What is the major difference between Simple network management protocol (SNMP) and remote
network monitoring (RMON)?
A.
SNMP has stronger security than RMON.
B.
SNMP can slow down network traffic.
C.
SNMP is a set of MIB definitions whereas RMON is not.
D.
RMON can slow down network traffic.
Explanation:
SNMP can be used to poll the management information base (MIBs) of various SNMP agents.
Gathering of data can take a toll on the network depending on the number of agents polled and
the polling interval. As either number increases, the network traffic also increases. For example, if
there are 100 managed SNMP devices, and the information need to be updated every seconds,
there will be 100 devices polled each second. This is very granular (fine) but takes a tool on the
network. As SNMP traffic increases on the network, other traffic slows down as bandwidth is
degraded.
Now compared the RMON, RMON is like a packet sniffer or protocol analyzer. RMON monitors
the interface and collects information from the network data stream and stores it within the RMON
MIB. RMON is not generating network traffic to collects its data. It is possible to add SNMP
commands to RMON to collect certain information, but that would be a SNMP process, and not a
RMON collection process.
Incorrect Answers:
A: SNMP barely has any security, as long as the community name is kept a secret, and then the
community name is passed in the clear so that anyone capturing packets can find out anyway.
C: SNMP and RMON use the Management Information Base. RMON has a MIB specific to it, and
saves collected data in that MIB. SNMP can then be used to collect that information at a later time.
D: See the explanation above. Normally RMON does not generate network traffic, it just sits there
and listens to the existing traffic as it passes by.