SNMP Load on switches

Hi,



If I use SNMP to read values from a switch on all 48 ports, what will be the load on the switch? I read 2 or 3 values from each port, so 144 values each 3 minutes. Are the values read in 1 query every 3 minutes or are 144 queries executed?



Reg Joost

It depends on how many threads you are using. If you opt to use max speed (39 threads), then each thread will be assigned with 4 checks. If you set up the checks every 3 minutes, that'll make each thread queue 3 checks.



The number of threads can be adjusted in Settings > Tuning & Layout > Monitoring Performance

Hi,



Yes, but what does this mean for the load on the switch side?



Reg. Joost

That depends on the processor of your switch. The higher end the more it can process. it is impossible for us to tell, this is something that your manufacturer should be able to tell you.



SNMP calls are UDP packets, so no handshake like TCP. This means that in terms of communication they take less bandwidth than TCP. For example a TCP header is 20bytes, a UDP header is only 8bytes. The size of the package will depend on the size of the data being returned.