Net::SNMP vs SNMP, and MIBs

[hatter]

There doesn't seem to be much mention of the SNMP::* modules around, but they handle MIBs to I don't have to look up numbers or comment what the numbers mean to save the next person doing so, and can generally be less cryptic. Also, SNMP hasn't been updated since 2000, whereas Net::SNMP has been revised much more recently; is it that SNMP just works ? What are the caveats of picking one over the other ? I was contemplating using the obviously-maintained Net::SNMP and using SNMP for resolving numbers to names and vice versa, but that sounds a bit of a strange thing to do if SNMP can do it all.

[gam3]

The SNMP package is part of the net-snmp distribution and uses the net-snmp libraries to access snmp. Where Net::SNMP is written in pure perl and accesses snmp directly using IO::Socket::INET.

I would use SNMP unless you don't have net-snmp on your computer, or can't get the perl bindings to libnetsnmp to complile on your computer.

[Anonymous Monk]

i believe the SNMP module is maintained within the net-snmp distribution. so the version on CPAN may not be the most recent. i usually use SNMP over Net::SNMP. because SNMP uses the same shared libraries as the net-snmp cli tools (snmp{set,get,walk,translate,...}). so if i have any problems i can debug using the cli tools and then easily convert to Perl later. SNMP also does all of the MIB translation stuff you could ever want. also if you have any problems with devices or MIBs you can duplicate the problem with the cli tools and then when you talk to the vendor you can say that you're having problems while using common tools instead of saying that you're having problems using some odd Perl module.

[5mi11er]

I've got the following comment in one of the programs I'm attempting to actively work on at the moment. The comment was made by me, but it was made too long ago to remember exactly why I said that...

use SNMP;  #pretty much only used for Mib translations
use Net::SNMP qw(snmp_dispatcher ticks_to_time);

Later I'm using the following methods from each package:

        $sysUpTime = SNMP::translateObj('sysUpTime.0');

        # Create a session for this host
        my ($session, $error) = Net::SNMP->session(
                -hostname               => $box{ipadd},
                -community              => $community_string,
                -port                           => 161,
                -nonblocking    => 0x1,   # Create non-blocking object
+s
                -translate              => [
                        -timeticks      => 0x0   # Turn off so sysUpTi
+me is numeric
                ]  
        );

        if (!defined($session)) {
                $err++;
                logit $DBG, sprintf("ERROR: %s.\n", $error);
                return 0;
        }

So, from that, either I got what I wanted from each package and was to stuborn to try to learn if one or the other was enough, or they were complementary, and I couldn't do what I wanted from only one. My tuits are missing today or I'd have looked it up by now...

-Scott