Sending SNMP Traps using Visual C# .NET

ActiveSocket provides an easy-to-use development interface (SDK) to a variety of IP protocols.
By using ActiveSocket, you can very easily create or enhance applications with network features.

ActiveSocket features the following protocols: ICMP, HTTP and HTTPs with support for proxy servers, Telnet, NTP time protocol,
RSH remote shell script interface, SNMP (Simple Network Management Protcol), SNMP Traps, Sockets (TCP and UDP), WOL (Wake-On-LAN), and more.

ActiveSocket is compliant with SNMP versions v1 and v2c. Several SNMP data types are supported, including:

ASN_INTEGER; Numeric values;
ASN_INTEGER32; Numeric values;
ASN_BITS; Bit values, for instance: one bit per port to see if a port is connected;
ASN_OCTETSTRING; Byte string;
ASN_NULL; Null value;
ASN_OBJECTIDENTIFIER; Object identifier (OID);
ASN_SEQUENCE; Text string;
ASN_IPADDRESS; IP address;
ASN_COUNTER32; 32 bit counter;
ASN_GAUGE32; 32 bit gauge;
ASN_TIMETICKS; Timestamps or uptime;
ASN_OPAQUE; Byte string;
ASN_COUNTER64; 64 bit counter;
ASN_UNSIGNED32; unsigned 32 bit numeric value.

ActiveSocket supports the following SNMP trap features:

SNMP v1 and SNMP v2c support;
Support for alphanumeric OID's (object identifier) and numeric OID's;
Multithreading architecture: send and/or receive SNMP traps simultaneously from one process using multiple threads;
Support for ports other than the default 161 and 162 ports;
Support for enterprise specific traps;
Support for SNMP v1 generic traps such as coldstart, warmstart, linkup, linkdown, authfailure and neighbourloss;
Send multiple data objects (variable bindings) using a single SNMP trap message.

ActiveSocket can be well integrated into Visual C# .NET environments.
This document describes how ActiveSocket can be integrated into Visual C# .NET projects.

Prerequisites

IMPORTANT: Make sure that the SNMP Service is installed and running on the machine where ActiveSocket is installed. For more details, please read FAQ items Q1200010 and Q1200015.

Step 1: Download and install the ActiveSocket Toolkit

Download the the ActiveSocket Toolkit from the ActiveXperts Download Site and start the installation. The installation guides you through the installation process.

Step 2: Create a new Visual C# .NET Project

Launch Microsoft Visual Studio (for instance 'Microsoft Visual Studio 2005') from the Start menu. Choose 'New' from the 'File' menu and click on 'Project'. In the 'New Project' dialog, select a Visual Studio template (for instance: 'Console Application'). Select a name for the application (for instance: 'DemoApp') and a name for the solution (for instance: 'DemoSolution'). Also, select the directory where you want to store the project (for instance: 'C:\MyProjects):

(Click on the picture to enlarge)

Step 3: Refer to the ActiveSocket Library

Now that a new project has been created, you must add a reference to the ActiveSocket Toolkit in the project to be able to use the ActiveSocket object. To do so, choose 'Add Reference...' from the 'Project' menu. In the 'Add Reference' dialog that pops up, select the 'COM' tab and select the 'ActiveSocket 3.1 Type Library' as shown in the following picture:

(Click on the picture to enlarge)

Click 'OK' to close the 'Add Reference' dialog.

Step 4: Declare and create the object

To send SNMP traps using Visual C# .NET, you need to declare and create the following ActiveSocket objects:

SnmpTrapManager; The SNMP manager which allows you to send and/or receive SNMP traps in the form of SnmpTrap objects;
SnmpTrap; The actual SNMP trap, this object holds some SNMP trap properties like: destination host, port and community, specific and generic trap and a timestamp;
SnmpObject; This object is used to hold the data to be send with the SNMP trap. These data objects are also called variable bindings.

On top of your code, type the following line to use the ActiveSocket namespace:

   using ASOCKETLib;

In your Main function, declare and create the following objects:

   public SnmpTrapManager m_objSnmpTrapManager;
   public SnmpTrap        m_objSnmpTrap;
   public SnmpObject      m_objSnmpObject;
	
   m_objSnmpTrapManager = new SnmpTrapManager();
   m_objSnmpTrap        = new SnmpTrap();
   m_objSnmpObject      = new SnmpObject();

Step 5: Sending a SNMP trap

When the required SNMP objects are created, you can implement the code to send a SNMP trap:

private void CommandSend_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
	// Local Declarations
	SnmpTrap   objSnmpTrap;
	SnmpObject objSnmpObject;
	
	// Create local objects
	objSnmpTrap   = new SnmpTrap ();
	objSnmpObject = new SnmpObject ();
         
	// Set data to be send with the trap (variable bindings)   	
	objSnmpObject.OID   = TextOID.Text;
	objSnmpObject.Type  = GetTypeAsLong( ComboType.Text );
	objSnmpObject.Value = TextValue.Text;

	object obj = objSnmpObject;

	// Set the properties of the trap and add the data
	objSnmpTrap.Host        = TextAgent.Text;
	objSnmpTrap.Port        = Int32.Parse (TextPort.Text);
	objSnmpTrap.Community   = TextCommunity.Text;
	
	objSnmpTrap.AddObject ( ref obj );

	obj = objSnmpTrap;
	
	// Set the protocol version to be used by the manager
	objSnmpTrapManager.ProtocolVersion = ComboVersion.SelectedIndex + 1;

	// Send the Trap
	objSnmpTrapManager.Send( ref obj );
}

You can download the complete sample from our ftp site ftp.activexperts-labs.com/samples/asocket.
There are many other working ActiveSocket scripts on our site and shipped with the product.

The ActiveSocket tool is a Network Communications ActiveX software component (SDK). This control supports SNMP, SMTP, POP3, Telnet, TCP, NTP, RSH, HTTP, HTTPs, FTP, DNS, ICMP and more, and can be used by any Windows development platform, including Visual Basic .NET, Visual CSharp .NET, ASP .NET (VB,CS), ASP, Visual Basic, Visual Studio/Visual C++, Delphi, PHP, ColdFusion, HTML, VBScript and any other ActiveX/COM compliant platform. The ActiveSocket Toolkit is an ActiveXperts Software B.V. Product.