts" is putting incorrect
community name into the cache.
Joe Prokott - West Group
Network Architect
610 Opperman Drive
St. Paul, MN 55123
Phone: 651-687-4536
Fax: 651-687-6946
E-mail: joe.prokott@westgroup.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeffrey G. Fitzwater [mailto:jfitz@PRINCETON.EDU]
Sent: Friday, July 23, 1999 10:10 AM
To: NV-L@UCSBVM.UCSB.EDU
Subject: SNMP config community name presidence ???
I am running NV 5.1.1 on Solaris.
I have built the obj database using LOADHOSTS.
I use different snmp community names for different groups of devices.
After all the devices are loaded , I then set the default community name in
the snmpconf to one of the names I use.
I then do a demand poll on all devices loaded, to update object info to be
ISSNMP =YES.
I repeat this using all community names I need.
At this point the database knows all objects are SNMP.
I then create CONTAINERS grouped according to the different community names.
According to the manual, when you query a device that is snmp, it first
looks in the snmpconf file for a specific entry, if none exist it looks for
an IP range, if none exist it looks for a container and if none exist it
looks at default.
PROBLEM: After I create a container and set the community string for each
container, the system always uses the default.
But if I do an XNMSNMPCONF -RESOLVE (TARGET) it returns the container
community name as I would expect.
QUESTION: Is this the way it works or is it broke or am I setting
something wrong?
Thanks for any help.
Jeff Fitzwater
Princeton University
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