

HN787: Are We In a Post-SNMP Era?
Jun 27, 2025
Roman Doden from Nokia, John Howard from Proton, Ryan Shaw of Zscaler, and Josh Vandera from Networks Code discuss the evolution of network monitoring beyond SNMP. They dive into modern telemetry solutions, emphasizing GNMI's role in automation and real-time observability. The experts share insights into the challenges of migrating from traditional SNMP to streaming telemetry, advocating for high-fidelity data collection and community collaboration. Their dialogue encourages a proactive approach to network management, highlighting innovative strategies and tools like Grafana and Prometheus.
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Building Observability Without SNMP
- It is possible to build network observability without SNMP using GNMI and modern tools.
- The process is similar, involving subscription to data paths and capturing them in databases.
Leverage Existing SNMP Tools
- Use existing SNMP tooling like LibreNMS for reliable, proven network monitoring while modern solutions mature.
- A comprehensive open source telemetry platform for GNMI is still needed, especially outside service providers.
Power of On-Change Telemetry
- GNMI's on-change telemetry provides unique event-driven data not possible with SNMP polling.
- On-change subscription minimizes storage by sending data only when changes occur, enhancing efficiency.