Wired Intelligent Edge

SNMP is about the most common way to monitor and manage network devices, including switches.

Best Practice
Ideally, you should be using SNMPv3 because SNMPv2 is not secure - the community strings are transmitted in clear text. However, SNMPv2 still seems to be pretty common (it is a little easier to setup), so both options are provided below.

Best practice is to only use SNMPv3, disable v2 and delete the default accounts/communities. I have had issues with SHA and Airwave; I suggest the use of MD5.

SNMPv2 Configuration

switch-x(config)# snmp-server community public operator restricted 
switch-x(config)# snmp-server community Group-x manager unrestricted
switch-x(config)# snmp-server location Lab-Group-x
switch-x(config)# snmp-server contact "Group-x"
switch-x(config)# snmp-server host 172.20.100.186 community public

SNMPv3 Configuration

switch-x(config)# snmpv3 enable
SNMPv3 Initialization process.
Creating user 'initial'
Authentication Protocol: MD5
Enter authentication password: password
Privacy protocol is DES
Enter privacy password: password
User 'initial' has been created
Would you like to create a user that uses SHA? [y/n] n
User creation is done.  SNMPv3 is now functional.
Would you like to restrict SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c messages to have read only
access (you can set this later by the command 'snmpv3 restricted-access')?
 [y/n] n
switch-x(config)#snmpv3 user airwave auth md5 password priv aes password
switch-x(config)#snmpv3 group managerpriv user airwave sec-model ver3

Useful Commands

sh run | in snmp
sh snmpv3 users
sh snmpv3 view

Notes
This is an extract from the training course I updated in Jun 2018
These commands are applicable to the ArubaOS-Switch devices, and many of the precursor devices (ProCurve, E Series)

Can communication with Airwave be set up without SNMPv2?

Or can you tell me how to tell what my issue is?

My switch config:

snmp-server response-source dst-ip-of-request
snmpv3 engineid "<blocked>"
snmpv3 enable
snmpv3 only
snmpv3 group managerpriv user "airwave" sec-model ver3
snmpv3 user "airwave" auth md5 password priv aes password

The switch reports:

W 11/08/19 22:00:19 00236 snmp: Security access violation from 10.0.8.13 for the
            community name or user name : airwave

Do you have enable SNMPv3 on AirWave too ? (Global Settings)

I've found the setting at the Group level for SNMP version, but no "Global" setting, can you give me a more specific direction?

Correction, Airwave tells me it can't connect and asks if I want to save the new credentials anyway. I do.

Ten minutes later the device comes up in Airwave - apparently the system doesn't actually try the changed credentials as you change them, and waits for the next maintenance run.