You can use SNMP to find out about licensing service events on your network.
SNMP is a management interface and high-level protocol. General-purpose protocols such as IPXTM, TCP/IP, and UDP can host SNMP. NLS takes events and errors, wraps them in one of these protocols, and sends them to a management utility or console.
For example, suppose you instruct SNMP to raise an event whenever a license unit is conveyed to a User object. Every time a license unit is conveyed, SNMP sends a packet to a management console. The console registers that event. As network administrator, you can view these packets at the management console.
With SNMP, you can send out a wide variety of different events. NLS provides a list of events and errors that the licensing service can send out notifications on. As network administrator, you choose the events that you are interested in. You can turn off all events, turn them all on, or turn on selected events.
For example, NLS sends broadcast messages. Using SNMP, you can send an SNMP message with the same content to a management console.
In short, SNMP enables you to be aware of what's happening on the network.
An SNMP management product---for example, OpenView* or ManageWise®--- resides on the network and registers itself as the management console. An SNMP agent (SNMP.NLM) runs on a NetWare server. The SNMP pieces on each server send the SNMP datagrams to the console. You use the console to track what's happening on the network.
You can place the management console anywhere on the network. This console reads the SNMP packets and displays their contents to you, as the network administrator. Typically these consoles are run on client computers for convenience, but that functionality can be implemented on any computer on the network.
NLS uses three configuration files for SNMP. The configuration files allow the various systems which provide SNMP information to tailor that information to your needs as you manage the network. All three files are installed into SYS:\ETC.
SNMP.CFG lets you add descriptive strings that might be included in SNMP packets. These packets provide you with specific information, such as server name, computer hardware description, location, and whom to contact in case of an issue.
NLSTRAP.CFG lets you specify which NLS events and errors you want to track. NLSTRAP.CFG has a list of all possible events that NLS could ever send out. The file contains two lines for each event. The first line is a description. The second line enables or disables notification for that event. If the line begins with a pound sign (#), no message is sent.
By default, all lines (events) are commented out. To see an event, you edit NLSTRAP.CFG. The file contains a description at the top about the format and what to do with each value. You just turn on what you want to see.
If NLSTRAP.NLM detects an event that is enabled in the NLSTRAP.CFG file, NLSTRAP.NLM calls routines provided by SNMP.NLM to place the SNMP packet on the network.
TRAPTARG.CFG lets you specify all targets (or receivers) that are to receive SNMP trap messages generated by the SNMP agent (SNMP.NLM). It pairs targets with a protocol for SNMP packet addressing. For example, a server named PUFFIN in the IPX section of TRAPTARG.CFG instructs NLS to send SNMP messages to server PUFFIN using IPX.
Edit NLSTRAP.CFG to set events that you want to monitor.
Specify parameters by using a parameter keyword followed by the desired parameter value. Then unload and reload NLSTRAP.NLM. (The changes won't take effect until you reload NLSTRAP.NLM.)
Edit SNMP.CFG.
Edit TRAPTARG.CFG to specify all targets that are to receive SNMP trap messages.
Run the management console.
Load SNMP.NLM on a server.
SNMP.NLM (the SNMP agent) provides the APIs and framework to allow SNMP to work on NetWare. SNMP.NLM traps events, generates SNMP messages about the trapped events, and sends the messages to the management console.
At the management console, view the SNMP messages.