> ## 1 SNMP Introduction

> The SNMP development tool provides an environment for rapid agent prototyping and construction. With the following information provided, this tool is used to set up a running multi-lingual SNMP agent:

> - a description of a Management Information Base (MIB) in Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1)
> - instrumentation functions for the managed objects in the MIB, written in Erlang.

> The advantage of using an extensible agent toolkit is to remove details such as type-checking, access rights, Protocol Data Unit (PDU), encoding, decoding, and trap distribution from the programmer, who only has to write the instrumentation functions, which implement the MIBs. The `get-next` function only has to be implemented for tables, and not for every variable in the global naming tree. This information can be deduced from the ASN.1 file.

> ### 1.1 Scope and Purpose

> This manual describes the SNMP development tool, as a component of the Erlang/Open Telecom Platform development environment. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the Erlang Development Environment, which is described in a separate User's Guide.

> ### 1.2 Prerequisites

> The following prerequisites is required for understanding the material in the SNMP User's Guide:

> - the basics of the Simple Network Management Protocol version 1 (SNMPv1)
> - the basics of the community-based Simple Network Management Protocol version 2 (SNMPv2c)
> - the basics of the Simple Network Management Protocol version 3 (SNMPv3)
> - the knowledge of defining MIBs using SMIv1 and SMIv2
> - familiarity with the Erlang system and Erlang programming

> The tool requires Erlang release 4.7 or later.

> ### 1.3 About This Manual

> In addition to this introductory chapter, the SNMP User's Guide contains the following chapters:

> - Chapter 2: "Functional Description" describes the features and operation of the SNMP development toolkit. It includes topics on Subagents and MIB loading, Internal MIBs, and Traps.
> - Chapter 3: "Instrumentation Functions" describes how instrumentation functions should be defined in Erlang for the different operations.
> - Chapter 4: "The MIB Compiler" describes the features and the operation of the MIB compiler.
> - Chapter 5: "Running the Agent" describes how to start and configure the agent. Topics on how to debug the agent are also included.
> - Chapter 6: "Implementation Example" describes how an MIB can be implemented with the SNMP Development Toolkit. Implementation examples are included.
> - Chapter 7: "Advanced Topics" describes subagents, agent semantics, audit trail logging, and the consideration of distributed tables.
> - Chapter 8: "Definition of Configuration Files" is a reference chapter, which contains more detailed information about the configuration files.
> - Chapter 9: "Definition of Instrumentation Functions" is a reference chapter which contains more detailed information about the instrumentation functions.
> - Chapter 10: "Definition of Net if" is a reference chapter, which describes the Net if function in detail.
> - Appendix A describes the conversion of SNMPv2 to SNMPv1 error messages.
> - Appendix B contains the RFC1903 text on `RowStatus`.

> ### 1.4 Where to Find More Information

> Refer to the following documentation for more information about SNMP and about the Erlang/OTP development system:

> - Marshall T. Rose (1991), "The Simple Book - An Introduction to Internet Management", Prentice-Hall
> - Evan McGinnis and David Perkins (1997), "Understanding SNMP MIBs", Prentice-Hall
> - RFC1155, 1157, 1212 and 1215 (SNMPv1)
> - RFC1901-1907 (SNMPv2c)
> - RFC1908, 2089 (coexistence between SNMPv1 and SNMPv2)
> - RFC2271, RFC2273 (SNMP std MIBs)
> - the Mnesia User's Guide
> - the Erlang 4.4 Extensions User's Guide
> - the Reference Manual
> - the Erlang Embedded Systems User's Guide
> - the System Architecture Support Libraries (SASL) User's Guide
> - the Installation Guide
> - the Asn1 User's Guide
> - Concurrent Programming in Erlang, 2nd Edition (1996), Prentice-Hall, ISBN 0-13-508301-X.

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