Enable NetFlow on a Cisco equipment

For SmartReport can monitor your Cisco switches, you must enable SNMP protocol on them. Indeed, SNMP protocol allows retrieve statistics information on network equipment. In the remainder of this page, you will find instructions to activate and configure this service on your Cisco switches.

Connect you on your Cisco switch

You can connect you on the terminal of your Cisco switch via Telnet, SSH, or simply via the console cable. Depending on your configuration, you may be asked for a login and a password.

 

Enter in “enable” mode

To change the configuration of Cisco equipment, you must be in privileged mode “enable”. To enter mode “enable”, simply type the enable command, then enter the password that you will be asked.

 

Enter in “configuration” mode

To configure your Cisco equipment, you must be in mode “configuration”. Simply enter the command:

configure terminal                                                                                   

Check SNMP configuration of your Cisco switch

Enter the command :

show running-config                                                                                  

Among the information, you can see the communities enabled with the activation mode (RW: Read-Write, RO: Read Only), and SNMP traps enabled with their destination addresses and the communities for which they are activated.

If public community is enabled

For security reasons, it is best to disable the public community. So enter this line:

no snmp-server community public RO                                                                   

(RW or RW if the community is enabled)

If private community isn’t enabled

Or if it is enabled in RW mode, you must activate it in RO because the SmartReport monitoring tool don’t only read SNMP. Then enter this line:

snmp-server community private RO                                                                     

Enable SNMP traps that you want to recover

Depending on what you want to monitor, and the model of Cisco switch you are using, SNMP traps, that you can enable, are not the same. You can list the SNMP traps that your Cisco switch can enable with the command:

 

snmp-server enable traps ?                                                                           

 

For more information on the usefulness of each of these SNMP traps, you can refer to the Cisco website:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/netmgmt/command/reference/nm_18.html

Finally you enable each SNMP traps using the command:

 

snmp-server enable traps                                                                       

Choose destination and community

You must now define the destination address, and the community for sending SNMP traps. To SmartReport monitor your Cisco switch, you must enter its IP address and configure the sending to the public community. Then enter this line:

 

snmp-server host <@ IP SmartReport> private                                                           

Exit configuration mode and save changes

To exit the configuration mode of your Cisco switches, simply enter the command:

exit

Then, to save the changes, enter the command line:

write memory                                                                                          

Finally you can check your changes by posting to the new switch configuration:

show running-config

If you have enabled the wanted SNMP traps, for the proper address and the private community, your Cisco switch is ready to be supervised by SmartReport.