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SNMP Discovery

The SNMP discovery backend leverages SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) to connect to network devices and collect network information.

Diode Entities​

The SNMP discovery backend uses Diode Go SDK to ingest the following entities:

Configuration​

The snmp_discovery backend does not require any special configuration in the backends section. The backend will use the diode settings specified in the common subsection to forward discovery results.

orb:
  backends:
    common:
      diode:
        target: grpc://127.0.0.1:8080/diode
        client_id: ${DIODE_CLIENT_ID}
        client_secret: ${DIODE_CLIENT_SECRET}
        agent_name: agent01
    snmp_discovery:

Policy​

SNMP discovery policies are broken down into two subsections: config and scope.

Config Section​

ParameterTypeRequiredDescription
schedulecron formatnoCron expression for scheduling (e.g., "*/5 * * * *")
timeoutintegernoTimeout for whole policy in seconds (defaults to 120)
snmp_timeoutintegernoTimeout for SNMP operations in seconds for SNMP operations (defaults to 5)
snmp_probe_timeoutintegernoTimeout for SNMP probe operations in seconds (defaults to 1)
retriesintegernoNumber of retries for SNMP operations (defaults to 0)
lookup_extensions_dirstringnoDirectory containing device model lookup files
defaultsmapnoDefault values for entities (description, comments, tags, etc.)

Defaults Parameters​

ParameterTypeRequiredDescription
tagslistnoList of tags to apply to all discovered entities
sitestringnoDefault site name for discovered devices
locationstringnoDefault location for discovered devices
rolestringnoDefault role for discovered devices
interface_patternslistnoUser-defined interface type patterns (see Interface Type Matching)
Nested Defaults​
ParameterTypeDescription
devicemapDevice-specific defaults
├─ descriptionstringDevice description
├─ commentsstringDevice comments
interfacemapInterface-specific defaults
├─ descriptionstringInterface description
├─ if_typestringInterface type (e.g. "ethernet", "virtual")
ipaddressmapIP address-specific defaults
├─ rolestringIP address role
├─ vrfstringIP address vrf
├─ tenantstringIP address tenant
├─ descriptionstringIP address description

Scope Section​

ParameterTypeRequiredDescription
targetslistyesList of SNMP targets to discover. Supports subnets (e.g. 192.168.1.0/28), IP ranges (192.168.0.1-192.168.0.10 or 192.168.0.1-10), and per-target authentication.
authenticationmapconditionalPolicy-level SNMP authentication settings (required unless all targets have their own authentication)

Target Parameters​

Each target in the targets list can include:

ParameterTypeRequiredDescription
hoststringyesTarget hostname, IP address, subnets or IP ranges
portintegernoSNMP port (defaults to 161)
authenticationmapnoTarget-specific authentication (overrides policy-level authentication)
override_defaultsmapnoAllows overriding of any defaults for a specific target in the scope

Authentication Parameters​

ParameterTypeRequiredDescription
protocol_versionstringyesSNMP protocol version ("SNMPv1", "SNMPv2c", or "SNMPv3")
communitystringyes*SNMP community string for v1/v2c authentication
usernamestringnoSNMPv3 username
security_levelstringnoSNMPv3 security level ("noAuthNoPriv", "authNoPriv", "authPriv")
auth_protocolstringnoSNMPv3 authentication protocol ("SHA", "MD5")
auth_passphrasestringnoSNMPv3 authentication passphrase
priv_protocolstringnoSNMPv3 privacy protocol ("AES", "DES")
priv_passphrasestringnoSNMPv3 privacy passphrase

*Required for SNMPv1/v2c, optional for SNMPv3

Note: Authentication can be specified at the policy level (under scope.authentication) as a fallback, or per-target (under each target's authentication field). Targets without authentication use the policy-level authentication. Environment variables are supported using ${VAR} syntax for community, username, auth_passphrase, and priv_passphrase fields.

Sample​

A sample policy including all parameters supported by the SNMP discovery backend.

config:
  schedule: "0 */6 * * *" # Cron expression - every 6 hours
  timeout: 300 # Timeout for policy in seconds (default 2 minutes)
  snmp_timeout: 10 # Timeout for SNMP operations in seconds (default 5 seconds)
  retries: 3 # Number of retries
  defaults:
    tags: ["snmp-discovery", "orb"]
    site: "datacenter-01"
    location: "rack-42"
    role: "network"
    ip_address:
      description: "SNMP discovered IP"
      role: "management"
      tenant: "network-ops"
      vrf: "management"
    interface:
      description: "Auto-discovered interface"
      if_type: "ethernet"
    interface_patterns:
      - match: "^(GigabitEthernet|Gi).*"
        type: "1000base-t"
      - match: "^(TenGigE|Te).*"
        type: "10gbase-x-sfpp"
    device:
      description: "SNMP discovered device"
      comments: "Automatically discovered via SNMP"
  lookup_extensions_dir: "/opt/orb/snmp-extensions" # Specifies a directory containing device data yaml files (see below)
scope:
  targets:
    - host: "192.168.1.1/24" # subnet support
    - host: "192.168.2.2-10" # range support
    - host: "10.0.0.1"
      port: 162  # Non-standard SNMP port
      override_defaults:
        role: "switch"
        tags: ["custom"]
    - host: "10.0.0.10"
      port: 161
      authentication:  # Per-target authentication (optional)
        protocol_version: "SNMPv3"
        security_level: "authPriv"
        username: "admin"
        auth_protocol: "SHA"
        auth_passphrase: "${SNMP_AUTH_PASS}"
        priv_protocol: "AES"
        priv_passphrase: "${SNMP_PRIV_PASS}"
  authentication:  # Policy-level authentication (fallback)
    protocol_version: "SNMPv2c"
    community: "public"
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