The WolfspyreLabs Blog/ October/ Observium SNMP interface persistence mechanism/ Observium SNMP interface persistence mechanism Observium and persistent interface Names #The Problem #The Recommended Solution #Observium’s recomemndation here is to install the following script: โ ๏ธObservium distribution of this script ifAlias_persist : should be installed in /usr/local/bin/ifAlias_persist: #!/usr/bin/perl -w # # # apt-get install libsnmp-extension-passpersist-perl # # SNMP::Extension::PassPersist is required. # This is in the package libsnmp-extension-passpersist-perl on Debian and Ubuntu # Usage : Copy the script to /usr/bin/ifAlias_persist and add to /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf # pass_persist .1.3.6.1.2.1.31.1.1.1.18 /usr/bin/ifAlias_persist use strict; use SNMP::Extension::PassPersist; # create the object my $extsnmp = SNMP::Extension::PassPersist->new( backend_collect => \&update_tree, idle_count => 10, # no more than 10 idle cycles refresh => 60, # refresh every 60 sec ); # run the program $extsnmp->run; sub update_tree { my ($self) = @_; my $Base = ".1.3.6.1.2.1.31.1.1.1.18"; my @iface_list = `ip l | grep mtu`; my $type = "string"; foreach my $row (@iface_list){ my @split = split(": ", $row); my $desc = `grep "^# $split[1]:" /etc/network/interfaces|sed s/^\\#\\ $split[1]:\\ //`; chomp($desc); my ($key, $value) = ("$Base.$split[0]",$desc); $self->add_oid_entry($key,$type,$value); } # $extsnmp->dump_oid_tree(); } This will provide a list of interfaces in the same fashion this script does: ip l | awk -F: ' /: / {print $2}' This basically tells us what interfaces we’ll want to have comments in /etc/network/interfaces