Question : SNMP Discovery of Network Hardware

Anyone got any programming examples of SNMP discovery for finding network based routers, switches, firewalls etc and then querying them to find out about hardware, manufacturer, mac address, ports, usage etc etc.

VB or C++ would be ideal

We have the code to query devices through ICMP (ping), and we can get the name back if its got one using dns, but no basis to actually query the devices for more info.

Use of WMI SNMP would be OK - but couldn't find any examples of it that work !

Thanks

Answer : SNMP Discovery of Network Hardware

sysObjectID is defined as the vendor's authoritative identification of the network management subsystem.
This value is allocated within the SMI enterprises subtree (1.3.6.1.4.1) and provides a means of determining what kind of box is being managed. If vendor "Foo" was assigned the subtree 1.3.6.1.4.1.4242, it could assign the identifier 1.3.6.1.4.1.4242.1.1 to its "foobar" thingy.

first take a look at http://www.experts-exchange.com/Networking/Q_20827685.html?query=snmp+chicagoan&searchType=topic

to see the oid's you need

note while the field is required, a value is not

so a query to Oid = 1.3.6.1.2.1.1.1.0
COULD return a value like

Value = Hardware: x86 Family 6 Model 7 Stepping 3 AT/AT COMPATIBLE - Software: W
indows 2000 Version 5.0 (Build 2195 Multiprocessor Free)

but not necessarily :)

walking the vendor's part of the tree would return something like this

nightshade#>snmpwalk 192.168.2.3 1.3.6.1.4.1 |more
SNMP++ snmpWalk to 192.168.2.3 SNMPV1 Retries=1 Timeout=100ms Community=public
Syntax = 4
Oid = 1.3.6.1.4.1.77.1.1.1.0
Value = 5

Syntax = 4
Oid = 1.3.6.1.4.1.77.1.1.2.0
Value = 0

Syntax = 4
Oid = 1.3.6.1.4.1.77.1.1.3.0
Value =   2B 00 00 00                                        +...


Syntax = 2
Oid = 1.3.6.1.4.1.77.1.1.4.0
Value = 1076563805

Syntax = 65
Oid = 1.3.6.1.4.1.77.1.1.5.0
Value = 4651

Syntax = 65
Oid = 1.3.6.1.4.1.77.1.1.6.0
Value = 0

Syntax = 65
Oid = 1.3.6.1.4.1.77.1.1.7.0
Value = 0

Syntax = 4
Oid = 1.3.6.1.4.1.77.1.2.1.0
Value =

Syntax = 2
Oid = 1.3.6.1.4.1.77.1.2.2.0
Value = 53

Syntax = 4
Oid = 1.3.6.1.4.1.77.1.2.3.1.1.6.83.101.114.118.101.114
Value = Server

Syntax = 4
Oid = 1.3.6.1.4.1.77.1.2.3.1.1.7.65.108.101.114.116.101.114
Value = Alerter

Syntax = 4
Oid = 1.3.6.1.4.1.77.1.2.3.1.1.9.69.118.101.110.116.32.76.111.103
Value = Event Log

Syntax = 4
Oid = 1.3.6.1.4.1.77.1.2.3.1.1.9.77.101.115.115.101.110.103.101.114
Value = Messenger

Syntax = 4
Oid = 1.3.6.1.4.1.77.1.2.3.1.1.9.78.101.116.32.76.111.103.111.110
Value = Net Logon

Syntax = 4
Oid = 1.3.6.1.4.1.77.1.2.3.1.1.9.84.101.108.101.112.104.111.110.121
Value = Telephony

Syntax = 4
Oid = 1.3.6.1.4.1.77.1.2.3.1.1.10.68.78.83.32.67.108.105.101.110.116
Value = DNS Client

Syntax = 4
Oid = 1.3.6.1.4.1.77.1.2.3.1.1.10.68.78.83.32.83.101.114.118.101.114
Value = DNS Server

so you'll have to develop a database of the values (numeric or otherwise) and compare your resultsb to it.