Traps are unsolicited messages that are sent by an SNMP agent to an SNMP network management station. An SNMP trap contains information about a significant network event. The management application running at the management station interprets the trap information sent by the SNMP agent.
For a detailed description of the SNMP trap types provided by z/OS® CS, see z/OS Communications Server: IP System Administrator's Commands.
The SNMP agent Distributed Protocol Interface allows subagents other than those shipped with z/OS Communications Server (which might be running on another host) to generate SNMP traps. This can allow for support of other types of traps. For more information about SNMP DPI, see the z/OS Communications Server: IP Programmer's Guide and Reference.
To use traps, you must provide SNMPTRAP.DEST information defining a list of managers to which traps are sent. The SNMPTRAP.DEST information is optional. If no trap destination file is found, then the SNMP agent sends traps to the IP address of the SNMP agent and issues a warning message indicating that defaults are in effect. If a trap destination file exists, but is empty, no traps are sent.
If creating a data set, you can specify a sequential data set with the following attributes: RECFM=FB, LRECL=80, and BLKSZ=3120. Other data set attributes might also work, depending on your installation parameters.