Merak Email Server: Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)

Abstract

IceWarp Ltd., the creators of widespread and popular Merak Email Server software implemented SNMP support to the server product. If you are an integrator or developer – it is now up to you to take the advatage and benefit from this new feature.

Full text

PRAGUE 09/06/2005: SNMP belongs to the communication protocols family and has become widely accepted somewhere around 1993 as a powerful method for TCP/IP networks management. The original SNMP concept designer is the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). SNMP protocol is adaptable and it is suitable for any TCP/IP based networks, as well as other types of networks.

SNMP itself is a front-end for gathering statistics and gaining data about a network device in terms of client-server relationship. The network manager (client program) connects virtually to the SNMP agent (server program) which tests the network device, and returns back information about the device's status to the manager. The list of possible tests, collection of objects and the list of control values is called Management Information Base (MIB).

Merak Email Server have a private MIB – snmp-mib.txt – which lists the possibilities of SNMP protocol usage within Merak. The file also defines the structure of the queries and so called OIDs (object ID). The OIDs can be combined in many ways to fetch info about various aspect of your server. To be able to interpret these we also provide an SNMP network manager utility for querying and connecting to your server – snmputil.

To enable SNMP:

• enable SNMP support in your Merak, for example from administration console
• create oidfile.txt containing the OIDs for testing, list of OIDs can be found in above mentioned file snmp-mib.txt along with the structure of query
• execute the SNMPutil network manager and automatically read the defined in oidfile.txt

The main advance against traditional network management tools such as „ping“, and „netstat“ is in SNMP interoperability and universality. With SNMP you can monitor almost any network device regardless the fact it is hardware or software. SNMP gives you control to the information on the manageable device. The SNMP support in Merak is mainly purposed for integrators and developers. Majority of „normal“ administrators would satisfy with ordinary statistics inside Merak Administration Console.

About IceWarp

IceWarp, Ltd. was started in 1999 with the development of Merak version 1. Merak’s ex­ceptional product stability, performance, reliability and value quickly got the attention of business and ISP customers. This has produced strong sales and double digit sales growth year after year. During this time, IceWarp has maintained a technology leadership position by continuing to advance Merak through many industry-firsts, including:

• First mail server supporting SSL
• First mail server with Web mail
• First integrated multi-threaded antivirus
• First integrated anti-spam
• First GroupWare with API (ODBC based)
• And now, the first server with integrated FTP and Web server capabilities.

Contact address

IceWarp Ltd. is located at City House, 6 Karaiskakis street,
CY-3040 Limassol,
Cyprus
 info@icewarp.com