Templates and SNMP Community strings

[elvar]

I'm just curious how you guys are handling having Templates that are basically the same except for the snmp cummunity strings for similar hardware.

I have a handful of HP switches I monitor that are the same template except for the snmp community string because they are at different sites. I ended up doing a full clone of the templates to handle the change in snmp community string but this seems extremely inefficient considering the duplicated data that gets put in the DB. Any suggestions as to a better way to handle this?


Regards,

[elvar]

No one has a solution for this one or can at least tell me there isn't a solution?

[sloth101]

Solutions for this that I have found are the following:

1) Use the same community string
2) Use only a couple community strings with a separate template for each

Obviously using the same community string is the preferred method due to the duplication that you already mentioned in the DB.

[elvar]

Solutions for this that I have found are the following:

1) Use the same community string
2) Use only a couple community strings with a separate template for each

Obviously using the same community string is the preferred method due to the duplication that you already mentioned in the DB.

Yeah, unfortunately this is what I figured. It's a damn shame that one cannot set the community string based on the host instead of the template. Appreciate your reply though!

[Murilex]

Hi elvar! In my production environment I monitor several switches of the same model too. What I did was to link these switches to a single template and customize only the community string of the hosts' items (not of the templates).
Some items of templates can be customized in hosts, this way, the template can be the same and some traditional differences can be set internal to hosts.

[elvar]

Hi elvar! In my production environment I monitor several switches of the same model too. What I did was to link these switches to a single template and customize only the community string of the hosts' items (not of the templates).
Some items of templates can be customized in hosts, this way, the template can be the same and some traditional differences can be set internal to hosts.

But if your template contains 100 items which all contain snmp community strings, how does this defeat the extra load on the server if you've created extra items specific to the host for each host your doing this for? Maybe I'm just not understanding you correctly.

Thanks for the reply!

[Murilex]

I haven't created items on hosts, only in templates. The hosts inherit items from my base template. In template's items I've set the community string that is present in the most of my hosts. Then, I've altered items of hosts (inherited from template) on which community strings differ from those in template items. In order to save time, I've used the mass update feature when updating community strings of items. This way, I can change all community strings of a single host at the same time.
Sorry my bad English.

[elvar]

I haven't created items on hosts, only in templates. The hosts inherit items from my base template. In template's items I've set the community string that is present in the most of my hosts. Then, I've altered items of hosts (inherited from template) on which community strings differ from those in template items. In order to save time, I've used the mass update feature when updating community strings of items. This way, I can change all community strings of a single host at the same time.
Sorry my bad English.

Ah, I see what you are saying. Your English is fine don't worry about it. I guess my biggest problem is having different clients using different community strings. I'll try and use a show of force to get them to change...