Configuring SNMP on Linux

The best way to monitor a Linux server or workstation (Red Hat, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, CentOS, Rocky Linux, Suse, OpenSuse… practically any Linux distribution) is through SNMP. This tutorial aims to install the snmpd service and perform a basic configuration of the service to make the information available to Monsta.

Installation

Systems using yum

Logged in as root, on the Linux terminal type:

yum install net-snmp

Systems using apt-get

Logged in as root, on the Linux terminal type:

apt-get install snmpd

Configuring the snmpd.conf file

In general, the snmpd.conf file is located in /etc/snmp/. Make a backup of the original file:

mv /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf.old

Edit the new file (example with vim: vim /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf) according to the lines below:

rocommunity public
sysLocation “Localização deste servidor”
sysContact seu@email.com.br

Restart and enable the SNMP service

Systems with Systemd

On the terminal, type:

systemctl restart snmpd
systemctl enable snmpd

Systems with Systemv

On the terminal, type:

service snmpd restart

Allow the SNMP service in the Linux firewall

If the Linux server or workstation you want to monitor has a firewall enabled, to access the SNMP service add the example below to this device’s firewall rules. If your distribution manages the firewall differently, open the incoming UDP/161 port.

firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-port=161/udp
systemctl restart firewalld