Common Operations

In this tutorial we will gradually build and run a few different SNMP command requests and notifications. We will be using PySNMP synchronous high-level API which is the simplest to use.

Creating SNMP Engine

SNMP engine is a central, umbrella object in PySNMP. All PySNMP operations involve SnmpEngine class instance. PySNMP app can run multiple independent SNMP engines each guided by its own SnmpEngine object.

>>> from pysnmp.hlapi.v3arch.asyncio import *
>>>
>>> SnmpEngine()
SnmpEngine(snmpEngineID=<SnmpEngineID value object, tagSet <TagSet object, tags 0:0:4>, subtypeSpec <ConstraintsIntersection object, consts <ValueSizeConstraint object, consts 0, 65535>, <ValueSizeConstraint object, consts 5, 32>>, encoding iso-8859-1, payload [0x80004fb8054d61...6c6f63611bb6c040]>)

SNMP engine has unique identifier that can be assigned automatically or administratively. This identifier is used in SNMP protocol operations.

Warning

SnmpEngine object allocates many resources under the hood, so make sure to call its closeDispatcher() method when you are done with it.

Making SNMP Query

We will send SNMP GET command to read a MIB object from SNMP agent. For that purpose we will call synchronous, high-level getCmd() function. Other SNMP commands can be used in a vary similar way by calling corresponding functions.

>>> from pysnmp.hlapi.v3arch.asyncio import *
>>> [ x for x in dir() if 'Cmd' in x]
['bulkCmd', 'getCmd', 'nextCmd', 'setCmd']
>>> getCmd
<function getCmd at 0x222b330>

Choosing SNMP Protocol and Credentials

We have a choice of three SNMP protocol versions. To employ SNMP versions 1 or 2c, we pass properly initialized instance of CommunityData class. For the third SNMP version we pass UsmUserData class instance.

SNMP community name, as well as the choice between SNMP v1 and v2c, is conveyed to SNMP LCD via CommunityData object.

>>> from pysnmp.hlapi.v3arch.asyncio import *
>>>
>>> CommunityData('public', mpModel=0)  # SNMPv1
CommunityData('public')
>>> CommunityData('public', mpModel=1)  # SNMPv2c
CommunityData('public')

Use of UsmUserData object for LCD configuration implies using SNMPv3. Besides setting up USM user name, UsmUserData object can also carry crypto keys and crypto protocols to SNMP engine LCD.

>>> from pysnmp.hlapi.v3arch.asyncio import *
>>>
>>> UsmUserData('testuser', authKey='myauthkey')
UsmUserData(userName='testuser', authKey=<AUTHKEY>)
>>> UsmUserData('testuser', authKey='myauthkey', privKey='myenckey')
UsmUserData(userName='testuser', authKey=<AUTHKEY>, privKey=<PRIVKEY>)

PySNMP supports MD5 and SHA message authentication algorithms, DES, AES128/192/256 and 3DES encryption algorithms.

For sake of simplicity, let’s use SNMPv2. Although completely insecure, it’s still the most popular SNMP version in use.

>>> from pysnmp.hlapi.v3arch.asyncio import *
>>>
>>> g = await getCmd(SnmpEngine(), CommunityData('public'),
...

Setting Transport and Target

PySNMP supports UDP-over-IPv4 and UDP-over-IPv6 network transports. In this example we will query public SNMP Simulator available over IPv4 on the Internet at demo.pysnmp.com. Transport configuration is passed to SNMP LCD in form of properly initialized UdpTransportTarget or Udp6TransportTarget objects respectively.

>>> from pysnmp.hlapi.v3arch.asyncio import *
>>>
>>> g = await getCmd(SnmpEngine(),
...            CommunityData('public'),
...            UdpTransportTarget(('demo.pysnmp.com', 161)),
...

Addressing SNMP Context

SNMP context is a parameter in SNMP (v3) message header that addresses specific collection of MIBs served by SNMP engine at managed entity. SNMP engine could serve many identical MIB objects representing completely different instances of hardware or software being managed. This is where SNMP context could be used.

To indicate SNMP context at high-level API a properly initialized ContextData object should be used. For this example we will use the ‘empty’ context (default).

>>> from pysnmp.hlapi.v3arch.asyncio import *
>>>
>>> g = await getCmd(SnmpEngine(),
...            CommunityData('public'),
...            UdpTransportTarget(('demo.pysnmp.com', 161)),
...            ContextData(),
...

