SNMP Communities

Access rights in SNMPv1 and SNMPv2 are managed by defining communities in the SNMP Communities Page. The community is a type of shared password between the SNMP management station and the device, which is used to authenticate the SNMP management station.

Communities are only defined in SNMPv1 and v2 because SNMP v3 works with users instead of communities. The users belong to groups, which have access rights assigned to them.

The SNMP Communities Page associates communities with access rights, either directly (Basic Table) or through groups (Advanced Table).

To define SNMP communities:

Click SNMP > Communities. The SNMP Communities Page opens.

This page displays the basic and advanced tables.

Adding an SNMP Communities

Click Add in the SNMP Communities Page. The Add SNMP Community Page opens.

This page enables network managers to define and configure new SNMP communities.

If a station IP address is entered in the SNMP Management Station field below, enter the following fields (they are not relevant if All is chosen):

Supported IP Format — Select the supported IP version.
IPv6 Address Type — Select the supported IPv6 address type. The possible options are:
Link Local — IPv6 address is a link-local.
Global — IPv6 address is global.
Link Local Interface — Select the link-local interface. The possible options are:
VLAN2 — This VLAN is the link-local interface.
ISATAP — ISATAP tunnel is a link-local interface.
SNMP Management Station — Enter the management station IP address for which the SNMP community is defined. Click All to indicate that it applies to all IP addresses.
Community String — Enter the password used to authenticate the management station to the device.
Basic — Select this mode for a selected community. In this mode there is no connection to any group. You can only choose the community access level (R/O, R/W or Admin) and, optionally, further qualify it for a specific view (by default it applies to the entire MIB). If this is selected, enter the following fields:
Access Mode — Select the access rights of the community. The possible options are:
Read Only — Management access is restricted to read-only and changes cannot be made to the community.
Read Write — Management access is read-write and changes can be made to the device configuration, but not to the community.
SNMP Admin — User has access to all device configuration options, as well as permissions to modify the community. Admin is equivalent to Read Write for all MIBs except for the SNMP MIBs, themselves. Admin is required for access to the SNMP MIBs.
View Name — Select an SNMP view (parts of database to which access is granted).
Advanced — Select this mode for a selected community.
Group Name — Select an SNMP group, which then determines the access rights.