Prepare Network Devices for SNMP Discovery

Discover switches, routers, firewalls, printers, and other network devices accurately by preparing them for Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) scans. Turn on a supported SNMP version, provide read-only access to the required management information, and allow connectivity from the Discovery Application host before you create the discovery target.

Required Editions

Available in: Lightning Experience

Available in: Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited Editions with Agentforce IT Service that have Discovery enabled.

User Permissions Needed
To manage Discovery:	IT Service Asset Discovery
To prepare a network device:	Access to configure SNMP and network access on the target device

Prepare the Discovery Application host before you configure target devices. For more information about Discovery Application host requirements, see Prepare the Discovery Application Host for Agentless Scans.

SNMP discovery requires network access from the Discovery Application host to each target device. For more information about connectivity and access requirements, see Agentless Discovery Network, Port, and Access Requirements.

The Discovery Application uses SNMP to collect device identity, interface, hardware, and configuration data. Configure each target device for SNMP v2c or SNMP v3 according to your organization's security policy.

During an SNMP scan, the Discovery Application first collects standard device information from the system Management Information Base (MIB) at OID 1.3.6.1.2. The Discovery Application reads the sysObjectID to identify the device manufacturer and then collects supported manufacturer-specific information from the enterprise MIB at OID 1.3.6.1.4.1. The collected information can include system details, interfaces, IP addresses, Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) data, serial number, manufacturer, firmware, high-speed interface data, and host-resource data.

Select SNMP v2c or SNMP v3 for each target device.
Turn on the selected SNMP version on each target device.
Create the authentication details for the selected SNMP version.
- For SNMP v2c, create a community string.
- For SNMP v3, create a username and the authentication and privacy settings required by the device.
Grant the SNMP identity read-only access to the full Management Information Base (MIB) tree.
A view that limits access to specific MIB subtrees can produce incomplete discovery results.
Restrict SNMP access on the device to the Discovery Application host.
Allow SNMP traffic over UDP port 161 from the Discovery Application host to each target device.
From the Discovery Application host, use an approved SNMP walk utility to verify the credentials and read access on a representative device.
Verify that the SNMP credentials provide read-only access to the system MIB at OID 1.3.6.1.2 and the manufacturer’s enterprise MIB at OID 1.3.6.1.4.1.

The network devices are ready for the Discovery Application to authenticate and run the SNMP probe.

Create an SNMP discovery credential that uses the prepared authentication details. For more information about discovery credentials, see Create Discovery Credentials for Secure Scanning.

Create the discovery target and select the prepared SNMP credential. For more information about discovery targets, see Create a Discovery Target.