Customer Reviews

Troubleshooting SNMP; Analyzing MIBs

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The author makes some excellent points and shares lessons learned in his many years of commercial network management - not the least of which is how to yield meaningful metrics from the data you collect. If you're creating or deploying a highly customized network management system, there are many excellent points to be learned through his experience.

However, I was surprised to find that the real content of the book stops at page 69, with the remaining 250 pages listing hundreds of MIB parameters, various attributes, and his recommended threshold values for each. (Curiously, these pages are formatted in Courier font with excessive whitespace - it honestly looks like they did it just to add bulk to the book.) This content could have been represented in 1/3 the space with better layout, or even less space by using a table and referring the reader to the MIB files for non-pertinent details (not to mention that it might be more appropriate on a companion web page).

In the right hands, all this info is valuable - I'm sure I'll use it. But the book was sadly weak on text, and most people will be seriously disappointed with this purchase. Moral: check this one out before you buy.

This book is a must have for technical managers, engineering and operations staff -- anyone who deals with or could benefit from SNMP. The author lays out the subject matter in a logical and concise manner, while sprinkling in enough real life examples to drive the points home.

There are two parts to this book. The first half is only 70 pages long, but explained SNMP to me better than anything else I've read. First the language and protocol are laid out, followed by a complete road map of where to go from there -- from data collection and analysis to fault prediction, even the straight dope on the products available on the market today!

The second half of this book is invaluable to someone trying to implement network management, and perhaps uncertain about what to watch, how often to watch it, and what the reasonable values should be. This second half of the book is an SNMP wizard letting you in on what he's found after years of experience.

This is a terrible book, and publishers should think twice before trying to cheat computer professionals with this kind of junk. The book has two parts. The first 68 pages are a rambling, poorly-written description of SNMP. Acronyms and concepts are often introduced before they are defined (if ever), and the author is way too keen on buzzwords. The second part, 210 pages, is just a COPY of the MIB documentation that anybody can download from the Internet. This part also includes event thresholds for each object, but they are completely arbitrary and uninteresting. Finally, the price is ridiculous.

If your NOT looking for more than 1/3 a book telling you why you should monitor mibs with snmp and 2/3 of a book listing common mibs to monitor [most of which are router specific and can be found for free in many places], then this is the book for you. All others....DON'T BOTHER!

If you are a person familiar with networks and with network management but you have never had to deal with SNMP before, this is just the book for you. We used it to quickly create our first MIB. I have found no other source that clearly explains SNMP without tying the explanation to a particular implementation of a network element. The large selection of examples also helped us to see how to apply the principles to actual implementations.

If you a beginner learner of SNMP and MIBs, it is suitable to purchase this book. As it will use the simple way to explain what the SNMP and MIBs are, you can get a simple but clear understandings of these.

If you a advanced learner, you will think this book is not worth.