Online Help for Optivity Switch Manager Release 1.1

Accessing devices within different SNMP communities

SNMP community passwords can provide a level of protection by limiting access to devices. In Optivity Switch Manager, you can access subnets with different communities by adding the correct SNMP passwords in the Communities dialog box. SNMP devices, which include those devices supported by Optivity Switch Manager, typically have two passwords or communities for read and write operations on that device. The two passwords are "public" (open access) and "private" (restrictive access).

By default, Optivity Switch Manager reads an ASCII file (snmpcomm.properties) that contains one entry. That entry allows Optivity Switch Manager to access all devices in the discovered network using "public" as the community password for read operations and "private" as the password for write operations. If devices contain a different SNMP community password, you cannot access them unless you know their passwords and enter those password into the Optivity Switch Manager snmpcomm.properties file.

To assign a different SNMP community password to a group or single device:

1. From the Optivity Switch Manager menu bar, choose Edit > Communities.

The Communities dialog box opens.

2. Click Insert.

An empty row is added to the table.

3. Click on the empty row and enter the IP address and communities.
4. Click Save.

The changes are saved to the snmpcomm.properties file.

The table below describes the fields in the Communities dialog box.