Specifying MIB Object

Finally, we have to specify the MIB object we want to read. On protocol level, MIB objects are identified by OIDs, but humans tend to address them by name:

$ snmpget -v2c -c public demo.pysnmp.com SNMPv2-MIB::sysDescr.0
SNMPv2-MIB::sysDescr.0 = STRING: SunOS zeus.pysnmp.com
$
$ snmpget -v2c -c public demo.pysnmp.com 1.3.6.1.2.1.1.1.0
SNMPv2-MIB::sysDescr.0 = STRING: SunOS zeus.pysnmp.com

Both object name and OID come from MIB. Name and OID linking is done by high-level SMI construct called OBJECT-TYPE. Here is an example MIB object definition for sysUpTime with OID …mgmt.mib-2.system.3 and value type TimeTicks.

sysUpTime OBJECT-TYPE
    SYNTAX      TimeTicks
    MAX-ACCESS  read-only
    STATUS      current
    DESCRIPTION
            "The time (in hundredths of a second) since
            the network management portion of the system
            was last re-initialized."
    ::= { system 3 }

In PySNMP we use the ObjectIdentity class that is responsible for MIB objects identification. ObjectIdentity represents ways to address MIB object from human perspective. It needs to consult MIB to enter a fully “resolved” state. ObjectIdentity could be initialized with MIB object name, after a MIB look up it starts behaving like an OID.

>>> from pysnmp.hlapi.v3arch.asyncio import *
>>>
>>> x = ObjectIdentity('SNMPv2-MIB', 'system')
>>> # ... calling MIB lookup ...
>>> tuple(x)
(1, 3, 6, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1)
>>> x = ObjectIdentity('iso.org.dod.internet.mgmt.mib-2.system.sysDescr')
>>> # ... calling MIB lookup ...
>>> str(x)
'1.3.6.1.2.1.1.1'

MIB resolution means the service of MIB object name into OID transformation or vice versa.

The ObjectType class instance represents OBJECT-TYPE SMI construct in PySNMP. ObjectType is a container object that references ObjectIdentity and SNMP type instances. As a Python object it looks like a tuple of (OID, value).

>>> from pysnmp.hlapi.v3arch.asyncio import *
>>> x = ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('SNMPv2-MIB', 'sysDescr', 0), 'Linux i386 box'))
>>> # ... calling MIB lookup ...
>>> x[0].prettyPrint()
'SNMPv2-MIB::sysDescr.0'
>>> x[1].prettyPrint()
'Linux i386 box'

The trailing zero is an indication of MIB object instance. Objects described in MIBs are just declarations, they never contain any data. Data is stored in MIB object instances addressed by appending extra information (known as index) to MIB object identifiers.

For scalar MIB objects index is ‘0’ by convention. The ObjectIdentity class takes indices as its initializers.

>>> x = ObjectIdentity('SNMPv2-MIB', 'system', 0)
>>> # ... calling MIB lookup ...
>>> tuple(x)
(1, 3, 6, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 0)

We will be reading sysDescr scalar MIB object instance as defined in RFC3418 SNMPv2-MIB module.

>>> from pysnmp.hlapi.v3arch.asyncio import *
>>> g = await getCmd(SnmpEngine(),
...            CommunityData('public'),
...            UdpTransportTarget(('demo.pysnmp.com', 161)),
...            ContextData(),
...            ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('SNMPv2-MIB', 'sysDescr', 0)))

By default PySNMP will search your local filesystem for ASN.1 MIB files you refer to. It can also be configured to automatically download them from remote hosts. We maintain a collection of ASN.1 MIB modules on mibs.pysnmp.com that you can use in your SNMP projects.

Note

An “ASN.1 MIB” is a plain-text description of identifiers and types. It is the common format that is distributed by manufacturers to describe their SNMP services, and is the same format used by Perl’s Net::SNMP and almost all SNMP tools.

Reading Scalar Value

We are finally in a position to send SNMP query and hopefully receive something meaningful in response.

The distinctive feature of synchronous API is that it is built around the idea of Python generator. Any function invocation ends up with a generator object. Iteration over the generator object performs actual SNMP communication. On each iteration SNMP message gets built and sent out, response is awaited, received and parsed.

