SNMP community strings

[HMidkiff]

I have a fairly large topology now.  It has grown over the years.  Since the beginning I have used one SNMP community string.  I am getting ready to deploy a new SNMP server and am thinking about changing.  Would it be better to use one community string for each location rather than one for the whole company?  I can see pros and cons of both ways.

Harrison

[ddastoli]

Hi Harrison,

If you are using SNMPv2, then you may know community strings will always be sent in clear text to the box.

If you are looking for security I would rather go for SNMPv3.

If you are not, I would rather suggest you simplicity, therefore you may want to use one SNMP community string for the whole company.

Unless you may want to use the community string in order to "differentiate" locations (i.e. I am thinking if you poll the whole company network and want to discovery only devices within a certain locations, having defined a specific community would help you to receive replies only from those devices).

Hope this helps.

Domenico.