Configuring SNMP Traps for ESX 3.5 and ESX 4.0

Details

To generate virtual machine and environmental traps from ESX 3.5 and ESX 4.0 hosts, you must configure and enable the embedded SNMP agent. You cannot use the Net-SNMP-based agent to generate these traps, although it can receive GET transactions and generate other types of traps.
 
This represents a change in behavior from ESX 3.0.x, in which the configuration file for the Net-SNMP-based agent controlled the generation of virtual machine traps. For more information, see Configuring SNMP on an ESX 3.0.x host (1008186).

Solution

Use the vicfg-snmp command from the Remote CLI or vSphere CLI to enable this SNMP agent and configure trap destinations. Each time you specify a target with the vicfg-snmp command, the settings you specify overwrite all previously specified settings. To specify multiple targets, specify them in a single command, separated by commas.

To enable and configure SNMP traps:
 
Note: For ESX 3.5, use the Remote CLI. For ESX 4.0, use the vSphere CLI. The commands for both are same.  vicfg-snmp.pl is located in the C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vSphere CLI\bin directory after the VMware vSphere CLI installation, by default.
 
  1. Specify the communities and trap targets with the command:

    vicfg-snmp.pl –server <hostname> –username <username> –password <password> -t <target hostname>@<port>/<community>

    Note: Under ESX 4.0, you may need to use the -c <community> flag.

    For example, to send SNMP traps from the host host.example.com to port 162 on target.example.com using the public community, use the command:

    vicfg-snmp.pl –server host.example.com –username root –password password -t target.example.com@162/public
     

  2. To enable the SNMP service, run the command:

    vicfg-snmp.pl –server <hostname> –username <username> –password <password> –enable
     

  3. (Optional) Send a test trap to verify that the agent is configured correctly with the command:

    vicfg-snmp.pl –server <hostname> –username <username> –password <password> –test

The test trap generated is a warmStart trap.

source: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1008065

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