Complement your network monitoring with SNMP traps

02-Jun-2020 04:13 PM by Saranya

Network device monitoring with Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) gives you complete visibility into the health and availability of your network devices. Monitoring tools conduct periodic checks to gather device status and performance metrics.

The device's status is updated only when a check is initiated by the monitoring system in the defined time interval. Any fault that happens in between polls is only captured when the next check is initiated.

Let's say you've configured a check frequency of five minutes for your network devices. They were last checked at 10am, and a firewall's CPU spikes, disrupting the functioning of the device at 10:02. Before the spike is detected by the monitoring system during the 10:05 poll, the firewall could fail and cause serious damage to the network's security and data.

This is where SNMP traps make the life of a network administrator easy. SNMP traps automatically send out alert messages from network devices—in this case, the firewall—when an event occurs. The trap message is captured, and the monitoring system immediately alerts the user about the faulty device. SNMP traps are a way to diversify the alerting mechanism by relying on more than just the monitoring system's periodic checks on devices.

Site24x7 converts encrypted traps messages and displays them in a readable format to users, so quick remedial actions can be taken. To learn how you can configure trap management and troubleshoot network issues, watch this video.