Resolving CPU Issue with SNMP Polling

A network administrator has a monitoring system in place that is currently polling hundreds of network devices at regular intervals.

The continuous polling is causing high CPU utilization on the server.

Which of the following tasks should the administrator perform to resolve the CPU issue while maintaining full monitoring capabilities?

A.

Remove SNMP polling and configure SNMP traps on each network device

B.

Remove SNMP polling and implement snmpwalk on each network device

C.

Upgrade SNMP to the latest version to mitigate vulnerabilities

D.

Modify SNMP polling to poll only during business hours.

A.

The correct answer is A. Remove SNMP polling and configure SNMP traps on each network device.

SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is a protocol used to manage and monitor network devices. It allows network administrators to collect information from network devices and configure them remotely. However, continuous SNMP polling of hundreds of network devices can cause high CPU utilization on the server hosting the monitoring system, which can degrade performance and affect other services running on the server.

SNMP traps, on the other hand, allow network devices to send notifications to a monitoring system when certain events occur, such as a change in device status or a threshold being exceeded. By configuring SNMP traps on each network device, the server hosting the monitoring system can receive notifications only when events occur, instead of continuously polling devices for information.

Therefore, removing SNMP polling and configuring SNMP traps on each network device can help resolve the CPU issue while maintaining full monitoring capabilities. This approach reduces the amount of SNMP traffic on the network, which can improve overall network performance, and allows the monitoring system to receive notifications only when events occur, which reduces CPU utilization.

Option B, Remove SNMP polling and implement snmpwalk on each network device, is not a viable solution because snmpwalk is a command-line tool used to walk through SNMP MIB (Management Information Base) trees on a network device to retrieve and display information. It does not reduce SNMP traffic on the network or resolve the CPU issue on the server hosting the monitoring system.

Option C, Upgrade SNMP to the latest version to mitigate vulnerabilities, is not a solution to the CPU issue. Although upgrading SNMP to the latest version can mitigate security vulnerabilities, it does not address the CPU utilization issue caused by continuous polling.

Option D, Modify SNMP polling to poll only during business hours, may reduce CPU utilization during off-peak hours, but it does not address the CPU issue during peak hours. Additionally, this approach may not be suitable if there are critical devices that need to be monitored continuously.