Expanding NetBox Discovery with SNMP Support

A foundational data source for NetBox Assurance and Diode ingestion

We’re excited to introduce SNMP support in NetBox Discovery, significantly expanding its reach across network infrastructure. With this release, the NetBox Discovery Agent can natively discover and model SNMP-enabled devices – bringing deeper visibility and automated drift detection to NetBox, NetBox Assurance, and Diode.

Why SNMP Still Matters

While modern telemetry protocols like gNMI and REST APIs are becoming popular, SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) remains the most widely supported interface for network device telemetry. From classic routers and switches to edge appliances and monitoring hardware, SNMP is often the only available method for obtaining live operational data.

With the new backend, NetBox Discovery Agent can now reach these devices natively – ensuring accurate, timely information for NetBox and downstream automations.

How SNMP Discovery Works

The SNMP backend is now included with the NetBox Discovery Agent and integrates directly with Diode and NetBox Assurance, enabling streamlined collection of SNMP data and translation into structured, NetBox-native objects. It discovers and models:

• Devices with metadata enrichment through SNMPv2-MIB and other standard MIBs, including system names, manufacturers, models and descriptions..
• Interfaces using IF-MIB to capture interface names, types, MACs, and operational state.
• IP address mapping via IP-MIB, tying L3 addressing to physical and logical interfaces.

Configuration is straightforward and extensible, with efficient polling, concurrency, timeout handling and retry logic for high-scale or low-latency environments.

How to Configure SNMP Discovery in the Discovery Agent

SNMP discovery is managed using straightforward YAML policies that define:

• Which devices to query (targets)
• How to authenticate (community or SNMPv3 credentials)
• When to run (using cron-like schedule)
• What defaults to apply (e.g., site, role, description)

Example:

This configuration runs every 6 hours, applies basic tagging and site context, and authenticates using SNMPv2c.

Powering NetBox Assurance

NetBox Assurance is built to continuously verify the accuracy and consistency of your network inventory. With SNMP discovery now available in NetBox Discovery Agent, Assurance gains powerful, low-friction access to real-time device telemetry – including interface state, IP assignments, and device identity.

This means you can:

• Detect and respond to unexpected drift from your intended design
• Validate IP interfaces, MACs, and connected platforms across diverse vendors
• Operate with confidence, even in networks where REST APIs or modern integrations aren’t available

By bridging traditional SNMP data with NetBox’s structured model, the NetBox Discovery Agent SNMP backend integrates your legacy infrastructure into a modern, continuously verified source of truth.

Enriching Diode Ingestion

Even without NetBox Assurance, the SNMP backend is a powerful new ingestion source for Diode to stream discovered entities into NetBox automatically, reducing the need for manual data entry and ensuring more accurate infrastructure models.

What’s Next

SNMP support in NetBox Discovery Agent is currently in public preview under the NetBox Labs product and feature lifecycle, and is evolving quickly with community feedback. Coming soon:

• Discovery and modeling of additional NetBox object types including:
  • VLANs and VLAN groups
  • VRFs and routing instances
  • Device inventory modules and transceivers
• Vendor-specific MIB extension support to enrich data for platforms like Cisco, Juniper, and Arista

Just like NetBox Discovery Agent, SNMP support is open source, extensible, and available now in the orb-agent repository.

Try It Today

Get started in minutes: define your policy, run the agent, and watch your SNMP devices appear in NetBox. Just follow these steps:

1. Create and save your agent configuration and discovery policy to a local agent.yaml file. (here’s a working example ) 
2. Run the agent using Docker:

NetBox Discovery Agent will execute the SNMP discovery policy, collect data from targets, and forward results to NetBox through Diode or NetBox Assurance.