Welcome to PyNetSNMP. Another python interface for SNMP! The idea behind a new python interface to the NetSNMP library stems from a painstaking experience of trying to get the python, SNMP, and NetSNMP working on a Windows operating system. I finally got it working using Cygwin, rebuilding NetSNMP to include python bindings, and many frustrating hours of debugging simple “gets” and “sets”. I also had to fix a strange error in the python modules that come with NetSNMP version 5.4.1.

After all that hard work and frustration, I figured an easier way to interface with NetSNMP using Python and still use the Windows version without the use of Cygwin. If my design turns out the way I expect, then this solution should also work on other operating systems. The key to this design involves a new feature introduced in Python 2.4: the subprocess module. With subprocess module, all a user will need is to have NetSNMP correctly installed on their machine and this new python module, PyNetSNMP, to begin building simple scripts or larger applications with SNMP support.

Some may ask why not PySNMP or YapSNMP? Both were tried, and I could not get either one to work. PySNMP choked on some standard MIBs that I and my client have been using for years (turned out to be a flaw in python itself), and YapSNMP would not install correctly. NetSNMP is a well tested and mature SNMP application and is fairly straight forward to use compared to other solutions. Also, NetSNMP got around the python problem in PySNMP, because it had no problem parsing my MIBs.