Network, Networking Technology, Data Communication Terms, Glossary and Dictionary

SNMP Trap

SNMP traps are the messages sent by an SNMP agent to a manager that enable an agent to notify the management station of significant events by way of an unsolicited SNMP message. The idea behind the SNMP trap-directed notification is that: if a manager is responsible for a large number of devices, and each device has a large number of objects, it is impractical for him to poll or request information from every object on every device. The solution is for each agent on the managed device to notify the manager without solicitation. It does this by sending a message known as a trap of the event. After receiving the event, the manager displays it and may choose to take an action based on the event. For instance, the manager can poll the agent directly, or poll other associated device agents to get a better understanding of the event.

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SNMP Trap