SNMP data source

Dynatrace provides you with a framework that you can use to extend your observability into data acquired directly from your SNMP monitored devices.

We also provide an SNMP traps data source reporting a single metric that counts the number of traps sent by a defined source during a defined interval. For more information, see SNMP traps data source.

We assume the following:

Learn the prerequisites and scope of the supported technologies. For limits applying to your extension, see Extensions 2.0 limits.

Supported Dynatrace versions

  • Dynatrace version 1.215+
  • Environment ActiveGate version 1.215+

Supported SNMP versions

  • SNMP v2c
  • SNMP v3

Supported authentication

SNMP v2c

Community strings.

SNMP v3

For SNMP v3, the SNMP data source supports the NoAuthNoPriv, authNoPriv, and authPriv security levels and the following authentication protocols:

authNoPriv

Protocol
RFC
MD5
HMAC-96-MD5
SHA
HMAC-96-SHA
SHA224
HMAC-128-SHA-224
SHA256
HMAC-192-SHA-256
SHA384
HMAC-256-SHA-384
SHA512
HMAC-384-SHA-512

authPriv

Protocol
RFC
Notes
DES
CBC-DES
AES
CFB128-AES-128
AES1921
n/a
Blumenthal key extension
AES2561
n/a
Blumenthal key extension
AES192C1
n/a
Reeder key extension
AES256C1
n/a
Reeder key extension
1

These encryption algorithms are not officially specified, but they are often supported by network devices. See SNMPv3 with AES-256.

To learn how to define authentication in your monitoring configuration, see SNMP authentication.

Hardware requirements

SNMP monitoring with the Extensions 2.0 framework is performed by an ActiveGate. The requirements for the hosts depend on the following:

  • Number of polled devices.
  • Number of metric ingestion protocol lines ingested per polling interval (1 minute). A unique metric-dimension combination (tuple) results in a single line.
  • Whether you configured the EEC performance profile to high limits.

Depending on the number of devices and ingested lines, the ActiveGates performing SNMP monitoring need to meet the following hardware requirements:

Host (EC2 instance type)
CPUs
RAM (GB)
SNMP devices
Ingested lines
XS (c5.large)
2
4
900
142,000
S (c5.xlarge)
4
8
1,800
284,000
M (c5.2xlarge)
8
16
4,000
632,000
L (c5.4xlarge)
16
32
6,000
940,000

The estimated limits for the numbers of SNMP devices and ingested lines were determined in our internal tests. The actual values might vary depending on the complexity of your monitoring.

For example, the SNMP devices used in our tests were equipped with 20 communication interfaces. The actual number of interfaces has a direct impact on CPU usage and memory consumption.