All MIBs › NET-SNMP-SYSTEM-MIB
Organization: www.net-snmp.org
Last Updated: 2002-02-09
Category: Device Management, Net-SNMP and Linux
Description: Provides Net-SNMP-specific system information objects extending the standard system MIB group with additional host and daemon details.
IPNetwork Monitor uses several OIDs from this MIB in network discovery and polling the applicable devices. Start monitoring NET-SNMP-SYSTEM-MIB with a free 30-day trial of IPNetwork Monitor.
What Is NET-SNMP-SYSTEM-MIB?
NET-SNMP-SYSTEM-MIB is a Net-SNMP project MIB extending the standard system group with host-level operating system resource objects for Unix/Linux hosts running the net-snmp agent (snmpd). It organizes its objects into memory (nsMemory), swap (nsSwap), CPU (nsCPU), load average (nsLoad), and disk I/O (nsDiskIO) subtrees. This makes it a core software/hardware host-health monitoring MIB: it directly exposes memory utilization, swap usage, CPU consumption, system load averages, and disk I/O activity — precisely the metrics an admin needs to detect resource exhaustion, memory leaks, thrashing (excessive swap use), CPU saturation, or storage I/O bottlenecks on a monitored host. It is closely tied to (and extends) the standard HOST-RESOURCES-MIB and SNMPv2-MIB system group that net-snmp also implements. It is deployed universally wherever the open-source Net-SNMP agent runs — Linux/Unix servers, embedded devices, and appliances — as a lightweight alternative/supplement to HOST-RESOURCES-MIB for basic OS resource monitoring. Engineers can download the NET-SNMP-SYSTEM-MIB file directly to load it into their MIB browser.
IPNetwork Monitor allows you to monitor SNMP objects defined in NET-SNMP-SYSTEM-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 (Net-SNMP agent extension), not tied to a specific manufacturer
- Linux/Unix servers and any device running the Net-SNMP agent
Monitoring Examples
An admin would poll nsMemory objects to track free/used physical memory alongside nsSwap to watch swap utilization, flagging a host as memory-pressured if swap usage climbs steadily. nsLoad would be checked for 1/5/15-minute load averages to detect CPU contention, cross-referenced with nsCPU utilization figures to distinguish a genuinely busy CPU from I/O-wait-driven load. nsDiskIO statistics would reveal a disk subsystem bottleneck if read/write activity spikes correlate with degraded application response times.
What Can Be Monitored
- memory utilization
- swap usage
- CPU utilization
- system load average
- disk I/O activity
Imported Objects
From NET-SNMP-MIB
| netSnmpModuleIDs | OBJECT-IDENTITY |
| netSnmpObjects | OBJECT-IDENTITY |
From NET-SNMP-TC
| Float |
From SNMPv2-SMI
| Counter32 | |
| Integer32 | |
| MODULE-IDENTITY | |
| NOTIFICATION-TYPE | |
| OBJECT-TYPE |
From SNMPv2-TC
| DisplayString |
OIDs
RFC description
Provides system-level management information for Net-SNMP agents, including system uptime, system description, and other core system metrics following the SNMP standards defined in RFC 1213 (MIB-II).
Start monitoring Linux/Unix host running Net-SNMP agent (memory/swap/CPU/load/disk I/O) with a free 30-day trial of IPNetwork Monitor. Import MIBs, browse SNMP OIDs, create custom SNMP monitors, configure alerts, and monitor any SNMP-enabled network device from a single console.