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This is a book for SNMP users, not programmers. There is nothing about the on-the-wire protocol. The only mention of SNMP libraries is in the appendix on Net-SNMP (formerly ucdsnmp). It does cover both command line and GUI packages, both open source and proprietary (Net-SNMP, Cisco routers, H-P's OpenView, and Castle Rock's SNMPc Enterprise Edition). The covered platforms are predominately the various flavors of Windows and Unix, including Linux. Mac OS users won't find anything useful here. The publication date is July 2001, so this may have changed with MacOS X. While almost nobody is going to use all of these packages, it is useful to see what is available and what is possible (even if not affordable). SNMP is a platform independent protocol, so it is quite possible to use different packages on different platforms.
The target audience is system and network administrators, whether or not that's their title. Free and low cost packages suitable for SOHO networks are covered, as well as expensive, proprietary packages for those with the budget to go with the title. I liked the authors' broad treatment. Low end packages are suitable for small networks and are a good starting point for anyone just getting into SNMP. High end systems earn their keep monitoring and managing tens or even hundreds of systems. The authors also provide an overview of SNMP's possibilities.
I use SNMP predominately to feed data to the Multi Router Traffic Grapher (MRTG) package. MRTG provides much of the monitoring capability of a NMS. The chapter on MRTG is a good introduction, but not adequate to do much with it. MRTG is good at showing system activity and rudimentary trend analysis. To spot unusual system activity, it helps to know what the usual activity looks like. MRTG is good at this. The docs that came with MRTG were adequate for my initial installation. However, I was just following a cookbook approach. It broke when I upgraded my computer and I did not understand enough to fix it. All the SNMP docs I found on the Web assumed I knew the basics. Essential SNMP contains the basics and overview I needed. After reading it, I could understand the FAQs and fix my problems.
I looked at several SNMP books before buying this one. They were mostly immense tomes for enterprise sysadmins or programmers looking to make a career out of SNMP. I just wanted to use SNMP. This book was just the right level. It sticks to the practical, includes sample code that is useful and intelligible to the beginner, and expanded my notions of what's possible with SNMP. I like it.
-- Jeffrey Taylor (jeff.taylor@ieee.org)
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Explanation of ERCB rating scale:
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