SNMP agent boots counter is required for SNMPv3.

SNMP4J uses EngineBootsProvider interface and EngineBootsCounterFile implementation to maintain agent boots counter. This mechanism is dropped in the FriendlySNMP and replaced with different implementation.

It is natural to reuse agent persistency storage to store a boots counter. The scalar snmpEngineBoots with OID 1.3.6.1.6.3.10.2.1.2.0 is declared in the SNMP-FRAMEWORK-MIB and is used as a key to store boots counter in the agent persistency storage. Boots counter handling in the FrindlySNMP API is transparent and does not require any access or control.

In some special cases boots counter may be required to be reset. This action could be performed with SNMP SET operation from a MIB browser. The boots counter value is preserved in a persistency storage (see Persistency) and could be viewed in the table persistScalarTable declared in the FRIENDLY-SNMP-MIB. Open this table view in the MIB browser, find the entry snmpEngineBoots, update the cell in the column persistScalarAction to delete and commit the change. This change is validated to success if the boots counter reset is allowed in the configuration. The boots counter is reset only in persistency storage and the current boots counter value in the agent is not modified. Next time the agent starts with the boots counter equal 1.