Best practices with snmpwalk / snmpbulkwalk ? Single root tree query versus several sub-queries

[Johan K. <joh...@gm...>]

Hi,

Generally speaking, which of the following gives the best performance?

a. One single SNMP query at "root level", one single SNMP request, but with
a "big" response, causing more network traffic, returning lots of
information, some to be filtered out.
b. Several SNMP queries at "sub level", several SNMP requests, "smaller"
responses with less network traffic, no or little need to filter out
information.


Here is an explicit example, getting LLDP info via SNMP:

a. One single query - gets all information from this tree, which also
includes information not to be used/filtered out.

1.0.8802.1.1.2.1.4                   # lldpRemoteSystemsData

b. Several subqueries - get only data I am interested in from the tree
above.

1.0.8802.1.1.2.1.4.1.1.4.0 # lldpRemChassisIdSubtype
1.0.8802.1.1.2.1.4.1.1.5.0 # lldpRemChassisId
1.0.8802.1.1.2.1.4.1.1.6.0 # lldpRemPortIdSubtype
1.0.8802.1.1.2.1.4.1.1.7.0 # lldpRemPortId
1.0.8802.1.1.2.1.4.1.1.8.0 # lldpRemPortDesc
1.0.8802.1.1.2.1.4.1.1.9.0  # lldpRemSysName
1.0.8802.1.1.2.1.4.1.1.10.0  # lldpRemSysDesc
1.0.8802.1.1.2.1.4.2.1.5.0 # lldpRemManAddrOID


Even if option b. obviously implies more SNMP requests, the sum of the size
of the SNMP responses is smaller than for option a.
But should one take into account any overhead for each request/response? Or
is that ignorable from a performance perspective?

Also, what about the CPU load on the remote system, comparing option a. and
option b.?

Best Regards,
Johan Kuuse