Getting Connected

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is a standard protocol for collecting and modifying management data on network devices. ThingsBoard acts as an SNMP manager that periodically polls SNMP agents running on your devices, reading OID values via GET requests and writing values via SET requests.

ThingsBoard supports SNMP v1, v2c, and v3. Messages are transported over UDP (default) or TCP, configured via the SNMP_UNDERLYING_PROTOCOL environment variable. The default SNMP bind port is 1620 (SNMP_BIND_PORT).

Each OID (Object Identifier) addresses a specific variable in the device’s Management Information Base (MIB). ThingsBoard maps OID values to telemetry keys or attributes based on the SNMP Device Profile configuration.

The SNMP Device Profile defines how ThingsBoard communicates with SNMP devices: request timeout, retry count, and communication configs (telemetry polling, attribute polling, shared attribute updates, RPC mappings).

1. Go to Device profiles and create or edit a profile. Set the transport type to SNMP.
2. Configure Request timeout (milliseconds before a request is resent or timed out) and Retries (number of retry attempts before timeout).

Each SNMP device requires a host and port regardless of the SNMP version.

For v1 and v2c, set a community string (a plaintext password sent with each request).

SNMP v3 uses the User-based Security Model (USM) with authPriv security level, which enables both authentication and encryption. Configure the following properties:

Property	Description
Username	USM user name
Security name	Security identity for authentication
Context name	Context scope for access control
Authentication protocol	Hash function for the authentication passphrase: SHA-1, SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512, or MD5
Authentication passphrase	Secret used to verify message integrity
Privacy protocol	Encryption algorithm: DES (CBC mode) or AES-128, AES-192, AES-256
Privacy passphrase	Secret used for data encryption
Engine ID	Unique identifier of the SNMP agent engine