>>> from pysnmp.hlapi.v3arch.asyncio import *
>>>
>>> g = await getCmd(SnmpEngine(),
...            CommunityData('public'),
...            UdpTransportTarget(('demo.pysnmp.com', 161)),
...            ContextData(),
...            ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('SNMPv2-MIB', 'sysUpTime', 0)))
>>> g
(None, 0, 0, [ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('1.3.6.1.2.1.1.3.0'), TimeTicks(44430646))])

Working with SNMP Tables

SNMP defines a concept of table. Tables are used when a single given MIB object may apply to many instances of a property. For example, properties of network interfaces are put into SNMP table. Each instance of a property is addressed by a suffix appended to base MIB object.

Tables are specified in MIBs, their index (or indices) are declared via the INDEX clause. Table index is non-zero integer, or string or any base SNMP type.

At the protocol level all indices take shape of OID parts. For humans to work with indices comfortably, SNMP management applications rely on DISPLAY-HINT clause for automatic indices conversion between their OID and SNMP type-specific, human-friendly representation.

ifEntry OBJECT-TYPE
    SYNTAX      IfEntry
    INDEX   { ifIndex }
::= { ifTable 1 }

ifIndex OBJECT-TYPE
    SYNTAX      InterfaceIndex
::= { ifEntry 1 }

ifDescr OBJECT-TYPE
    SYNTAX      DisplayString (SIZE (0..255))
::= { ifEntry 2 }

InterfaceIndex ::= TEXTUAL-CONVENTION
    DISPLAY-HINT "d"
    SYNTAX       Integer32 (1..2147483647)

In PySNMP parlance:

>>> x = ObjectIdentity('IF-MIB', 'ifDescr', 123)
>>> # ... calling MIB lookup ...
>>> str(x)
'1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.2.123'

Some SNMP tables are indexed by many indices. Each of these indices become parts of OID concatenated to each other and ultimately to MIB object OID.

From semantic standpoint, each index reflects an important and distinct property of a MIB object.

tcpConnectionEntry OBJECT-TYPE
    SYNTAX  TcpConnectionEntry
    INDEX   { tcpConnectionLocalAddressType,
              tcpConnectionLocalAddress,
              tcpConnectionLocalPort,
              tcpConnectionRemAddressType,
              tcpConnectionRemAddress,
              tcpConnectionRemPort }
::= { tcpConnectionTable 1 }

tcpConnectionLocalPort OBJECT-TYPE
    SYNTAX     InetPortNumber
::= { tcpConnectionEntry 3 }

PySNMP’s ObjectIdentity class takes any number of indices in human-friendly representation and converts them into full OID:

>>> x = ObjectIdentity('TCP-MIB', 'tcpConnectionState',
...                    'ipv4', '195.218.254.105', 41511,
...                    'ipv4', '194.67.1.250', 993)
>>> # ... calling MIB lookup ...
>>> str(x)
'1.3.6.1.2.1.6.19.1.7.1.4.195.218.254.105.41511.1.4.194.67.1.250.993'

Let’s read TCP-MIB::tcpConnectionState object for a TCP connection:

>>> from pysnmp.hlapi.v3arch.asyncio import *
>>>
>>> g = await getCmd(SnmpEngine(),
...            CommunityData('public'),
...            UdpTransportTarget(('demo.pysnmp.com', 161)),
...            ContextData(),
...            ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('TCP-MIB', 'tcpConnectionState',
...                                      'ipv4', '195.218.254.105', 41511,
...                                      'ipv4', '194.67.1.250', 993)
>>> g
(None, 0, 0, [ObjectType(ObjectIdentity(ObjectName('1.3.6.1.2.1.6.19.1.7.1.4.195.218.254.105.41511.1.4.194.67.1.250.993')), Integer(5))])

SNMP Command Operations

SNMP allows you to request a MIB object that is “next” to the given one. That way you can read MIB objects you are not aware about in advance. MIB objects are conceptually sorted by their OIDs. This feature is implemented by the nextCmd() function.

>>> from pysnmp.hlapi.v3arch.asyncio import *
>>> g =  await nextCmd(SnmpEngine(),
...             CommunityData('public'),
...             UdpTransportTarget(('demo.pysnmp.com', 161)),
...             ContextData(),
...             ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('SNMPv2-MIB', 'sysDescr')))
>>> g
(None, 0, 0, [ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('1.3.6.1.2.1.1.1.0'), DisplayString('SunOS zeus.pysnmp.com'))])
>>> g
(None, 0, 0, [ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('1.3.6.1.2.1.1.2.0'), ObjectIdentity(ObjectIdentifier('1.3.6.1.4.1.8072.3.2.10')))])

Iteration over the generator object “walk” over SNMP agent’s MIB objects.

