SynOptics Network Management Protocol

Table 1. SONMP product support

Feature

Product

Release introduced

SONMP

5320 Series

Fabric Engine 8.6

5420 Series

VOSS 8.4

5520 Series

VOSS 8.2.5

5720 Series

Fabric Engine 8.7

The switch supports an auto-discovery protocol known as the SynOptics Network Management Protocol (SONMP). SONMP allows a network management station (NMS) to formulate a map that shows the interconnections between Layer 2 devices in a network. SONMP is also called Topology Discovery Protocol (TDP).

All devices in a network that are SONMP-enabled send hello packets to their immediate neighbors, that is, to interconnecting Layer 2 devices. A hello packet advertises the existence of the sending device and provides basic information about the device, such as the IP address and MAC address. The hello packets allow each device to construct a topology table of its immediate neighbors. A network management station periodically polls devices in its network for these topology tables, and then uses the data to formulate a topology map.

If you disable SONMP, the system stops transmitting and acknowledging SONMP hello packets. In addition, the system removes all entries in the topology table except its own entry. If you enable SONMP, the system transmits a hello packet every 12 seconds. The default status is enabled.

SONMP for the Segmented Management Instance

SONMP and LLDP both advertise the same topology IP address for the Segmented Management Instance management interface. SONMP supports IPv4 advertisement only. If all three management interfaces are configured, the advertised default topology IP priority is management CLIP, then management VLAN, then management OOB. You can change the default topology IP using CLI or EDM. If multiple IPv4 addresses are configured on an OOB or VLAN management interface, the advertised IP priority is static IP address, then DHCP IP address, then link-local IP address.