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How to Install SNMP Remotely

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This topic is a how to.
Please keep it as clear and simple as possible. Avoid speculative discussions as well as a deep dive into underlying mechanisms or related technologies.

1. What We Need to Do

There are three major parts of remote installation of any software: files to install, command line to run and how to run it remotely. There will be also one additional step for SNMP to run it properly: configuration. The installation parts are the same for Windows 2000 and Windows 2003. It is completely different and way easier for Windows 2008. The configuration part is the same for all of them

2. Command to Run

Let’s start with the second part, with command to run on a remote server. As you know SNMP is a part of Windows optional components and can be installed with sysocmgr.exe. The command looks like this:


"%windir%\system32\sysocmgr.exe" /r /q /i:"%windir%\inf\sysoc.inf" /u:"c:\temp\snmp.inf"

 The snmp.inf file pretends to be a part of sysoc.inf. It contains the lines saying what to install, so for SNMP installation the file is pretty simple


[Components]
NetOC=ON
 
[NetOptionalComponents]
SNMP=1

It seems to be simple to run, but it is not

3. Files to Install

If you have ever installed SNMP via the Add/Remove Programs applet, you remember that the installer needs some additional files from Windows installation CD. During the user-led installation it is pretty easy to click on the Browse button and select the proper location. How to do so in the command line installation?

 

3.1.        Path to Installation CD

If sysocmgr.exe cannot find the necessary files it reads a registry key to find the location of installation files. Actually, there are two registry keys:

  • HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\SourcePath
  • HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\ServicePackSourcePath

Let’s say we have all installation files copied to the \SERVER\WINDOWS_CD folder. In this case the path for these registry keys will look like


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup]
"SourcePath"="\\\\SERVER\\Windows_CD "
"ServicePackSourcePath"="\\\\SERVER\\Windows_CD "

**
Note:**

The Windows installer will add I386 or/and AMD64 to this path automatically, so we do not need to add them here.

3.2.        Registry Change

Now we have two more commands to run before calling sysocmgr.exe. This one to make a copy of the registry settings…


reg save "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup" "C:\TEMP\Original.reg"

…and this one to change them to what we want to have for the installation


reg import "C:\TEMP\InstallationSource.reg"

One more command is required after the installation…


reg restore "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup" "c:\TEMP\Original.reg"

…to return everything back

 

3.3.        What Files Are Used?

Not always is it possible to use a shared folder for the installation files. In such a case all necessary files can be copied locally to the server, where we want to install SNMP. Those files are:

For Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 32-bit edition

  • i386\.mi_
  • i386\evnt*.*
  • i386\hostmib.*
  • i386\lmmib2.*
  • i386\snmp*.*

For Windows 2003 64-bit edition

  • i386\wsnmp*.*
  • amd64\.mi_
  • amd64\evnt*.*
  • amd64\hostmib.*
  • amd64\lmmib2.*
  • amd64\snmp*.*
  • amd64\wsnmp32.dl_

4. How to Run It Remotely

Let’s combine all the commands we want to run on the remote server into one batch file, called snmpinstall.bat. There are a lot of ways to run our batch file on the remote machine. Let’s copy all the files to the server and try psexec from sysinternals (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals ).

4.1.        PSExec


PSExec \\RemoteComputer SNMPInstall.bat

When it runs sysocmgr.exe, it gives the error


401.339.0: 0x80070002 (WIN32: 2)
401.432.0: 0x80070002 (WIN32: 2)

Error code is 2; we will return to its meaning a bit later. Now let’s try to run it with admin account


PSExec \\RemoteComputer -u "Domain\Account" -p “Password” SNMPInstall.bat

Now it even does not want to start. Maybe my copy of PSExec is corrupted, but it just did not work


Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password.

OK, Let’s try schtasks.exe

4.2. SCHTASKS

Create a scheduled task on a server…


SCHTASKS /CREATE /S RemoteComputer /SC ONCE /RU "Domain\Account" /RP “Password” /TN TaskName /TR SNMPInstall.bat /ST 00:00:01
 
WARNING: The Scheduled task "TaskName" has been created, but may not run because the account information could not be set.

