SNMP Poll vs Trap

royalblues · ‎05-08-2006

Can anyone explain the diffrence between SNMP poll and Trap.

Also if i do a simple SNMP poll, what all information we can get with the community string provided

Richard Burts · ‎05-08-2006

In SNMP, messages are exchanged between the SNMP server and a remote device (for our discussion probably a router or a switch). The difference between a poll and a trap is which device initiates the communication. An SNMP poll is initiated by the server and the router or switch responds to the server. An SNMP trap is initiated by the router or switch when it has information to send (usually some event happened) and does not want to wait for the server to ask for information.

HTH

Rick

HTH

Rick

CiscOptimist · ‎10-04-2019

A trap is a notification that the device (router, switch, printer...) sends to the monitoring software (Manager/NMS) when some problem occurs. The polling process is when the monitoring software asks the device for his status/health, usually every 5 minutes.

On the link below you can find step by step explanation of traps and SNMP in general:

https://bestmonitoringtools.com/what-is-snmp-protocol-learn-step-by-step-manager-agent-mib-oid/#Poll_vs_Trap

ITGUYMC · ‎06-10-2020

Thank you for clarifying. This was extremely helpful.

Joseph W. Doherty · ‎06-10-2020

I noticed the other posters didn't address the OP's other question about what information you might obtain.

Well that's up to the manufacturer. Standards specified information is logically accessed in a tree structure, where the path in described by a set of integers (an OID - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_identifier). Standard also specifies where certain data should reside (a MIB - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_information_base) and standards allow the manufacturer to define whatever they want to provide as additional information. Normally, you can obtain a MIB definition from the manufacturer which reveals what information the device will provide. MIB definitions also have a structure that should be "loadable" into your management station.