SNMP remote PING is a function of the TCP/IP subagent that gives an SNMP manager the ability to obtain the round-trip response time for an ICMP echo request message (PING) from an SNMP agent to a destination IP address.
The SNMP remote PING function is a valuable tool in an Enterprise network that provides centralized management services because it gives a third-party (SNMP manager) system the ability to request that a PING operation be performed on a remote system running z/OS. The remote system must be running the SNMP agent and the TCP/IP subagent.
For example, if there are three hosts (A, B, and C) as shown in Figure 1, you can obtain the response time between the two remote hosts. In this example, your host is running the SNMP manager function (Host A), Host B is running the SNMP agent and TCP/IP subagent functions, and Host C is some arbitrary remote host. The standard PING function enables Host A to obtain the round-trip response time from A to B and from A to C, but not from B to C. With the SNMP remote PING function on the TCP/IP subagent, Host A can obtain the round-trip response time from B to C.
With the SNMP remote PING function, you can specify the size of the packet, in bytes, that is sent in the ICMP echo request message and the time period, in seconds, to wait for that ICMP echo request message to return from the requested destination address.