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I know about network monitoringsoftware but is there also software that can configure lets say VLAN's on switches of different vendor and types? Is this possible with SNMP?

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In theory some configuration is possible via SNMP but it depends on the switch manufacturer. Personally I would lose sleep if SNMP was anything other than read-only on my switches...but that may just be me.

Most shops tend to pick a network vendor and stick with them for compatibility. in that case you use the management tool from that company for configuration. Cisco is much better about having a web-based configuration tool if the command line makes your eyes bleed.

Microsoft was trying to add switches and other network hardware into it's overall System Center management platform. Many companies have released management packs for hardware (all managed through SNMP) but it all looks like monitoring still and not configuration.

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Typically you configure your switches by using the management interface provided by the vendor. It helps if you only have one switch vendor.

You CAN configure switches by SNMP -- there are writable portions of the appropriate MIB, so it works in theory -- however I've never seen this set up in practice and wouldn't trust it. The S in SNMP stands for simple, not secure :-)

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  • Well the problem is we have 200 switches of multiple vendors. We have Juniper, 3com, dell, HP, Brocade. So instead of configuring each switch we want a central platform.
    – Kanter
    Aug 16, 2011 at 16:00
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    Not a helpful answer, but what you really need is standardization. Pick one vendor, stick with 'em, replace your older switches by attrition (or when they're fully amortized). To centralize (even with SNMP) you would need to dig through each vendor's docs and see if they support SNMP configuration and to what extent - it's a big project, probably nearly as big as writing a menu-based configuration tool that generates appropriate commands and telnets/ssh's into each switch to run 'em...
    – voretaq7
    Aug 16, 2011 at 16:04
  • +1, but SNMP v3 is complex and secure :) The problem is that v3 is too late for business and low end products never support it.
    – Lex Li
    Dec 27, 2011 at 2:55

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