SNMPv3 Credentials for Discovery and Management

Accounts using SNMPv3 can use a suite of authentication and privacy protocols. If NetMRI will use SNMPv3 to collect data from devices supporting the protocol, you can define specific user credentials with combinations of authentication and encyption protocol, and the unique keys for each protocol.

Currently, the SNMPv3 engine supports the following encryption (privacy) protocols:

• aes-128
• aes-192
• aes-192C (for Cisco devices only)
• aes-256
• aes-256C (for Cisco devices only)
• des
• 3des

NetMRI also supports multiple entries for the same username string, enabling NetMRI to check similar SNMPv3 credentials that use different authentication and security protocols.



SNMPv3 allows for the use of two secret keys for every credential–one for authentication, and another for encryption. NetMRI allows flexible application of keys–authentication but no encryption, for example. You can define users in one of three ways:

• SNMPv3 user, with no authentication or privacy credentials.
• SNMPv3 user, with authentication but no privacy credentials.
• SNMPv3 user, with both authentication and privacy credentials.

You can test any SNMP credential against any currently discovered or cataloged device. You can also import sets of SNMPv3 credentials from a Microsoft Excel Comma Separated Values (.CSV) data file. The topic Credential Import Formats describes, with examples, the required data structure.

To add SNMPv3 credentials, complete the following:

1. Open Settings icon > Credentials > SNMPv3.
2. Click New. 
3. To define the order of lookup, enter a new Priority value. The lower the value, the higher the priority of the user credential.
4. Enter the Authentication Password and choose the Authentication Protocol.
5. Enter the Privacy Password and choose the Privacy Protocol.
6. Click Save.
7. To test a credential, click Test. Choose the Hostname or IP and click Start.
8. To import a set of credentials, click Import. The CSV file should be a set of tab-separated values matching the categories for the SNMPv3 credentials table. You do not need the column headers as the first row in the file, which can be created in a text editor or exported from Microsoft Excel.