SNMP

aid: snmp
name: SNMP
description: >-
  Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is the foundational IETF standard
  for monitoring and managing network devices. SNMP defines a request/response
  protocol over UDP (ports 161 and 162) for retrieving and altering management
  variables exposed by agents on routers, switches, servers, UPSs, and other
  equipment, plus an asynchronous trap/notification channel for event delivery.
  The protocol family spans three major generations — SNMPv1 (RFC 1157),
  SNMPv2c (RFC 1901-1908), and the modular SNMPv3 architecture
  (RFC 3411-3418, extended by RFC 7860 for HMAC-SHA-2 authentication) — and is
  paired with the Structure of Management Information (SMI) and a vast catalog
  of MIB modules, most notably the IF-MIB (RFC 2863) for network interfaces.
  SNMP remains the lingua franca of network monitoring, consumed primarily by
  NMS platforms such as Nagios, Zabbix, PRTG, SolarWinds, LibreNMS, and
  Observium, and implemented in open source primarily by the Net-SNMP suite.
type: Index
image: https://kinlane-productions.s3.amazonaws.com/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
tags:
  - SNMP
  - Network Management
  - Network Monitoring
  - IETF
  - Protocol
  - MIB
  - SMI
  - OID
  - Agents
  - Traps
  - UDP
  - Operations
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/snmp/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2025-01-01'
modified: '2026-05-23'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
  - aid: snmp:snmpv1
    name: SNMPv1 (RFC 1157)
    description: >-
      The original Simple Network Management Protocol defined in RFC 1157
      (May 1990). Establishes the five core PDUs (GetRequest, GetNextRequest,
      GetResponse, SetRequest, Trap), community-string authentication, ASN.1
      message encoding, and UDP transport on ports 161 and 162. Now classified
      as Historic by the IETF but still widely deployed on legacy equipment.
    humanURL: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1157
    tags:
      - SNMPv1
      - Community Strings
      - PDU
      - Historic
    properties:
      - type: Specification
        url: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1157
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc1157/
  - aid: snmp:snmpv2c
    name: SNMPv2c (RFC 1901-1908)
    description: >-
      Community-based SNMPv2, the most widely deployed version of SNMP in
      production today. Adds the GetBulkRequest PDU for efficient table
      retrieval and the InformRequest PDU for acknowledged notifications,
      while retaining the community-string security model of SNMPv1.
      RFC 3416 later republished the v2 protocol operations as part of the
      SNMPv3 framework.
    humanURL: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1901
    tags:
      - SNMPv2c
      - GetBulk
      - InformRequest
      - Community Strings
    properties:
      - type: Specification
        url: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1901
      - type: Specification
        url: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3416
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc1901/
  - aid: snmp:snmpv3
    name: SNMPv3 Architecture (RFC 3411-3418)
    description: >-
      The modular SNMPv3 management framework. RFC 3411 defines the SNMP
      engine, Message Processing Subsystem, Security Subsystem, and Access
      Control Subsystem; RFC 3414 specifies the User-based Security Model
      (USM) with authentication and privacy; RFC 3415 specifies the
      View-based Access Control Model (VACM); RFC 3416 redefines protocol
      operations; RFC 3417 covers transport mappings; RFC 3418 contains the
      MIB for SNMPv3 itself. RFC 7860 extends USM with HMAC-SHA-2
      authentication protocols.
    humanURL: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3411
    tags:
      - SNMPv3
      - USM
      - VACM
      - Security
      - Authentication
      - Privacy
    properties:
      - type: Specification
        url: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3411
      - type: Specification
        url: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3412
      - type: Specification
        url: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3414
      - type: Specification
        url: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3415
      - type: Specification
        url: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3416
      - type: Specification
        url: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3417
      - type: Specification
        url: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3418
      - type: Specification
        url: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7860
  - aid: snmp:if-mib
    name: IF-MIB (RFC 2863) — The Interfaces Group MIB
    description: >-
      The canonical SNMP MIB module for network interface management,
      published June 2000. Defines ifTable, ifXTable, ifStackTable, and
      ifRcvAddressTable, plus the ifType enumeration registered by IANA.
      Universally implemented by routers, switches, NICs, and operating
      systems; the most-polled MIB in production network monitoring.
    humanURL: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2863
    tags:
      - IF-MIB
      - MIB
      - Interfaces
      - ifTable
      - ifXTable
    properties:
      - type: Specification
        url: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2863
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://www.iana.org/assignments/ianaiftype-mib/ianaiftype-mib
  - aid: snmp:smi
    name: SMI and the OID Tree
    description: >-
      Structure of Management Information — the data definition language
      and naming scheme that every MIB module is written against. The IANA
      SMI Numbers registry administers the OID hierarchy rooted at
      1.3.6.1, including standard MIBs under 1.3.6.1.2.1 and Private
      Enterprise Numbers under 1.3.6.1.4.1 (the namespace organizations
      use to publish their own MIBs).
    humanURL: https://www.iana.org/assignments/smi-numbers/smi-numbers.xhtml
    tags:
      - SMI
      - OID
      - IANA
      - Enterprise Numbers
      - PEN
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://www.iana.org/assignments/smi-numbers/smi-numbers.xhtml
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://www.iana.org/assignments/enterprise-numbers/
common:
  - type: Website
    url: https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/opsawg/about/
  - type: Specification
    url: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3411
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.net-snmp.org/
  - type: SourceCode
    url: https://github.com/net-snmp/net-snmp
  - type: Registry
    url: https://www.iana.org/assignments/smi-numbers/smi-numbers.xhtml
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: [email protected]