authorizationError (16) — error-status 16 — authorization failed

The credentials or community string are not authorized for this operation or this OID subtree.

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Diagnosis

When you hit this

Using a read-only community string for a SET.
A view-based access control model restricting the user to a subtree.
A v3 user whose security level is below what the agent requires.

Resolution

How to fix it

Separate read from write communities
A SET needs the write community. Read-only is the default on most devices for good reason.
Check the VACM view
In v3, a user can be authenticated yet restricted to a subtree that excludes what you are polling.
Match the security level
authNoPriv credentials against an agent requiring authPriv fail this way.

Normalization

What Forge does about it

This is a configuration or addressing mistake on the wire, upstream of anything Forge sees. Where Forge helps is the step after you fix it: once the point returns data, its vendor tag name maps to a canonical field automatically, so you do not also have to hand-maintain a name table for every point you just re-addressed.