About Snmp point discovery
Loading the MIB
“Loading the MIB” is the process where the point manager compiles, reads, and displays points in the table pane of the Snmp Point Manager view.
When you click the Discover button, the Snmp Point Manager opens the Select MIB(s) to load dialog box.
The “MIB to load” field allows for specifying the MIB and populating the point table based on the MIB file that you select. When a MIB file is “loaded”, the MIB file and any dependent files are read into memory. The object types that are available for a device are limited to those types that are defined in the MIB file. Loading the MIB is a client-side operation that does not require remote communication. If you do not select the “Walk the MIB?” option, no data values are determined for point types that are defined in the MIB. This might be an option that you use when you are developing an application offline. After developing your application, you can “walk” the MIB when you can establish communication between the Snmp agent and manager applications.
NOTE: The resulting table contains only MIB entries for the most recent MIB file to be compiled and loaded.
If there are errors when trying to compile the MIB files that you selected, an error message displays to indicate the errors encountered. For example, a missing dependent MIB file would cause an exception pop-up similar to the one shown below.
If no errors are encountered after issuing the Load MIB command, the MIB entries contained in the loaded MIB file appear in the table.
Loading the MIB
“Walking the MIB is where communication takes place between an agent (client) application and a manager application to discover the point values for those loaded point types that have values available.
Configuring dependent MIBs
Dependent MIBs may be required by the primary MIB. Any MIBs that are not already available in the snmp module may be placed in one or more accessible folders.
The Dependent MIB Directories dialog box provides a way to specify MIB file locations that satisfy dependencies of the primary MIB file.
This dialog box displays when you select Configure MIB Path from the right corner of the Discover button.
This is a time-saver if you have one or more locations where you store dependency MIBs. Once the folder locations are specified in this dialog box they are loaded any time that a Load MIB type command is issued (for example, Load MIB and Walk MIB).
NOTE: The Dependent MIBs list configuration is saved as a user option. Therefore, running
The Dependent MIB Directories dialog box allows you to add and remove MIB directories from a list, as described below:
- Click the Add button to navigate to a directory to add to the list.
- Use the Remove button to remove any selected directories from the list.