SNMP set of standards provides a framework for the definition of management information along with a protocol for the exchange of that information. The SNMP model assumes the existence of managers and agents. A manager is a software module responsible for managing part or all of the configuration on behalf of network management applications and users. An agent is a software module in a managed device responsible for maintaining local management information and delivering that information to a manager via SNMP. A management information exchange can be initiated by the manager (via polling) or by the agent (via a trap). Agents function as collection devices that gather and send data about the managed resource in response to a request from a manager.
WebLogic supports SNMP for a long time starting from version 5.1. WebLogic SNMP enables you to move towards a single management console and thus provide integrated systems management of WebLogic Server based applications. Also WebLogic SNMP enables you to connect WebLogic Server to popular management systems such as HP OpenView, IBM Tivoli, MRTG, and Sun SunNet Manager. This makes managing WebLogic Server more effective by providing a whole-system perspective instead of piecemeal solutions.
In WebLogic Server Version 10.x SNMP implementation went through a lot of changes. Some of the important changes are:
- WebLogic Server SNMP implementation now supports SNMPv3 with SNMPv1 and SNMPv2. SNMPv3 provides additional security compared to prior versions.
- Previously only one SNMP agent per domain which runs on the Administration Server now you can create multiple agents on different servers. This removes the dependency with Administration Servers.
- Now custome MBeans can be monitored using SNMP in addition to standard WLS MBeans.
- The old command-line utilities are not deprecated and a new command-line utility is introduced - weblogic.diagnostics.snmp.cmdline.Manager
- SNMP agents in WLS can now use TCP port in addition to UDP Port which was the only option in the previous versions. And many of the configuration changes in SNMP are now dynamic which doesn't require start.
With more and more system and server administrator coming to the paradigm of administering application servers and enterprise applications, this will provide them a way to integrate WebLogic with enterprise level monitoring solutions.
