SNMP Multiplexing (SMUX)

SNMP Multiplexing (SMUX) Overview

Support for the SMUX (RFC 1227) protocol is unique to Advanced Routing Suite due to its intended installation as a daemon running on a multi-user timeshare operating system. While this paradigm continues to evolve, an original intent of the SMUX protocol implement was to allow Advanced Routing Suite to inter-operate with another daemon handling the SNMP protocol and communicate with management stations. This allows Advanced Routing Suite to handle only a set of SNMP subtrees relating to the protocols implemented there.

Advanced Routing Suite supports SMUX as the only way to interact with the MIB modules. Only SNMP version 1 is supported, and all MIB variables are read-only.

Upon contacting the master agent, a string password and SNMP Object Identifier identity are passed for authentication purposes. If the authentication succeeds, Advanced Routing Suite will register the routing MIB subtrees and request that it be contacted when the master agent receives queries for these subtrees. When the master agent receives such a query from a management station, it will be passed to Advanced Routing Suite.

smux password

Name

smux password - specifies the clear text password to be used for authentication

Syntax

smux password string_value

no smux password string_value?

Mode

Global Configuration

Parameters

string_value - a string with a maximum of 255 characters for the SMUX opening password

Description

The SMUX protocol allows a clear text password to be used for authentication of the subagent. This password is configured using the smux password command. The negative of this command, no smux password, removes the specified string_value and returns to the default of a blank password. Note: Specifying a value for string_value in the no form has no effect on the configuration. Thus, it is displayed above as optional.

Default

The default is a blank password with 0 length.

Command History

NGC 2.2 - This command was introduced.

Examples

The following example configures "abc" as the clear text password for authentication of the subagent

(config)# smux password abc

smux port

Name

smux port - specifies the port on which to contact the master agent via TCP

Syntax

smux port port_value

no smux port port_value?

Mode

Global Configuration

Default

port_value - a port number on which to contact the master agent. This must be an integer from 0 to 65535, inclusive.

Description

The master agent can be running on a different port than the well-known port of 199. This allows Advanced Routing Suite to contact the agent on the specified port. The negative of this command, no smux port, removes the specified port_value and returns this to the default port value of 199. Note: Specifying a value for port_value in the no form has no effect on the configuration. Thus, it is displayed above as optional.

Default

If smux port is not specified, it is the same as if the user had specified the following:

(config)# smux port 199

Command History

NGC 2.2 - This command was introduced.

Examples

In the following example, the master agent is configured to run on port 2112.

(config)# smux port 2112

smux trace file

Name

smux trace file - specifies the file to receive tracing information, the size of the file, whether to overwrite existing files, and the maximum number of files allowed when tracing in SNMP Multiplexing

Syntax

smux trace file file_name [no-timestamp || overwrite]?

no smux trace file file_name [no-timestamp || overwrite]?

Mode

Global Configuration

Parameters

file_name - specifies the name of the file to receive the tracing information. Note that the file name is not specified in quotes.

no-timestamp - specifies that a timestamp should not be prepended to all trace lines

overwrite - specifies to begin tracing by appending or truncating an existing file

Description

The trace file command is associated with each protocol, so that information pertaining to a single protocol can be written to its own file. For SMUX, the smux trace file command specifies a file for tracing of all SMUX events. The negative form of this command disables this tracing. The specific events that are traced are controlled by the smux trace flag command.

The no-timestamp option disables the pre-pending of a timestamp to all lines written to the trace file. The default is to prepend a timestamp to all lines written to a trace file.

The overwrite option specifies whether to start tracing by truncating or appending to an existing file.

Note: These options are not cumulative across multiple commands. Consider the following example:

(config)# smux trace file smux.log no-timestamp

Default

SMUX tracing is turned off by default.

Command History

NGC 2.2 - This command was introduced.

Examples

In the following example, SMUX tracing is written to the file "smux.log". No timestamp will display at the beginning of the trace lines.

(config)# smux trace file smux.log no-timestamp

smux trace flag

Name

smux trace flag - specifies SMUX-specific tracing options as well as options that are common across all protocols

Syntax

smux trace flag ( [ route | normal | state | policy |
task | timer | all | send | receive | packets ] )

no smux trace flag ( [ route | normal | state | policy |
task | timer | all | send | receive | packets ] )

Mode

Global Configuration

Parameters

[ route | normal | state | policy | task | timer | all | send | receive | packets ] - These tracing flags are common to all protocols. They cannot be associated with a send, receive, or detail action item. Similarly, you cannot specify to show detailed information when tracing these flags. These flags are defined as follows:

• route - trace routing table changes for routes installed by this protocol or peer
• normal - trace normal protocol occurrences. Note: Abnormal protocol occurrences are always traced.
• state - trace state machine transition in the protocol
• policy - trace the application of protocol and user-specified policy to routes being imported or exported
• task - trace system interface and processing associated with this protocol
• timer - trace timer usage by this protocol
• all - turns on all trace flags
• send - trace packets sent by the master agent
• receive - trace packets received from the master agent
• packets - trace every byte of traced packet

Description

Use the smux trace flag command to specify tracing flags for SMUX tracing. Each flag must reside on its own configuration line. For example, you cannot specify to trace both packets and send in the same command.

Default

The default is for no flags to be explicitly configured.

Command History

NGC 2.2 - This command was introduced.

Examples

In the following example, flags specify to trace packets and receive information. This tracing information will be written to the file smux.log.

(config)# smux trace file smux.log max-size 1024k

(config)# smux trace flag packets

(config)# smux trace flag receive