Oracle Hardware Management Pack contains an SNMP Plugin module that extends the native SNMP agent in the host operating system to provide additional Oracle MIB capabilities. It is particularly important to note that the Oracle Hardware Management Pack does not itself contain an SNMP agent. For Linux, a module is added to the net-snmp agent, which must be previously installed. For Solaris, a module is added to the Solaris Management Agent.

Likewise, any security settings related to SNMP for the Oracle Hardware Management Pack SNMP Plugin are determined by the settings of the native SNMP agent or service, and not by the plugin. SNMP settings might include:

• SNMPv1/v2c. This version provides no encryption and uses community strings as a form of authentication. Community strings are sent in cleartext over the network and are usually shared across a group of individuals, rather than being private to an individual user.

• SNMPv3. This version uses encryption to provide a secure channel and has individual user names and passwords. SNMPv3 user passwords are localized so that they can be stored securely on management stations.

Oracle recommends that SNMPv3 be used if supported by the native SNMP agent. See the documentation for net-snmp service for instructions on how to configure SNMP securely.

Additionally, Oracle recommends that all SNMP traffic be isolated to a separate, secure management network.