SNMP library for Python

PySNMP is a cross-platform, pure-Python SNMP engine implementation. It features fully-functional SNMP engine capable to act in Agent/Manager/Proxy roles, talking SNMP v1/v2c/v3 protocol versions over IPv4/IPv6 and other network transports.

Despite its name, SNMP is not really a simple protocol. For instance its third version introduces complex and open-ended security framework, multilingual capabilities, remote configuration and other features. PySNMP implementation closely follows intricate system details and features bringing most possible power and flexibility to its users.

Current PySNMP stable version is 6.0. It requires Python 3.10 or later and is recommended for new applications as well as for migration from older, now obsolete, PySNMP releases. All site documentation and examples are written for the 6.0 and later versions in mind.

Besides the libraries, a set of pure-Python command-line tools are shipped along with the system. Those tools mimic the interface and behaviour of popular Net-SNMP snmpget/snmpset/snmpwalk utilities. They may be useful in a cross-platform situations as well as a testing and prototyping instrument for pysnmp users.

PySNMP software is free and open-source. Source code is hosted in a Github repo. The library is being distributed under 2-clause BSD-style license.

PySNMP library development has been initially sponsored by a PSF grant.

Quick start

You already know something about SNMP and have no courage to dive into this implementation? Try out quick start page!

• Quick start
  • Fetch SNMP variable
  • Send SNMP TRAP

Documentation

• Documentation
  • SNMP history
  • SNMP design
  • PySNMP architecture
  • Common operations
• Library reference
  • Synchronous SNMP
  • Asynchronous: asyncio
  • SNMP Engine
  • Security Parameters
  • SNMP Context
  • MIB services
  • SNMP base types
• Errors and supporting types
  • Exceptions
  • Warnings
  • Return types
  • Transport
  • MIB services
  • Synchronous command generators
• Breaking Changes
  • Python 3.10 is the minimum supported version
  • asyncore and asynsock have been removed
  • pyasn1.compat.octets is no longer used
  • pycryptodomex imports are now resolved lazily
  • Weak-crypto warnings are emitted at configuration time
  • pysmi API calls use snake_case
  • Corrected behaviour that may change results
• Security Considerations
  • Recommended configuration
  • Protocol status
  • Configuration warnings
  • Turning SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c off
  • Cipher backend
• SMI table construction and cell addressing
  • Addressing table cells
  • Optional columns during row activation
  • Choosing clone or subtype
• Device details report
  • Asynchronous use
  • Synchronous use
  • API reference
• MIB instance generation tools
  • IANA Private Enterprise Numbers
  • Instances from an ASN.1 MIB
• Loading MIBs from a corpus
  • Nothing changes unless you ask
  • Why you might want one
  • Using one
  • Several corpora at once
  • Which copy answered
  • What was passed over
  • Resolving a trap OID without a compiler
  • What a corpus does not carry
  • How a module is built
  • Version gating
• MIB module loader contract
  • Versioning
  • Contract v1
  • What is deliberately not in the contract
  • For generator authors

Examples

• Example scripts
  • High-level SNMP
  • Native SNMP API
  • Packet-level SNMP
  • Low-level MIB access
  • Using these examples

Download

Best way is usually to

$ pip install pysnmplib

If that does not work for you for some reason, you might need to read the following page.

• Download PySNMP

License

• License

FAQ

• FAQ
  • Getting peer address information
  • How to implement MIB at the Agent
  • Ignored SNMP packets
  • Listening on multiple network interfaces
  • Garbaged SNMP values (apps)
  • Garbaged SNMP values (tools)
  • Dealing with the “OID not increasing” error
  • How to pass MIB to the Manager
  • Resolve response values at MIB
  • SNMP data constraints verification error
  • Walking whole MIB

Further development

The changelog is generated from the commit history at release time. The narrative history of the project through 5.x is kept separately.

• Changelog
• Historical changelog

How changes reach a released version — the branches, the commit-message conventions, what CI runs and how a release is cut — is documented here.

• Continuous integration and releases
  • Branches
  • Commit messages
  • What runs on a pull request
  • The test matrix
  • Cutting a release
  • Keeping next and main in step
  • Reaching PyPI
  • Troubleshooting

Our development plans and new features we consider for eventual implementation are collected in the following section.

• Further development
  • PySNMP library
  • Stand-alone PySNMP-based tools

Contact

In case of questions or troubles using PySNMP, please open up an issue at GitHub or ask at Stack Overflow .