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Configuring profiles

Profiles are the units where you can configure what you want to poll, and then assign them to the device. The definition of profile can be found in the values.yaml file under the scheduler section.

Here are the instructions on how to use profiles: Update Inventory and Profile.

There are two types of profiles in general:

  1. Static profile - polling starts when the profile is added to the profiles field in the inventory of the device.

  2. Smart profile - polling starts when configured conditions are fulfilled, and the device to poll from has smart_profiles enabled in inventory. Smart profiles are useful when we have many devices of a certain kind, and we don’t want to configure each of them individually with static profiles.

    In order to configure smart profile, do the following:

    1. Choose one of the fields polled from the device, most commonly sysDescr.
    2. Set the filter to match all the devices of this kind.
    3. Setup polling of the profile by enabling smart profiles for devices you want to be polled.

The template of the profile looks like the following:

scheduler:
    profiles: |
      #Name of profile
      basev1:
        # Define frequency for profile
        frequency: 100
        #Define condition
        condition:
          # Define type of condition. Allowed value field, base and walk
          type: field
          field: "SNMPv2-MIB.sysDescr"
          # Define paterns
          patterns:
            - '.*STRING_TO_BE_MATCHED.*'
        #Define varbinds to query
        varBinds:
          # Syntax: [ "MIB-Component", "MIB object name"[Optional], "MIB index number"[Optional]]
          - ['SNMPv2-MIB']
          - ['SNMPv2-MIB', 'sysName']
          - ['SNMPv2-MIB', 'sysUpTime',0]

For example, we have configured two profiles. One is smart, and the other one is static:

scheduler:
    profiles: |
      smart_profile:
        frequency: 100
        condition:
          type: field
          field: "SNMPv2-MIB.sysDescr"
          patterns:
            - '.*linux.*'
        varBinds:
          - ['SNMPv2-MIB']
          - ['SNMPv2-MIB', 'sysName']
          - ['SNMPv2-MIB', 'sysUpTime',0]
      static_profile:
        frequency: 300
        varBinds:
          - ['IP-MIB']

If we want to enable only static_profile polling for the host 10.202.4.202, we will configure similar inventory:

poller:
    inventory: |
      address,port,version,community,secret,security_engine,walk_interval,profiles,smart_profiles,delete
      10.202.4.202,,2c,public,,,2000,static_profile,f,

If we want to enable checking the 10.202.4.202 device against smart profiles, we need to set smart_profiles to t:

poller:
    inventory: |
      address,port,version,community,secret,security_engine,walk_interval,profiles,smart_profiles,delete
      10.202.4.202,,2c,public,,,2000,,t,

Then, if the device sysDescr matches the '.*linux.*' filter, the smart_profile profile will be polled.

varBinds configuration

varBinds is short for “variable binding” in the SNMP. It is the combination of an Object Identifier (OID) and a value. varBinds are used for defining what OIDs should be requested from SNMP Agents. varBinds is a required subsection of each profile. The syntax configuration of varBinds looks like the following:

[ “MIB-Component”, “MIB object”[Optional], “MIB index number”[Optional]]

  • MIB-Component - The SNMP MIB itself consists of distinct component MIBs, each of which refers to a specific defined collection of management information that is part of the overall SNMP MIB, eg., SNMPv2-MIB. If only the MIB-Component is set, then the SC4SNMP will get the whole subtree.
  • MIB object - The SNMP MIB stores only simple data types: scalars and two-dimensional arrays of scalars, called tables. The keywords SYNTAX, ACCESS, and DESCRIPTION as well as other keywords such as STATUS and INDEX are used to define the SNMP MIB managed objects.
  • MIB index number - Define index number for given MIB Object eg. 0.

Example:

  varBinds:
    # Syntax: [ "MIB-Component", "MIB object name"[Optional], "MIB index number"[Optional]]
    - ['SNMPv2-MIB']
    - ['SNMPv2-MIB', 'sysName']
    - ['SNMPv2-MIB', 'sysUpTime',0]

Static Profile configuration

Static Profile is used when they are defined on a list of profiles in the inventory configuration in the poller service Inventory configuration. Static Profiles are executed even if the SmartProfile flag in inventory is set to false. To configure Static Profile value needs to be set in the profiles section:

  • ProfileName - define as subsection key in profiles.
    • frequency - define interval between executing SNMP gets in second.
    • varBinds - define var binds to query.

Example:

scheduler:
  profiles: |
    static_profile_example:
      frequency: 20
      varBinds:
        - ['SNMPv2-MIB']
        - ['SNMPv2-MIB', 'sysName']
        - ['SNMPv2-MIB', 'sysUpTime',0]

Particular kinds of static profiles

Sometimes static profiles have additional functionalities to be used in specific scenarios.

