In addition to enabling monitoring of your customers' computers and servers (via installed agents), Atera also enables monitoring of printers, RAIDs, routers, and other SNMP devices. This article describes the process of adding OIDs for SNMP device monitoring.

The first step in monitoring SNMP devices is adding the SNMP devices to Atera. Once your devices have been added, you can add OIDs (Object Identifiers) for the specific parameters you wish to monitor on the devices. Additionally, Atera automatically monitors specific parameters on printers and Linux-based devices (see 'Automatic Monitoring' at the end of this article).

Add OIDs 

Add OIDs (Object Identifiers) for the specific parameters you want to monitor on your SNMP devices. OID values provide the status of the specific OID on the device. For example, you can use an OID for system uptime to check how long a device has been running or an OID for ink levels to monitor your printers. These values update every 2 minutes. Please note that the update interval for OID values cannot be changed. When adding an OID here, you will see the number of the OID displayed along with its current value on the device.

Note: OID values can be generated via AI or added manually.

To add an OID value:

1. From Devices, select the SNMP device.

The SNMP Device page appears.

2. Click Add OID.

The Add OID value window appears.

2. Select from:

• Generate OIDs with AI: Type what you need in plain language (e.g., "ink level"). Then click Generate to see the OID, it's value, and description.
• Manually discover OIDs: Enter the OID value (full or partial). Then click Discover.

3. Click Add OID.

The OID value is added. 

Note: Parent and leaf OIDs (or any MIB objects for that matter) are logically organized in a hierarchy called a tree structure. A parent OID branches off into leaf OIDs. A leaf OID is the actual MIB object and has no children. Only leaf OIDs return MIB values from monitored devices. When you enter a parent OID, you will see a list of all the leaf OIDs under it.

The Monitored OIDs section is where you can set up alert conditions to receive alerts when the Condition Value is matched.

Set up SNMP alert conditions

To set up conditions for SNMP alerts:

1. Click Add OID, under Monitored OIDs.

The Add OID Monitor screen appears.

2. Enter the OID (or a parent of the OID) and click Discover.

The OID, and a list of the leaf OIDs under it, appear along with the alert condition fields.

3. Fill in the fields to set up the conditions under which you want the alert to be triggered, then click Add OID Monitor.

SNMP alerts will appear when your specified conditions are matched. If you select the parent OID, an alert will appear if the value of any of the leaf OIDs under it matches the condition.

Note:

• Deleted SNMP alerts will not regenerate until the original issue that triggered the alert has been resolved.
• The Monitor History graph will display the activity as 'Down' if an alert (of any type) is open for the monitored device. 

Automatic Monitoring

Atera automatically monitors some specific parameters on Linux-based devices as well as printers.

Linux-Based Device Monitoring: Atera automatically monitors OIDs on Linux-based devices (routers, firewalls, PCs etc.) for the following parameters:

• 5-minute load average (laLoad, laConfig, laErrorFlag)
• Available swap memory (memAvailSwap, memMinimumSwap, memSwapError )
• Available disk space (dskMinPercent, dskPercent, dskErrorFlag)

The actual OIDs for these parameters:

1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.10.1.3.2: 5 minutes load average
1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.10.1.4.2: 5 minutes load average threshold
1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.10.1.100.2: Flag set to 1 when 5 minutes load average crosses the threshold.
1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.4.4.0: Available or unused swap space (KB)
1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.4.12.0: Available swap space threshold (KB)
1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.4.100.0: Flag set to 1 when available swap space goes below threshold.
1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.9.1.9.1: Used disk space percentage.
1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.9.1.5.1: Free disk space percentage threshold.
1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.9.1.100.1: Flag set to 1 when disk free space goes below threshold.
1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.9.1.9.2: Disk #2 used space percentage.
1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.9.1.5.2: Disk #2 free space percentage threshold.
1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.9.1.100.2: Flag set to 1 when disk #2 free space goes below threshold.

The OIDs and factory-set thresholds are pulled from the device itself. These OIDs appear within the device console, and will generate Atera alerts. If you don’t wish to receive these alerts, the OIDs can be deleted from the device console.

For each parameter, we display the factory threshold, current value, and a flag that the device sets to 1 if the current value crosses the threshold (an Atera alert is generated when that flag is set to 1).

If you’re interested, you can view a full list of OIDs for Linux-based devices.

Note: The automatic OID monitoring feature appears on Linux-based devices added to Atera after July 27, 2020 (the feature release date). If you would like to add these OIDs to SNMP devices added prior to this date, you can manually import the OIDs from within the device console.

Printer Monitoring: Atera automatically extracts carefully selected alerts from the alerts table of the Printer MIB, and they are displayed alongside other alerts in Atera. The triggers causing alerts to display within Atera include:

These specific alerts are extracted and displayed within Atera automatically, and can't be changed. As on other alerts, tickets can easily be created or assigned to proactively handle the issues. 

Note: If you don't wish for these alerts to be triggered automatically when adding the printer as an SNMP device in Atera, you can select Type Other.