Oops… SCHTASKS cannot pass the password to the remote machine to create a scheduled task. OK, we can run this scheduled task under SYSTEM account


SCHTASKS /CREATE /S RemoteComputer /SC ONCE /RU "SYSTEM" /TN TaskName /TR SNMPInstall.bat /ST 00:00:01
SCHTASKS /RUN /S RemoteComputer /TN TaskName

 

Now it runs suspiciously quickly. If we check out the scheduled tasks log file, we will see the reason:


"TaskName.job" (SNMPInstall.bat)
      Started 6/13/2011 3:43:51 PM
"TaskName.job" (SNMPInstall.bat)
      Finished 6/13/2011 3:44:01 PM
      Result: The task completed with an exit code of (2).

Error code 2 means “No such folder”

The NT ATHORITY\SYSTEM account, which we used this time, is a local account and it does not have any privileges to go to the network. The same error happened to PSExec and the reason is the same: PSExec runs through a service on a remote machine and this service uses local SYSTEM account

Now we see that we have to copy all necessary files to the remote server and run the installation batch file under system account. It will do the job. Both PSExec and SCHTASKS will work. The only difference is that PSExec has to install a service on a remote machine, SCHTASKS uses Windows Task Scheduler and does not install anything.

Note:

Windows 2008 has very simple way to install any components from the command line. This single command will install SNMP on Windows 2008


Servermanagercmd –install “SNMP-Services”

Here's another option for Windows Server 2008 R2 (requires Windows Remote Management to be enabled):


"%SystemRoot%\System32\winrs.exe" -remote:%1 dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:"SNMP" /featurename:"WMISnmpProvider"

Notes. The second package is optional. If you're not using the above command as part of a batch file you'd need to subsitude %1 with the actuall network address of your remote server.

5. Configuration

All the SNMP settings are stored in registry, which makes this task a bit easier. The settings we need to configure are shown below

  • HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SNMP\Parameters\EnableAuthenticationTraps
  • HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SNMP\Parameters\NameResolutionRetries

 

  • HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SNMP\Parameters\PermittedManagers
  • HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SNMP\Parameters\TrapConfiguration
  • HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SNMP\Parameters\ValidCommunities

 

  • HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SNMP\Parameters\RFC1156Agent\sysContact
  • HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SNMP\Parameters\RFC1156Agent\sysLocation

 

EnableAuthenticationTraps, NameResolutionRetries, sysContact, and sysLocation are just registry values. We can leave them untouched. ValidCommunities, PermittedManagers, and TrapConfiguration are way more important. They define what systems can communicate to the host via SNMP

5.1.        ValidCommunities

The ValidCommunities key contains the list of SNMP communities and permissions. It looks like


"<Community  Name>"=dword:<Access  Rights>

The access rights have the following values:

  • NONE – 0x0001
  • NOTIFY – 0x0002
  • READ ONLY – 0x0004
  • READ/WRITE – 0x0008
  • READ/CREATE – 0x0010

 

For example:


"public"=dword:00000004
"private"=dword:00000008

5.2. PermittedManagers

The PermittedManagers key contains the list of hosts, which can query or update a host via SNMP. It is a numbered list of names or IP addresses. For example:


"1"="10.10.10.1"
"2"="MonitoringServer.doamin.com"

 

5.3.        TrapConfiguration

The TrapConfiguration key is a list of subkeys, one per community names. In turn every subkey contains a list of hosts, to which the traps will be sent. For example:


TrapConfiguration\public
"1"="10.10.10.1"
"2"="MonitoringServer.doamin.com"

 

Note:

Community names are case-sensitive

6. Real Example

This example has been tested and works.

Very important note:

Since sysocmgr.exe is used to install any optional Windows components, it stops all services it can potentially change and then starts them again. Not a big deal? One of these services is MS DTC, so if we use sysocmgr.exe on a SQL cluster, the cluster loses the DTC cluster resource and fails over. No way to prevent that, just use sysocmgr.exe on a passive node and fail it over manually when it is possible.

