How to Monitor SNMP with OpenTelemetry
With observIQ’s contributions to OpenTelemetry, you can now use free, open-source tools to easily aggregate data across your entire infrastructure to any or multiple analysis tools. The easiest way to use the latest OpenTelemetry tools is with observIQ’s distribution of the OpenTelemetry collector. You can find it here.
In this blog, we cover how to use OpenTelemetry to monitor SNMP. The SNMP receiver can ship metrics to many popular analysis tools, including Google Cloud, New Relic, OTLP, Grafana, and more.
What is SNMP?
SNMP is a network management protocol used to exchange data between network devices. There are three main versions of SNMP, all of which are supported by the SNMP OpenTelemetry receiver. The SNMP receiver is most often used to monitor local area devices on the same network, so important signals vary by what kinds of devices appear on the network. SNMP is different from other receivers because it requires more specific knowledge of the devices on the network and specific configurations for the metrics to be collected. Some data that can be collected from SNMP include:
- Network Data
- Processes
- Uptime
- Throughput
- Device Data
- Memory Usage
- CPU Usage
- Temperature
Introduction to OpenTelemetry
The OpenTelemetry project (OTel), incubated by the CNCF, is an open-source framework that standardizes the way observability data (metrics, logs, and traces) is gathered, processed, and exported. OTel focuses specifically on observability data and enables a vendor-agnostic pathway to nearly any backend for insight and analysis.
Installing the SNMP Receiver for OpenTelemetry
If you still need an OpenTelemetry Collector with the latest SNMP receiver installed, we recommend using the observIQ OpenTelemetry Collector distro, which includes the SNMP receiver and many others. You can easily install it with our one-line installer. Feel free to return to this blog after running the install command on your source.
Configuring the SNMP Receiver in OpenTelemetry
If you're using the observIQ Collector, you can find your OpenTelemetry configuration file in one of the following locations:
- For Linux: /opt/observiq-otel-collector/config.yaml
- For Windows: C:\Program Files\Google\Cloud Operations\Ops Agent\config\config.yaml
Open the configuration file and add the SNMP receiver following the provided example. Remember that SNMP manager configurations vary, so your setup may differ. For detailed instructions, refer to the SNMP monitoring guide on GitHub. Please see the examples below.
1receivers:
2 snmp:
3 collection_interval: 60s
4 endpoint: udp://localhost:161
5 version: v3
6 security_level: auth_priv
7 user: otel
8 auth_type: "MD5"
9 auth_password: $SNMP_AUTH_PASSWORD
10 privacy_type: "DES"
11 privacy_password: $SNMP_PRIVACY_PASSWORD
12
13 resource_attributes:
14 resource_attr.name.1:
15 indexed_value_prefix: probe
16 resource_attr.name.2:
17 oid: "1.1.1.1"
18
19 attributes:
20 attr.name.1:
21 value: a2_new_key
22 enum:
23 - in
24 - out
25 attr.name.2:
26 indexed_value_prefix: device
27 attr.name.3:
28 oid: "2.2.2.2"
29
30 metrics:
31 # This metric will have multiple datapoints wil 1 attribute on each.
32 # Each datapoint will have a (hopefully) different attribute value
33 metric.name.1:
34 unit: 1
35 sum:
36 aggregation: cumulative
37 monotonic: true
38 value_type: int
39 column_oids:
40 - oid: "2.2.2.1"
41 attributes:
42 - name: attr.name.3
43 # This metric will have multiple datapoints with 2 attributes on each.
44 # Each datapoint will have a guaranteed different attribute indexed value for 1 of the attributes.
45 # Half of the datapoints will have the other attribute with a value of "in".
46 # The other half will have the other attribute with a value of "out".
47 metric.name.2:
48 unit: "By"
49 gauge:
50 value_type: int
51 column_oids:
52 - oid: "3.3.3.3"
53 attributes:
54 - name: attr.name.2
55 - name: attr.name.1
56 value: in
57 - oid: "2"
58 attributes:
59 - name: attr.name.2
60 - name: attr.name.1
61 value: out
62 # This metric will have 2 datapoints with 1 attribute on each
63 # One datapoints will have an attribute value of "in".
64 # The other will have an attribute value of "out".
65 metric.name.3:
66 unit: "By"
67 sum:
68 aggregation: delta
69 monotonic: false
70 value_type: double
71 scalar_oids:
72 - oid: "4.4.4.4.0"
73 attributes:
74 - name: attr.name.1
75 value: in
76 - oid: "4.4.4.5.0"
77 attributes:
78 - name: aattr.name.1
79 value: out
80 # This metric will have metrics created with each attached to a different resource.
81 # Each resource will have a resource attribute with a guaranteed unique value based on the index.
82 metric.name.4:
83 unit: "By"
84 gauge:
85 value_type: int
86 column_oids:
87 - oid: "5.5.5.5"
88 resource_attributes:
89 - resource_attr.name.1
90 # This metric will have metrics created with each attached to a different resource.
91 # Each resource will have a resource attribute with a hopefully unique value.
92 metric.name.5:
93 unit: "By"
94 gauge:
95 value_type: int
96 column_oids:
97 - oid: "1.1.1.2"
98 resource_attributes:
99 - resource_attr.name.2Viewing the SNMP Metrics Collected by OpenTelemetry
The SNMP metrics will now be sent to your chosen destination by following the steps outlined above. If you encounter any issues, please check that all authentication fields are correct and ensure that your exporter has the intended endpoint.
observIQ’s monitoring technology is a big improvement for organizations that care about performance and efficiency. If you use SNMP, our solutions can significantly improve your monitoring. Look out for our future posts and simplified configurations for various sources. Ready to enhance your network monitoring with OpenTelemetry? Download our OpenTelemetry distribution or sign up for a free trial.
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