Re: snmp walk anomaly

Juergen Schoenwaelder (schoenw@cs.utwente.nl)
Thu, 30 May 1996 13:22:35 +0200

P.Lister@cranfield.ac.uk wrote:

> When I use snmpwalk to look up a single entry in an table on a
> bridge, I get no reply, even though the same mib name works for
> snmp get. The daft thing is that snmp walk works if I remove the
> last hex digit! Is this a bug or a very subtle feature?

A walk is implemented with getnext/getbulk requests. If your object
identifier identifies an instance, then the getnext/getbulk request
will return the next instance. This one can't have the same prefix and
hence the walk terminates.

If you remove the last sub-identifier from the object identifier, then
the agent should lookup the next instance in lexicographic order which
might be the variable you are looking for (or something different if
there are other instances where the instance identifier only differ in
the last sub-identifier - depending on the lexicographic order). If
you know the complete instance identifier, you should use the snmp#
get command.

It is not a bug but perhaps a not so obvious SNMP feature.

Juergen