SNMP data source

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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:

You possess sufficient SNMP subject matter expertise to create an SNMP extension.
You're familiar with Extensions basic concepts and the general structure of the extension YAML file.

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

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	rfc3414
SHA	HMAC-96-SHA	rfc3414
SHA224	HMAC-128-SHA-224	rfc7860
SHA256	HMAC-192-SHA-256	rfc7860
SHA384	HMAC-256-SHA-384	rfc7860
SHA512	HMAC-384-SHA-512	rfc7860

`authPriv`

Protocol		RFC	Notes
DES	CBC-DES	rfc3414
AES	CFB128-AES-128	rfc3826
AES192¹		n/a	Blumenthal key extension
AES256¹		n/a	Blumenthal key extension
AES192C¹		n/a	Reeder key extension
AES256C¹		n/a	Reeder key extension

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 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.