SNMPv2c introduced significant optimization to the GETNEXT command - the revised version is called GETBULK and is capable to gather and respond a bunch of “next” MIB objects at once. Additional non-repeaters and max-repetitions parameters can be used to influence MIB objects batching.

PySNMP hides this GETBULK optimization at the protocol level, the bulkCmd() function exposes the same generator API as getNext() for convenience.

>>> from pysnmp.hlapi.v3arch.asyncio import *
>>>
>>> N, R = 0, 25
>>> g = await bulkCmd(SnmpEngine(),
...             CommunityData('public'),
...             UdpTransportTarget(('demo.pysnmp.com', 161)),
...             ContextData(),
...             N, R,
...             ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('1.3.6')))
>>>
>>> g
(None, 0, 0, [ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('1.3.6.1.2.1.1.1.0'), DisplayString('SunOS zeus.pysnmp.com'))])
>>> g
(None, 0, 0, [ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('1.3.6.1.2.1.1.2.0'), ObjectIdentifier('1.3.6.1.4.1.20408'))])

Python generators can not only produce data, but it is also possible to send data into running generator object. That feature is used by the high-level API to repeat the same SNMP operation for a new set of MIB objects.

>>> from pysnmp.hlapi.v3arch.asyncio import *
>>>
>>> g = await nextCmd(SnmpEngine(),
...             CommunityData('public'),
...             UdpTransportTarget(('demo.pysnmp.com', 161)),
...             ContextData(),
...             ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('IF-MIB', 'ifTable')))
>>>
>>> g.send([ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('IF-MIB', 'ifInOctets'))])
(None, 0, 0, [(ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.10.1'), Counter32(284817787))])

You could operate on many unrelated MIB object just by listing them in a single PDU. Response PDU will carry a list of MIB objects and their values in exactly the same order as they were in request message.

>>> from pysnmp.hlapi.v3arch.asyncio import *
>>>
>>> g = await getCmd(SnmpEngine(),
...            CommunityData('public'),
...            UdpTransportTarget(('demo.pysnmp.com', 161)),
...            ContextData(),
...            ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('SNMPv2-MIB', 'sysDescr', 0)),
...            ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('SNMPv2-MIB', 'sysUpTime', 0))
... )
>>> g
(None, 0, 0, [ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('1.3.6.1.2.1.1.1.0'), DisplayString('SunOS zeus.pysnmp.com')), ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('1.3.6.1.2.1.1.3.0'), TimeTicks(44430646))])

Configuration management part of SNMP relies on SNMP SET command. Although its implementation on managed entity’s side proved to be somewhat demanding (due to locking and transactional behavior requirements). So vendors tend to leave it out thus rendering managed entity being read-only.

PySNMP supports SET uniformly through setCmd() function.

>>> from pysnmp.hlapi.v3arch.asyncio import *
>>>
>>> g = await setCmd(SnmpEngine(),
...            CommunityData('public'),
...            UdpTransportTarget(('demo.pysnmp.com', 161)),
...            ContextData(),
...            ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('SNMPv2-MIB', 'sysDescr', 0), 'Linux i386')
... )
>>> g
(None, 0, 0, [ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('1.3.6.1.2.1.1.1.0'), DisplayString('Linux i386'))])

Sending SNMP Notifications

Managed entity could send unsolicited messages to the managing entity. That is called notification in SNMP. Notifications help reduce polling, what may become a problem for large networks.

SNMP notifications are enumerated and each has definite semantics. This is done through a special, high-level SMI construct called NOTIFICATION-TYPE. Like OBJECT-TYPE, that defines a MIB object, NOTIFICATION-TYPE has a unique OID, but instead of SNMP value references a sequence of other MIB objects. These MIB objects are specified with the OBJECTS clause and when notification is being sent, their current values are included into the notification message.

linkUp NOTIFICATION-TYPE
    OBJECTS { ifIndex, ifAdminStatus, ifOperStatus }
    STATUS  current
    DESCRIPTION
        "..."
::= { snmpTraps 4 }

To model NOTIFICATION-TYPE construct in PySNMP, we have the NotificationType class that is a container object. It is identified by the ObjectIdentity class and reference a sequence of ObjectType class instances.

From behavior standpoint, NotificationType looks like a sequence of ObjectType class instances.