6.1.        Assumptions

Our workstation name: WKS1

Remote server name: SRV1

Installation files location:\SOFTWARE\WIN2K3\

SNMP Community name: CommNAME

SNMP access rights: Read-only

Monitoring server IP address: 10.10.10.1

 

All the commands run off of WKS1; SRV1 is Windows 2003 32-bit server

6.2.        Create Installation Folder

Create a batch file, call it SNMPTempFolder.bat and add the following lines to it

C:
CD\
MD TEMP
CD TEMP
MD SNMP
CD SNMP
MD I386

Run these commands:

Copy SNMPTempFolder.bat \\SRV1\C$\
SCHTASKS /CREATE /S SRV1 /SC ONCE /RU "SYSTEM" /TN SNMP_Remote_Install /TR C:\SNMPTempFolder.bat /ST 00:00:01
SCHTASKS /RUN /S SRV1 /TN SNMP_Remote_Install       

6.3. Create Files for Remote Installation

Create the InstallationSource.reg file with the following content

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup]
"SourcePath"="C:\\TEMP\\SNMP"
"ServicePackSourcePath"="C:\\TEMP\\SNMP"

 

Create the SNMPConfig.reg file with the following content

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SNMP\Parameters]
"EnableAuthenticationTraps"=dword:00000000
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SNMP\Parameters\PermittedManagers]
"1"="10.10.10.1"
 
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SNMP\Parameters\TrapConfiguration\public]
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SNMP\Parameters\TrapConfiguration\CommNAME]
"1"="10.10.10.1"
 
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SNMP\Parameters\ValidCommunities]
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SNMP\Parameters\ValidCommunities]
"CommNAME"=dword:00000004

 

Create the SNMP.inf file with the following content

[Components]
NetOC=ON
 
[NetOptionalComponents]
SNMP=1

 

Create the SNMPInstall.bat file with the following content

DEL "c:\TEMP\SNMP\Original.reg" /q
 
REG Save "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup" "C:\TEMP\SNMP\Original.reg"
REG Import "C:\TEMP\SNMP\InstallationSource.reg"
 
"%windir%\system32\sysocmgr.exe" /r /i:"%windir%\inf\sysoc.inf" /u:"C:\TEMP\SNMP\SNMP.inf"
 
NET STOP snmptrap
NET STOP snmp
 
REG Import "C:\TEMP\SNMP\SNMPConfig.reg"
  
NET START snmp
 
REG Restore "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup" "C:\TEMP\SNMP\Original.reg"

 

Copy files for remote installation

Copy InstallationSource.reg \\SRV1\C$\TEMP\SNMP
Copy SNMPConfig.reg \\SRV1\C$\TEMP\SNMP
Copy SNMP.inf \\SRV1\C$\TEMP\SNMP
Copy SNMPInstall.bat \\SRV1\C$\TEMP\SNMP

Copy SNMP installation files

Copy \\SOFTWARE\WIN2K3\i386\*.mi_ \\SRV1\C$\TEMP\SNMP\I386
Copy \\SOFTWARE\WIN2K3\i386\evnt*.* \\SRV1\C$\TEMP\SNMP\I386
Copy \\SOFTWARE\WIN2K3\i386\hostmib.* \\SRV1\C$\TEMP\SNMP\I386
Copy \\SOFTWARE\WIN2K3\i386\lmmib2.* \\SRV1\C$\TEMP\SNMP\I386
Copy \\SOFTWARE\WIN2K3\i386\snmp*.* \\SRV1\C$\TEMP\SNMP\I386

6.4.        Install!

Run the following commands:


SCHTASKS /CREATE /S SRV1 /SC ONCE /RU "SYSTEM" /TN SNMP_Remote_Install /TR C:\TEMP\SNMP\SNMPInstall.bat /ST 00:00:01
SCHTASKS /RUN /S SRV1 /TN SNMP_Remote_Install

We can monitor the process by running


SCHTASKS /QUERY /S SRV1

SNMP has been installed, configured and should be accessible now.

The job is done!