Version 2 of the Protocol Operations for the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)
RFC 3416

Network Working Group                            Editor of this version:
Request for Comments: 3416                                    R. Presuhn
STD: 62                                               BMC Software, Inc.
Obsoletes: 1905                             Authors of previous version:
Category: Standards Track                                        J. Case
                                                     SNMP Research, Inc.
                                                           K. McCloghrie
                                                     Cisco Systems, Inc.
                                                                 M. Rose
                                            Dover Beach Consulting, Inc.
                                                           S. Waldbusser
                                          International Network Services
                                                           December 2002

                Version 2 of the Protocol Operations for
             the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)

Status of this Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This document defines version 2 of the protocol operations for the
   Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).  It defines the syntax and
   elements of procedure for sending, receiving, and processing SNMP
   PDUs.  This document obsoletes RFC 1905.

Presuhn, et al.             Standards Track                     [Page 1]
RFC 3416              Protocol Operations for SNMP         December 2002

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ................................................    3
   2. Overview ....................................................    4
   2.1. Management Information ....................................    4
   2.2. Retransmission of Requests ................................    4
   2.3. Message Sizes .............................................    4
   2.4. Transport Mappings ........................................    5
   2.5. SMIv2 Data Type Mappings ..................................    6
   3. Definitions .................................................    6
   4. Protocol Specification ......................................    9
   4.1. Common Constructs .........................................    9
   4.2. PDU Processing ............................................   10
   4.2.1. The GetRequest-PDU ......................................   10
   4.2.2. The GetNextRequest-PDU ..................................   11
   4.2.2.1. Example of Table Traversal ............................   12
   4.2.3. The GetBulkRequest-PDU ..................................   14
   4.2.3.1. Another Example of Table Traversal ....................   17
   4.2.4. The Response-PDU ........................................   18
   4.2.5. The SetRequest-PDU ......................................   19
   4.2.6. The SNMPv2-Trap-PDU .....................................   22
   4.2.7. The InformRequest-PDU ...................................   23
   5. Notice on Intellectual Property .............................   24
   6. Acknowledgments .............................................   24
   7. Security Considerations .....................................   26
   8. References ..................................................   26
   8.1. Normative References ......................................   26
   8.2. Informative References ....................................   27
   9. Changes from RFC 1905 .......................................   28
   10. Editor's Address ...........................................   30
   11. Full Copyright Statement ...................................   31

Presuhn, et al.             Standards Track                     [Page 2]
RFC 3416              Protocol Operations for SNMP         December 2002

1.  Introduction

   The SNMP Management Framework at the time of this writing consists of
   five major components:

      -  An overall architecture, described in STD 62, RFC 3411
         [RFC3411].

      -  Mechanisms for describing and naming objects and events for the
         purpose of management.  The first version of this Structure of
         Management Information (SMI) is called SMIv1 and described in
         STD 16, RFC 1155 [RFC1155], STD 16, RFC 1212 [RFC1212] and RFC
         1215 [RFC1215].  The second version, called SMIv2, is described