Here is a quick and easy one…

I installed and configured Solarwinds Network Engineer’s Toolkit on a new server today, and did a quick SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) test to my core switch. Well, it didn’t work…which actually is good. It meant that I did configure access restrictions via SNMP. And you should too…if you don’t, then ANYONE can install an SNMP utility and try and gain access to your switches, or other network devices.

Here is my SNMP config on my switch…

SNMP Configuration

The “2” at the end of the line references access control list number 2…

ACL #2 – Restricting SNMP access

As you can see, I have configured SNMP access from two separate servers, which did not include the new server I was using today. (If no ACL was referenced, then anyone can access the switch via SNMP). I then added that server into ACL 2…

Adding another server to ACL 2

And everything worked just fine! So, moral of the story is to make sure and secure your SNMP access…and test it every now and then to make sure it’s working properly.