Configuring SNMP on a Windows 7 System

1. Click on the Windows Start button, select Control Panel, then System and Security, then Administrative Tools, then double-click on Services. Note: if you aren't logged into an administrator account, you need to right-click on Services, instead, and select Run as administrator and then provide the userid and password for an account with administrator privileges. Alternatively, after clicking on the Start button, you can type services in the "Search programs and files" field and hit Enter. Another alternative means for accesssing the services list is to type services.msc at a command prompt and hit Enter. Use the first method if you aren't logged into an administrator account.
2. Scroll down the list of services until you see "SNMP". If you only see SNMP Trap, as in the list below, you will need to add the SNMP agent service.

   

   To add the service take the following steps:

   1. Select Programs from within the Control Panel, then, under Programs and Features, select Turn Windows features on or off.
   2. Scroll down the list of Windows features until you see "Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)".

      

      Click in the check box next to the text to select SNMP then click on OK.

   Now, if you refresh the list of services, which you can do by clicking on Action then Refresh from within the Services window, you should see SNMP Service. The status for the service should be Started.

   

3. The next step is to configure the service, which you can do by clicking on SNMP Service to select it, then clicking on Action from the Services window and selecting Properties which should open an SNMP Service Properties (Local Computer) window.
   

   

4. Click on the Agent tab.

   

   Fill in the contact and location fields. The location field normally contains the physical location of the system; you can put anything you like in the fields. Check the check boxes next to Physical, Applications, and End-to-end. The meaning of the fields and check boxes is explained below:

   SNMP Agent controls

   Contact: Provides a location for you to type the name of the person who administers this computer.

   Location: Provides a location for you to type the physical location of the computer (for example, the building and office number).

   Service: There are five service-based options from which to choose. SNMP agents provide information about the SNMP host to the SNMP management system:

   • Physical: Specifies whether this computer manages physical devices, such as a hard disk.
   • Applications: Specifies whether this computer uses any applications that send data using TCP/IP.
   • Datalink and subnetwork: Specifies whether this computer manages a bridge.
   • Internet: Specifies whether this computer is an IP gateway (router).
   • End-to-end: Specifies whether this computer is an IP host.
5. Next click on the Traps tab.

   

   You don't have to configure traps, but doing so will allow the system to send notifications of significant events to an SNMP management system. For a fuller explanation of SNMP traps, see Understanding Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Traps and SNMP Traps in Windows Server. The SNMP Trap service does not need to be running on the Windows 7 system you are configuring; you only need to have it running if the system needs to receive SNMP traps, e.g., notifications from other systems.

   To configure the traps section, you will need to add a "community name", which will be sent to an SNMP management system along with the event being reported. It can be whatever you like, e.g., the name of the system, etc. A community name, also often referred to as a community string, acts as a password that is shared by one or more SNMP hosts. The SNMP agent can only send SNMP trap messages to SNMP hosts that use a known community name. Community names listed on the Traps tab are used only to authenticate outgoing SNMP trap messages. To authenticate all incoming SNMP trap messages, configure this SNMP host on the Security tab. Type whatever text you want to use for the community name in the community name field and then click on Add to list.

   The system will need to know where to send the trap, i.e., you need to identify the SNMP management system. Click on the Add button and then type the host name, or an IP or IPX address. IPX was used for Novell NetWare networks, but is little-used today, so for most people you will be using a host name or IP address, e.g. the name of another Windows computer that will be used for SNMP management or a host name, such as example.com or IP address, such as 192.168.0.3.

6. Next you need to click on the Security tab to configure the system to accept SNMP queries from whatever system or systems you will use for SNMP management of the system you are now configuring for SNMP.

   

   Send authentication trap: Specifies whether to send an SNMP trap message to all trap destinations if this SNMP host receives an SNMP request from an SNMP host or community that is not listed on the Security tab. Authentication is the process of verifying that a host name or address is valid. When the SNMP agent receives a request that does not contain a known community name or that is not sent from a member of the acceptable hosts list, the SNMP agent sends an authentication trap message to one or more trap destinations, indicating the failure of authentication.

   Accepted community names: Lists the community names whose member SNMP hosts are authenticated to send SNMP requests to this computer. A community name acts as a password that is shared by one or more SNMP hosts.

   Accepted community names are used to authenticate incoming messages only. To check outgoing messages, add the SNMP host as a trap destination on the Traps tab.

   The SNMP Trap service requires at least one community name. You can add multiple community names. If an SNMP request is received with a community name that is not on this list, the request will generate an authentication trap.

   When you click on the Add button to add a community name, you will see a window open where you can specify whether the community name can be used only for queries, i.e., "READ ONLY" or can also be used to modify information on the system, i.e., "READ WRITE".

   

   After adding a community name, click on either "Accept SNMP packets from any host" or "Accept SNMP packets from these hosts". If you select the latter, then click on the Add button beneath those choices and specify host names and/or IP addresses for the system or systems that will be allowed to issue SNMP queries to the system. If the system is accessible to the Internet without a firewall to protect it from systems on the Internet, don't select "Accept SNMP packets from any host", but, instead, specify the hosts that will be allowed to query the system via SNMP. If you accept SNMP packets from localhost, then you can issue SNMP queries from the system to itself to retrieve information by SNMP.

7. Click on OK when you are finished with the SNMP configuration.

If you see a Snmp Snapin Extension window open with the message "Failed to save a Registry key. This may be due to lack of resources. Try closing other Windows applications to fix the problem.", you may have opened the Services window from an account without administrative privileges. If so, you will have to click on OK to close that window then select Cancel and close the Services window. Then you will either have to log into an administrator account or right click on Services and select "Run as administrator". You can then configure SNMP as noted above.

If you need an SNMP test tool for a Windows system, you can download a free tool from the ManageEngine site at Free SNMP Walk Tool for Windows, Mac and Linux.

 

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Created: Saturday May 16, 2015