WALK profile

If you would like to limit the scope of the walk, you should set one of the profiles in the inventory to point to the profile definition of type walk:

scheduler:
    profiles: |
      small_walk:
        condition: 
          type: "walk"
        varBinds:
          - ['UDP-MIB']

This profile should be placed in the profiles section of the inventory definition. It will be executed with the frequency defined in walk_interval. If multiple profiles of type walk is placed in profiles, the last one will be used.

This is how to use walk profiles:

poller:
  inventory: |
    address,port,version,community,secret,security_engine,walk_interval,profiles,smart_profiles,delete
    10.202.4.202,,2c,public,,,2000,small_walk,,

NOTE: When small walk is configured, SNMPv2-MIB is enabled by default (we need it to create the state of the device in the database). For example, if you’ve decided to use small_walk from the example above, you’ll be able to poll only UDP-MIB, and SNMPv2-MIB OIDs.

SmartProfile configuration

SmartProfile is executed when the SmartProfile flag in inventory is set to true and the condition defined in profile match. More information about configuring inventory can be found in Inventory configuration.

To configure Smart Profile, the following value needs to be set in the profiles section:

  • ProfileName - define as subsection key in profiles.
    • frequency - define an interval between executing SNMP’s gets in second.
    • condition - section define conditions to match profile
      • type - key of condition section which defines type of condition. The allowed values are base and field (walk type is also allowed here, but it’s not part of smart profiles).
        • base type of condition will be executed when SmartProfile in inventory is set to true.
        • field type of condition will be executed if it matches pattern for defined field. Supported fields are:
          • “SNMPv2-MIB.sysDescr”
          • “SNMPv2-MIB.sysObjectID”
      • field Define field name for condition type field.
      • pattern Define list of regular expression patterns for MIB object field defined in field section. For example: - “.linux.“
    • varBinds - define var binds to query.

Example of base type profile:

scheduler:
    profiles: |
      SmartProfile_base_example:
        frequency: 100
        condition: 
          type: "base"
        varBinds:
          - ['SNMPv2-MIB']
          - ['SNMPv2-MIB', 'sysName']

Example of field type profile, also called an automatic profile:

scheduler:
    profiles: |
      SmartProfile_field_example:
        frequency: 100
        condition: 
          type: "field"
          field: "SNMPv2-MIB.sysDescr"
          patterns:
            - '.*STRING_TO_BE_MATCHED.*'
        varBinds:
          - ['SNMPv2-MIB']
          - ['SNMPv2-MIB', 'sysName']

NOTE: Be aware that profile changes may not be reflected immediately. It can take up to 1 minute for changes to propagate. In case you changed frequency, or a profile type, the change will be reflected only after the next walk. There is also 5 minute TTL for an inventory pod. Basically, SC4SNMP allows one inventory upgrade and then block updates for the next 5 minutes.

Conditional profiles

There is a way to not explicitly give what SNMP objects we want to poll - only the conditions that must be fulfilled to qualify object for polling.

An example of a conditional profile is:

IF_conditional_profile:
  frequency: 30
  conditions:
    - field: IF-MIB.ifAdminStatus
      operation: "equals" 
      value: "up"
    - field: IF-MIB.ifOperStatus
      operation: "equals"
      value: "up"
  varBinds:
    - [ 'IF-MIB', 'ifDescr' ]
    - [ 'IF-MIB', 'ifAlias' ]
    - [ 'IF-MIB', 'ifInErrors' ]
    - [ 'IF-MIB', 'ifOutDiscards' ]

When the such profile is defined and added to a device in an inventory, it will poll all interfaces where ifAdminStatus and ifOperStatus is up. Note that conditional profiles are being evaluated during the walk process (on every walk_interval) and if the status changes in between, the scope of the conditional profile won’t be modified.

These are operations possible to use in conditional profiles:

  1. equals - value gathered from field is equal to value
  2. gt - value gathered from field is bigger than value (works only for numeric values)
  3. lt - value gathered from field is smaller than value (works only for numeric values)
  4. in - value gathered from field is equal to one of the elements provided in value, for ex.:
conditions:
  - field: IF-MIB.ifAdminStatus
    operation: "in"
    value: 
      - "down"
      - 0

field part of conditions must fulfill the pattern MIB-family.field. Fields must represent textual value (not metric one), you can learn more about it here.

You have to explicitly define varBinds (not only the MIB family but also the field to poll), so such config:

varBinds:
- [ 'IF-MIB' ]

is not correct.

Custom translations

If the user wants to use custom names/translations of MIB names, it can be configured under the customTranslations section under scheduler config. Translations are grouped by MIB family. In the example below IF-MIB.ifInDiscards will be translated to IF-MIB.myCustomName1:

scheduler:
    customTranslations:
      IF-MIB:
        ifInDiscards: myCustomName1
        ifOutErrors: myCustomName2
      SNMPv2-MIB:
        sysDescr: myCustomName3