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SNMP Monitoring

Monitor your load balancer via SNMP

SNMP Monitoring

Tula supports SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) for integration with enterprise monitoring platforms. SNMP allows external systems to query the load balancer for health, performance, and configuration data using a standardized protocol supported by virtually all network management tools.

Supported SNMP Versions

Tula supports both SNMP v2c and SNMP v3. SNMP v2c uses community strings for authentication and transmits data in cleartext, making it suitable for trusted management networks. SNMP v3 adds user-based authentication and optional encryption (authPriv), providing a secure option for environments where SNMP traffic traverses untrusted network segments. You can enable one or both versions simultaneously depending on your monitoring requirements.

Configuring SNMP

SNMP is configured through the Tula web interface under System > SNMP.

SNMP v2c Configuration

  1. Enable SNMP v2c by toggling the service on.
  2. Set the community string. The community string acts as a shared password between the load balancer and the monitoring platform. Change the default community string to a value known only to your monitoring infrastructure. Use a string that is not easily guessable.
  3. Restrict access by specifying allowed source IP addresses or subnets. Limiting SNMP access to your monitoring servers' addresses reduces the attack surface.

SNMP v3 Configuration

  1. Enable SNMP v3 and create a user account with a username, authentication protocol (MD5 or SHA), authentication passphrase, privacy protocol (DES or AES), and privacy passphrase.
  2. Set the security level to authPriv for both authentication and encryption, authNoPriv for authentication only, or noAuthNoPriv for no security (not recommended).
  3. Configure access control to restrict which OID subtrees the user can query.

Available OIDs

Tula exposes system and load balancer metrics through standard and enterprise-specific MIBs:

  • System MIB (RFC 1213) -- System description, uptime, contact information, hostname, and location.
  • Interface MIB (IF-MIB) -- Per-interface statistics including bytes in/out, packet counts, errors, and link status for all physical and virtual network interfaces.
  • Host Resources MIB -- CPU utilization, memory usage, disk space, and running processes.
  • Load Balancer MIB -- Enterprise-specific OIDs exposing VIP status (up/down), active connection counts per VIP, backend server health states, connections per second, bytes transferred, and current session counts.

A downloadable MIB file is available from the Tula web interface under System > SNMP > Download MIB. Import this file into your monitoring platform to enable human-readable OID names and descriptions.

SNMP Traps

Tula can send SNMP traps (unsolicited notifications) to one or more configured trap receivers when significant events occur. Supported trap events include:

  • HA failover -- Sent when the node transitions between master and backup states.
  • Backend state change -- Sent when a backend server transitions between healthy and unhealthy states.
  • Service restart -- Sent when a critical service (HAProxy, nftlb, keepalived) is restarted.
  • Resource threshold -- Sent when CPU, memory, or disk usage exceeds a configured threshold.

To configure trap receivers, navigate to System > SNMP > Trap Receivers and add the IP address, port, and community string (v2c) or user credentials (v3) for each receiver.

Integrating with Monitoring Platforms

Tula's SNMP implementation is compatible with all major monitoring platforms:

  • Nagios / Icinga -- Use the check_snmp plugin to poll Tula OIDs and define service checks for VIP health, connection counts, and backend status. Configure passive checks to receive SNMP trap data via snmptrapd and the Nagios SNMP trap handler.
  • Zabbix -- Import the Tula MIB and create SNMP items using Zabbix's built-in SNMP agent. Use Zabbix discovery rules to automatically detect VIPs and backends. Configure SNMP trap reception through Zabbix's snmptrap integration.
  • PRTG -- Add a Tula node as an SNMP device and use PRTG's auto-discovery to detect available sensors. PRTG will automatically create sensors for interface traffic, CPU, memory, and any enterprise OIDs it recognizes from the imported MIB.
  • LibreNMS -- Add the Tula appliance as a device using SNMP credentials. LibreNMS will auto-discover interfaces, system metrics, and any supported enterprise MIB data. Alerting rules can be configured to trigger on VIP or backend state changes.

For all platforms, ensure that the monitoring server's IP address is included in Tula's SNMP access control list and that any firewalls between the monitoring server and the Tula appliance permit UDP port 161 (SNMP queries) and UDP port 162 (SNMP traps).