SNMP Trap

The SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) allows network management to communicate with different network components. Because of this, it is important for all network hardware to be equipped with an SNMP agent that allows for it to be communicated back to network management. Once the network is connected, the elements are able to send messages back to network management, and at the same time, network management can send messages to the elements for information. It is this constant back and forth between the network and all its elements that necessitates an SNMP.

What is an SNMP Trap?

An SNMP trap allows an element, such as a printer or scanner, to contact network management when there is a significant event. This is done via unsolicited SNMP messages. For example, if the printer is out of paper and an individual is trying to print, an SNMP trap will be sent to the computer with the message, “Out of paper, add more.” Or, if there is a power failure on one of the network elements, the SNMP Trap will let the network manager know so that he can take the necessary steps to correct the problem.

For the most part, an SNMP Trap is unnecessary when dealing with a single personal computer because one person can easily manage this. SNMP becomes important and helpful, though, when a network manager is dealing with numerous network elements that all have numerous elements themselves. This makes it very difficult to manually manage all of them. The SNMP Trap allows the manager to be notified when there is a problem so he can respond to it quickly without having to manually check everything to see what the error is.

For management to determine what is going on with the element that sent the trap, it needs to have a management information base (MIB) installed. What this does is allow the manager to determine which element is having problems. This provides the OID and any information that goes along with it so the manager can make an informed decision on what corrective measures to take.

What are the Definitions of an SNMP Trap?

There are a series of SNMP Trap definitions for RFC 1157. These are:

    Enterprise: Identifies which object sent the trap.
    Agent address: Gives the object’s address.
    Generic Trap Type: Provides generic types of traps.
    Specific Trap Code: Provides specific codes for traps.
    Time stamp: Gives the time between the last reinitialization and the trap generation.

Data Mining

Data mining is usually defined as searching, analyzing and sifting through large amounts of data to find relationships, patterns, or any significant statistical correlations. With the advent of computers, large databases and the internet, it is easier than ever to collect millions, billions and even trillions of pieces of data that can then be systematically analyzed to help look for relationships and to seek solutions to difficult problems. Besides governmental uses, many marketers use data mining to find strong consumer patterns and relationships. Large organizations and educational institutions also data mine to find significant correlations that can enhance our society.

While data mining is amoral in the fact that it only looks for strong statistical correlations or relationships, it can be used for either good or not so good purposes. For instance, many government organizations depend on data mining to help them create solutions for many societal problems. Marketers use data mining to help them pin point and focus their attention on certain segments of the market to sell to, and in some cases black hat hackers can use data mining to steal and scam thousands of people.

How does data mining work? Well the quick answer is that large amounts of data are collected. Usually most entities that perform data mining are large corporations and government agencies. They have been collecting data for decades and they have lots of data to sift through. If you are a fairly new business or individual, you can purchase certain types of data in order to mine for your own purposes. In addition, data can also be stolen from large depositories by hackers by hacking their way into a large database or simply stealing laptops that are ill protected.

If you are interested in a small case study on how data mining is collected, used and profited off of, you can look at your local supermarket. Your supermarket is usually an extremely lean and organized entity that relies on data mining to make sure that it is profitable. Usually your supermarket employs a POS (Point Of Sale) system that collects data from each item that is purchased. The POS system collects data on the item brand name, category, size, time and date of the purchase and at what price the item was purchased at. In addition, the supermarket usually has a customer rewards program, which also is input into the POS system. This information can directly link the products purchased with an individual. All this data for every purchase made for years and years is stored in a database in a computer by the supermarket.

Now that you have a database with millions upon millions of data fields and records what are you going to do with it? Well, you data mine it. Knowledge is power and with so much data you can uncover trends, statistical correlations, relationships and patterns that can help your business become more efficient, effective and streamlined.

The supermarket can now figure out which brands sell the most, what time of the day, week, month or year is the most busiest, what products do consumers buy with certain items. For instance, if a person buys white bread, what other item would they be inclined to buy? Typically we can find its peanut butter and jelly. There is so much good information that a supermarket can use just by data mining their own data that they have collected.

