Explanation & Hint:
SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) traps are alert messages sent from an SNMP-enabled device to a management station. The two benefits of using SNMP traps among the options provided are:
- They reduce the load on network and agent resources: SNMP traps are asynchronous notifications sent to the SNMP manager without the need for the manager to send a request for information. This means that the network devices do not have to respond to as many polling requests, thereby reducing the load on both the network and the agent resources.
- They eliminate the need for some periodic polling requests: Because SNMP traps are sent automatically in response to certain events, there is no need for the SNMP manager to constantly poll the devices for that specific information. This can significantly reduce the amount of polling traffic on the network, which is especially beneficial for large-scale networks.
The other options listed are not directly benefits of using SNMP traps:
- They limit access for management systems only: SNMP itself can be configured to limit access to management systems, but this is not a benefit unique to traps; it applies to SNMP as a whole through the use of community strings and SNMPv3’s authentication and encryption.
- They can passively listen for exported NetFlow datagrams: NetFlow is a separate protocol used for monitoring network traffic flows. SNMP traps do not listen for NetFlow datagrams; they are a different mechanism for reporting events and do not directly interact with NetFlow data.
- They can provide statistics on TCP/IP packets that flow through Cisco devices: While SNMP can be used to collect a wide range of data, including statistics on TCP/IP packets, this is not a unique benefit of SNMP traps. Traps are specifically for alerting and event notification, not for providing detailed statistics. Detailed statistics are typically gathered through SNMP gets and bulk operations.
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