>>> from pysnmp.hlapi.v3arch.asyncio import *
>>>
>>> x = NotificationType(ObjectIdentity('IF-MIB', 'linkUp'))
>>> # ... calling MIB lookup ...
>>> >>> [ str(y) for x in n ]
['SNMPv2-MIB::snmpTrapOID.0 = 1.3.6.1.6.3.1.1.5.3', 'IF-MIB::ifIndex = ', 'IF-MIB::ifAdminStatus = ', 'IF-MIB::ifOperStatus = ']

Sending notification with PySNMP is not much different than sending SNMP command. The difference is in how PDU var-binds are built. There are two different kinds of notifications in SNMP: trap and inform.

With trap, agent-to-manager communication is one-way - no response or acknowledgement is sent.

>>> from pysnmp.hlapi.v3arch.asyncio import *
>>>
>>> g = await sendNotification(SnmpEngine(),
...                      CommunityData('public'),
...                      UdpTransportTarget(('demo.pysnmp.com', 162)),
...                      ContextData(),
...                      'trap',
...                      NotificationType(ObjectIdentity('IF-MIB', 'linkUp'), instanceIndex=(123,))
... )
>>> g
(None, 0, 0, [])

The inform notification is much like a command. The difference is in PDU format. Informs are used for manager-to-manager communication as well as for agent-to-manager.

>>> from pysnmp.hlapi.v3arch.asyncio import *
>>>
>>> g = await sendNotification(SnmpEngine(),
...                      CommunityData('public'),
...                      UdpTransportTarget(('demo.pysnmp.com', 162)),
...                      ContextData(),
...                      'inform',
...                      NotificationType(ObjectIdentity('IF-MIB', 'linkUp'), instanceIndex=(123,))
... )
>>> g
(None, 0, 0, [ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('1.3.6.1.2.1.1.3.0'), TimeTicks(0)), ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('1.3.6.1.6.3.1.1.4.1.0'), ObjectIdentity('1.3.6.1.6.3.1.1.5.4')), ObjectType(ObjectName('1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.1.123'), Null('')), ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.7.123'), Null('')), ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.8.123'), Null(''))])

In the latter example you can see MIB objects (ifIndex, ifAdminStatus, ifOperStatus) being automatically expanded from IF-MIB::linkUp notification. To address specific row of SNMP table objects by index, the index part of MIB objects could be passed to NotificationType via instanceIndex parameter.

As you can see, the actual values for expanded MIB objects are NULLs. That’s because in these examples our simple scripts do not have access to those MIB objects. We can supply that missing information by passing NotificationType a dictionary-like object that maps MIB object OIDs to current values.

>>> from pysnmp.hlapi.v3arch.asyncio import *
>>>
>>> mib = {ObjectIdentifier('1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.1.123'): 123,
...        ObjectIdentifier('1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.7.123'): 'testing',
...        ObjectIdentifier('1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.8.123'): 'up'}
>>>
>>> g = await sendNotification(SnmpEngine(),
...                      CommunityData('public'),
...                      UdpTransportTarget(('demo.pysnmp.com', 162)),
...                      ContextData(),
...                      'inform',
...                      NotificationType(ObjectIdentity('IF-MIB', 'linkUp'), instanceIndex=(123,), objects=mib)
... )
>>> g
(None, 0, 0, [ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('1.3.6.1.2.1.1.3.0'), TimeTicks(0)), ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('1.3.6.1.6.3.1.1.4.1.0'), ObjectIdentity('1.3.6.1.6.3.1.1.5.4')), ObjectType(ObjectName('1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.1.123'), InterfaceIndex(123)), ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.7.123'), Integer(3)), ObjectType(ObjectIdentity('1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.8.123'), Integer(1))])

High-volume Messaging

When it comes to managing large network, reading MIB objects sequentially introduces latency. By some point the latency becomes intolerable. Solutions to parallelize queries are well known - you could do that by offloading individual operations into multiple processes, or multiple threads of execution or build your application around the asynchronous I/O model.

Compared to other solutions, asynchronous model is most lightweight and scalable. The idea is simple: never wait for I/O - do something else whenever possible. The back side of this is that execution flow becomes non-linear what hurts program analysis by human reader.

PySNMP high-level API is adapted to work with the standard asynchronous I/O framework asyncio. Please, refer to PySNMP API References and Samples for more information on asynchronous API.