Hi I have doubt/confusion on the SNMP Agents.

We know that these days use of SNMP is growing more.
Most of the venders who manufacture computer based accessories provide SNMP support with thier Unique MIB
for Managing/Monitoring their Hardware.
So, through the use of Management software, systems
containing SNMP Agents can be Managed Remotely & easily.

Now, my question is how many SNMP agents can a system has.
Because, lets accept that every hardware vender provides SNMP agent/support for monitoring his hardware.

Viz. Comapaq Storage Array
HP-Printer
Cisco router


So, if we install Unix & configure Network we get SNMP Agent Installed. Simillarly when we install/attach New Hardwares even they provide their SNMP agents for thier hardware support.
So, if a Unix box has n-number of Hardware then there will be n-number agents. If so, then how will the SNMP specific port 602 is used by all the agents.

If the above details info is wrong then how is the SNMP port 602 is utilized & how different MIB will be accessed by a single SNMP agent. I mean, how the SNMP agent will come to know that
there exist a MIB for a specific hardware. What actually will be the configuration(SNMP Settings) on the machine containing SNMP agent with multible MIB being supporting for unique Hardware Vender. I mean, How to say to SNMP agent that there exists some sets of MIBs relevent to some sets of Hardware.
So, if there is some request then it can check the appropriate MIB
for information.

Can, some body clarify my doubts, & if you can provide more info...that would be great.

Thaks in Advance.

Here is a start...
RFC 1157

For something a little easier to read: SNMP for Dummies - a WinWord Doc or Word Doc...when I went to first look at it I got an exception error but then Word opened up with no problem.

Also read your man page for snmpd (if available). From the man page for HP-UX:
And from Solaris:
Also noted that both of these show port 161 is the default port and only one snmpd can run on one port - I would believe you could then start another snmpd on another port, such as the one you mentioned.

So, even if you have only one snmpdm (Master SNMP agent) running, it should coordinate all the sub-agents that have been installed on the system. If the MIBs are installed correctly, it would have no problem 'knowing' about all the different hardware.

If you haven't gotten all the answers to your questions or have more, please post back (and include what OS you are using as that will help in getting more specific answers).