IP-FORWARD-MIB

MIB Reference — IPNetwork Monitor · Updated September 09, 2026

All MIBsIP-FORWARD-MIB

Organization: IETF IPv6 Working Group http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/ipv6-charter.html

Last Updated: 2006-02-01

Category: IP and Core Protocols, Routing Protocols

Description: Defines managed objects for managing CIDR multipath IP routes, providing access to the IP forwarding table including destination, next-hop, and routing policy information.

IPNetwork Monitor uses several OIDs from this MIB in network discovery and polling the applicable devices. Start monitoring IP-FORWARD-MIB with a free 30-day trial of IPNetwork Monitor.

What Is IP-FORWARD-MIB?

IP-FORWARD-MIB, standardized in IETF RFC 4292, is a vendor-neutral MIB module defining managed objects for viewing and managing CIDR-based, multipath-capable IP routing tables on any IP-forwarding network device such as a router or Layer 3 switch. It exposes the IP forwarding table itself -- destination address, prefix length, next hop, outgoing interface, route type, and routing policy/protocol origin for each route -- along with aggregate counters for the total number of routes and routes discarded. Rather than hardware sensors, its monitoring value is centered on software/control-plane status: the size and content of the routing table, discarded-route counts that can signal routing table exhaustion or misconfiguration, and per-route attributes useful for verifying correct route propagation and failover behavior. It explicitly builds on and complements the base IP-MIB and depends on the InetAddress textual conventions from RFC 4001, replacing the older, IPv4-only ipRouteTable and ipCidrRouteTable used in earlier IP-MIB revisions. It is deployed universally across IP routers, Layer 3 switches, and firewalls from any vendor that support RFC 4292-compliant SNMP agents, and administrators searching vendor documentation for ip-forward-mib will typically find it packaged alongside IP-MIB in the same MIB distribution.

IPNetwork Monitor allows you to monitor SNMP objects defined in IP-FORWARD-MIB. Use the built-in SNMP Monitoring Browser to explore available variables, view their current values and descriptions, and select the objects you want to monitor. You can then create SNMP monitors, configure thresholds, and receive alerts when monitored values change.

Supported Devices

  • vendor-neutral, standards-based MIB, not tied to a specific manufacturer
  • IP router
  • Layer 3 switch

Monitoring Examples

An admin would poll inetCidrRouteTable/inetCidrRouteEntry -- keyed by inetCidrRouteDest, inetCidrRoutePfxLen, and inetCidrRouteNextHop -- to verify that a specific destination prefix is being routed through the expected next hop and interface (inetCidrRouteIfIndex), which is invaluable for confirming failover to a backup path after a link outage. Watching inetCidrRouteNumber over time reveals whether the routing table is growing unexpectedly (e.g. a route leak), while a rising inetCidrRouteDiscards counter would indicate routes being rejected due to policy or resource limits. The inetCidrRouteType and inetCidrRoutePolicy fields let an operator distinguish direct, indirect, and policy-based routes when auditing routing behavior on a multipath-capable device.

What Can Be Monitored

  • total routes in forwarding table
  • discarded route count
  • per-route destination/prefix/next-hop
  • route type and origin
  • routing policy association
  • outgoing interface per route
Imported Objects

From IANA-RTPROTO-MIB

IANAipRouteProtocol

From IF-MIB

InterfaceIndexOrZero

From INET-ADDRESS-MIB

InetAddress
InetAddressPrefixLength
InetAddressType
InetAutonomousSystemNumber

From IP-MIB

ipOBJECT-IDENTITY

From SNMPv2-CONF

MODULE-COMPLIANCE
OBJECT-GROUP

From SNMPv2-SMI

Counter32
Gauge32
Integer32
IpAddress
MODULE-IDENTITY
OBJECT-TYPE

From SNMPv2-TC

RowStatus
OIDs

RFC description

Defines managed objects for IP routing and forwarding decisions including the routing table, next-hop routing table, and corresponding performance metrics as specified in RFC 4292.

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