ODBC (Open Database Connectivity)

ODBC (Open Data Base Connectivity) is an interface to access databases via SQL queries. ODBC can be used as an access tool to various databases such as MS-Access, dBase, DB2, Excel, and Text. Through these Call Level Interface (CLI) specifications of the SQL Access Group, the OBDC allows a neutral way of accessing the data stored in personal computers and various databases. It was first created by Microsoft and Simba Technologies. ODBC 1.0 was initially released in September 1992, and eventually became a part of the international SQL standard in 1995. Microsoft originally shipped the ODBCs as a set of DLLs and still today, ships the set with every copy of Microsoft Windows. Today, more and more operating systems such as Unix and Apple are adopting the ODBC.

The strength of ODBC is that by providing a universal data access interface, it allows independent software companies and parties to not have to learn multiple application programming interfaces. To simply put, with ODBC, applications can simultaneously access, view, and modify database from numerous and quite diverse databases. This is because the ODBC “re-codes” the SQL queries so that it would be readable by the various different databases.
However, the ODBC also has its drawbacks. As managing a huge number of ODBC clients can mean an immense amount of drivers and DLLs being run, this could lead to a system administration overhead. Nonetheless, this minor issue led to further uses of the ODBC server technology (or the “Multi-Tier ODBC Drivers”) to alleviate the load. Also, as drivers are a key in ODBCs, some have raised the issue of the newer drivers’ stability, as often many have shown to have bugs in them.

How ODBC is Processed

To use the ODBC, three components are needed: ODBC client, ODBC driver, and a DBMS server (ex. Microsoft Access, SQL Server, Oracle, and FoxPro). Firstly, the ODBC client will use a command (referred to as “ODBC”) to interact (requesting and/or sending data) with the DBMS server (back-end). However, the DBMS server will not understand the command by the ODBC client yet, as the command has yet to be processed through the ODBC driver (front-end). So then, the ODBC driver will decode the command that can be processed by the ODBC server and be sent there. The ODBC server will then respond back to the ODBC driver which will translate the final output to the ODBC client.

ODBC Drivers

ODBC drivers are specific to each type of database.

Where to Get an Oracle ODBC Driver

The Oracle ODBC Drivers Download Page is the source for official Oracle ODBC drivers.
The Easysoft ODBC Oracle Driver improves on the stock Oracle ODBC drivers by providing improved performance and easier maintenance.
OpenLink Software provides both Single-Tier and Multi-Tier Oracle ODBC drivers.
Attunity provides a data adapter which includes an Oracle ODBC driver.

Where to Get a MySQL ODBC Driver

MySQL Connector/ODBC is the official MySQL ODBC driver.
OpenLink Software provides both Single-Tier and Multi-Tier MySQL ODBC drivers.

Sources for Other ODBC Drivers

To search for an ODBC driver for another database, check the unixODBC list of ODBC drivers which work with unixODBC.

 

ODBC Driver Managers

The two main ODBC driver managers for Unix are iODBC and unixODBC.

iODBC (Independent Open DataBase Connectivity) is an Open Source platform independent implementation of both the ODBC and X/Open specifications. iODBC provides both an ODBC driver manager and an SDK that facilitates the development of database-independent applications. iODBC includes a GTK+-based administration tool.
iODBC has been ported to numerous platforms, including: Linux (x86, Itanium, Alpha, Mips, and StrongArm), Solaris (Sparc & x86), AIX, HP-UX (PA-RISC & Itanium), Digital UNIX, Dynix, Generic Unix 5.4, FreeBSD, MacOS 9, MacOS X, DG-UX, and OpenVMS.
unixODBC provides Unix applications with the same ODBC 3.51 API and facilities available under Windows. unixODBC provides a Driver Manager that supports the full ODBC API and performs the ODBC 3 to ODBC 2 translations with UNICODE to ANSI conversion. unixODBC also includes a set of graphical utilities that allow users to specify connections to DBMSes to be used by applications, a collection of ODBC drivers including a simple text based driver, an NNTP driver, a Postgres driver and others, and a selection of templates and libraries that to aid in the construction of ODBC drivers. unixODBC works with MySQL, Postgres, StarOffice/OpenOffice, Applixware, iHTML, PHP, Perl DBD::ODBC, and many other applications and drivers. Connection pooling is also provided to increase performance with applications such as PHP. unixODBC includes a QT-based administration GUI.