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. You can configure up to five read-only SNMP community strings and up to five read-write 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.

You can also configure a unique password-like community string used for sending SNMP traps. The device sends the traps with the community string.

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SNMP community strings are applicable only to SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c. SNMPv3 uses username-password authentication along with an encryption key (see Configuring SNMP V3 Users).

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If you configure SNMPv3 users (see Configuring SNMPv3 Users), the device ignores all SNMP requests (Get and Set operations) from SNMPv2 users (sends the authenticationFailure trap).

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The read-only community strings must be different to the read-write community strings.

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You can enhance security by configuring Trusted Managers (see Configuring SNMP Trusted Managers). A Trusted Manager is an IP address from which the SNMP agent accepts Get and Set requests.

For detailed descriptions of the SNMP parameters, see SNMP Parameters

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To configure SNMP community strings:

Open the SNMP Community Settings page (Setup menu > Administration tab > SNMP folder > SNMP Community Settings).

Under the Read-Only Community Strings group, in the 'Read-Only' fields, configure read-only community strings:

Under the Read-Write Community Strings group, in the 'Read-Write' fields, configure read-write community strings:

Under the Misc. Settings group, in the 'Trap Community String' field, configure a community string for SNMP traps:

Click Apply, and then restart the device with a save-to-flash for your settings to take effect.

You can hide (default) and show entered community strings, by toggling the hide and show buttons provided by each field.

To delete a community string, delete the configured string, click Apply, and then restart the device with a save-to-flash for your settings to take effect.

SNMP Community String Parameter Descriptions

Parameter

Description

'Read-Only'

configure system > snmp settings > ro-community-string

[SNMPReadOnlyCommunityStringsPassword_x]

Defines read-only SNMP community strings. Up to five read-only community strings can be configured.

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

■

Upper- and lower-case letters (a to z, and A to Z)

■

Numbers (0 to 9)

■

Hyphen (-)

■

Underline (_)

For example, "Public-comm_string1".

The default is "public".

Note:

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The password can't be configured with wide characters.

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The password can't contain spaces.

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To enforce the use of strong passwords (password complexity), configure the [EnforcePasswordComplexity] parameter to [1].

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The read-only community strings must be different to the read-write community strings.

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For ini file configuration, x is 0 for the 'Read-Only 1' parameter.

'Read-Write'

configure system > snmp settings > rw-community-string

[SNMPReadWriteCommunityStringsPassword_x]

Defines read-write SNMP community strings. Up to five read-write community strings can be configured.

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

■

Upper- and lower-case letters (a to z, and A to Z)

■

Numbers (0 to 9)

■

Hyphen (-)

■

Underline (_)

For example, "Private-comm_string1".

The default is "private".

Note:

■

The parameter can't contain wide characters.

■

The password can't contain spaces.

■

To enforce the use of strong passwords (password complexity), configure the [EnforcePasswordComplexity] parameter to [1].

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The read-write community strings must be different to the read-only community strings.

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For ini file configuration, x is 0 for the 'Read-Write 1' parameter.

'Trap Community String'

configure system > snmp trap > community-string

[SNMPTrapCommunityStringPassword]

Defines the community string for SNMP traps.

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

■

Upper- and lower-case letters (a to z, and A to Z)

■

Numbers (0 to 9)

■

Hyphen (-)

■

Underline (_)

For example, "Trap-comm_string1".

The default is "trapuser".

Note: The parameter cannot be configured with wide characters.