Configuring SNMP Community Strings

SNMP community strings determine the access privileges (read-only and read-write) of SNMP clients with the device's SNMP agent for SNMPv1 and SNMPv2 users. You can configure up to 10 SNMP community strings. The device's SNMP agent accepts SNMP Get (read-only) and Set (read-write) requests only if the correct community string is used in the request.

● SNMP community strings are applicable only to SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c. SNMPv3 uses username-password authentication along with an encryption key (see Configuring SNMPv3 Users).
● If you configure SNMPv3 users (see Configuring SNMPv3 Users), the device automatically deletes all configured SNMP community strings in the SNMP Community Strings table. In addition, the device ignores all SNMP requests (Get and Set operations) from SNMPv2 users, sending the authenticationFailure SNMP trap.
● If you don't configure any community strings, the default community strings are “public” and “private”.
● The read-only community strings must be different to the read-write community strings.
● You can enhance security by configuring Trusted Managers (see Configuring SNMP Trusted Managers). A Trusted Manager is an address from which the SNMP agent accepts Get and Set requests.

The following procedure describes how to configure SNMP Community Strings through the Web interface. You can also configure it through ini file [SNMPCommunityStrings] or CLI (configure system > snmp settings > community-strings).

➢ To configure SNMP Community Strings:
1. Open the SNMP Community Strings table (Setup menu > Administration tab > SNMP folder > SNMP Community Strings).
2. Click New; the following dialog box appears:

3. Configure an SNMP community string according to the parameters described in the table below.
4. Click Apply, and then reset the device with a save-to-flash for your settings to take effect.

SNMP Community Strings Table Parameter Descriptions

Parameter

Description

'Index'

[SNMPCommunityStrings_Index]

Defines an index number for the new table row.

Note: Each row must be configured with a unique index.

'Name'

name

[SNMPCommunityStrings_Name]

Defines a descriptive name for the SNMP community string.

The valid value is a string of up to 31 characters.

'Password'

password

[SNMPCommunityStrings_Password]

Defines a password (string) for the SNMP community string.

The valid value is a string of up to 30 characters that can include only the following:

■ Uppercase letters (A to Z)
■ Lowercase letters (a to z)
■ Numbers (0 to 9)
■ Hyphen (-)
■ Underline (_)

For example: "Public-comm_string1".

Note:

■ The parameter cannot be configured with wide characters.
■ The password cannot contain spaces.
■ To enforce the use of strong passwords (password complexity), configure the [[EnforcePasswordComplexity]] parameter to [1].
■ The read-only community strings must be different to the read-write community strings.

'Group'

group

[SNMPCommunityStrings_Group]

Defines the access privilege of the SNMP community string.

■ [0] Read-Only
■ [1] Read-Write (default)