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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 devices or 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 default passwords are "public" (open access) and "private" (restrictive access).

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 using the Edit Communities dialog box.

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

  1. From the Optivity Switch Manager menu bar, choose Edit > Communities.
  2. The Communities dialog box opens.
  3. Click Insert.
  4. An empty row is added to the table.
  5. Click on the empty row and enter the IP address and communities.
  6. Click Save.
  7. The changes are saved to the snmpcomm.properties file.

The following table describes the parts of the Communities dialog box.


Part Descriptions
Address
The subnet address of a group of devices or the IP address of a single device. (Default is 0.0.0.0 to include all devices.)
Note: Optivity Switch Manager uses zero (0) as a wildcard to associate SNMP communities with groups of devices. You can place a zero anywhere in the IP address. For example, the address 10.10.0.0 refers to all addresses in the 10.10. subnet.
Read
The level of permission to view or read configuration information on a group of devices or single device.

The community string default is public (open access)
Write
The level of permission to change configuration information on a group of devices or single device.

The default community string is private (restrictive access)

See also:


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