Install and configure SNMP on Ubuntu

This guide describe howto install and configure SNMP on Ubuntu.

In an earlier article I have described howto set it up on RHES or CentOS, it is slightly different in Ubuntu.

1.Installation

root@ibsen:~# sudo apt-get install snmpd
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree      
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libmpich1.0gf libdc1394-22 genisoimage linux-headers-2.6.27-7 libgfortran2 dvd+rw-tools linux-headers-2.6.27-7-generic libcarp-clan-perl libxml-xql-perl libparse-yapp-perl
  rdate python-xml localechooser-data gcc-4.2-base libimage-size-perl libdebconfclient0 libvisual-0.4-0 libmyth-python perlmagick libvisual-0.4-plugins libavdevice52
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following extra packages will be installed:
  libperl5.10 libsensors3 libsnmp-base libsnmp15
Suggested packages:
  lm-sensors
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libperl5.10 libsensors3 libsnmp-base libsnmp15 snmpd
0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
Need to get 2463kB of archives.
After this operation, 7987kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

answer y

2. Configuration

Move existing /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf configuration file to /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf.org

mv /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf  /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf.org

Create a new /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf file:

rocommunity  public
syslocation  "PDC, Peters DataCenter"
syscontact  peter@it-slav.net

Make snmpd use the newly created file and make it listen to all interfaces:

Edit /etc/default/snmpd

Change from:

# snmpd options (use syslog, close stdin/out/err).
SNMPDOPTS='-Lsd -Lf /dev/null -u snmp -I -smux -p /var/run/snmpd.pid 127.0.0.1'

To:

# snmpd options (use syslog, close stdin/out/err).
#SNMPDOPTS='-Lsd -Lf /dev/null -u snmp -I -smux -p /var/run/snmpd.pid 127.0.0.1'
SNMPDOPTS='-Lsd -Lf /dev/null -u snmp -I -smux -p /var/run/snmpd.pid -c /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf'

and restart snmpd

/etc/init.d/snmpd restart

3. Test

Do a snmpwalk from another host against your newly configured host.

[root@op5 ~]# snmpwalk -v 1 -c public -O e ibsen
SNMPv2-MIB::sysDescr.0 = STRING: Linux ibsen 2.6.27-9-generic #1 SMP Thu Nov 20 21:57:00 UTC 2008 i686
SNMPv2-MIB::sysObjectID.0 = OID: NET-SNMP-MIB::netSnmpAgentOIDs.10
DISMAN-EVENT-MIB::sysUpTimeInstance = Timeticks: (68869) 0:11:28.69
SNMPv2-MIB::sysContact.0 = STRING: peter@it-slav.net
SNMPv2-MIB::sysName.0 = STRING: ibsen
SNMPv2-MIB::sysLocation.0 = STRING: "PDC, Peters DataCenter"
SNMPv2-MIB::sysORLastChange.0 = Timeticks: (1) 0:00:00.01
SNMPv2-MIB::sysORID.1 = OID: SNMP-FRAMEWORK-MIB::snmpFrameworkMIBCompliance
SNMPv2-MIB::sysORID.2 = OID: SNMP-MPD-MIB::snmpMPDCompliance
SNMPv2-MIB::sysORID.3 = OID: SNMP-USER-BASED-SM-MIB::usmMIBCompliance
SNMPv2-MIB::sysORID.4 = OID: SNMPv2-MIB::snmpMIB
SNMPv2-MIB::sysORID.5 = OID: TCP-MIB::tcpMIB
SNMPv2-MIB::sysORID.6 = OID: IP-MIB::ip

Yes it works!!

4. Monitor example

Below is an example of how it looks using op5 Monitor a Nagios based Enterprise Monitor solution.

5. Useful links

• op5 Statistics, a cacti based graph tool
• op5 Monitor, an Enterprise Class Monitoring system based on Nagios
• Net-SNMP, an open source implementation of SNMP
• Cacti, an open source graph tool
• Nagios, the number 1 monitor tool

Source: http://www.it-slav.net/blogs/2009/02/05/install-and-configure-snmp-on-ubuntu/

Locking APT packages to spesific version

I never knew this until i was really need this. My Firefox automatically upgraded and some of the add-on became incompatible.

If you are using synaptic, you can force a package to specific version. Select

Packages -> Force Version

Then, you ll be given option to use which version to use.

To lock the package from being upgraded. You can lock the package by select the specific package, then select

Packages -> Lock Version

Quite simple and useful. However only do this when u are really needed to.