PowerVault ME4, ME5: What is the SNMP v3 Engine ID and how to find it.

Summary: Administrators using SNMP v3 with PowerVault ME4 or ME5 Arrays may have applications that require the SNMP Engine ID to accept SNMP traps.

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Symptoms

SNMP Monitoring applications may require the SNMP Engine ID to accept traps when using SNMPv3 for security reasons.

Cause

From RFC5343: Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Context EngineID Discovery 
SNMP version 3 (SNMPv3) provides cryptographic security to protect
   devices from unauthorized access.  This specification recommends use
   of the security services provided by SNMPv3.  In particular, it is
   RECOMMENDED to protect the discovery exchange.

   An snmpEngineID can contain information such as a device's MAC
   address, IPv4 address, IPv6 address, or administratively assigned
   text.

For PowerVault ME4 and ME5 arrays this value is based on the controller module management interface MAC address and is different for each controller interface.

Resolution

Because this value is unique for each controller and administrator may need to query a specific SNMP OID to get this value.  This can be done by using the following method and an application such as SNMPWalk from {snmpsoft.com}

Based on the SNMP specification the EngineID is located in SNMP at the following OID location:  1.3.6.1.6.3.10.2.1.1

For example running SNMPwalk on a controller with a MAC address of 00 C0 FF 3C C7 11 resulted in the following output.

C:\Tools\Snmpwalk>SnmpWalk.exe -r:10.236.249.232 -c:public -os:1.3.6.1.6.3.10.2.1.1

OID=.1.3.6.1.6.3.10.2.1.1.0, Type=OctetString, Value= 80 00 1F 88 03 00 C0 FF 3C C7 11

In the above example the SNMP Engine ID for the controller is:  80 00 1F 88 03 00 C0 FF 3C C7 11 

Affected Products

ME Series, OEMR ME40XX and ME4XX, Dell EMC PowerVault ME4012, Dell EMC PowerVault ME4024, Dell EMC PowerVault ME4084, PowerVault ME5012, PowerVault ME5024, PowerVault ME5084
Article Properties
Article Number: 000204172
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 30 Nov 2023
Version:  3
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