Splunk Connect for SNMP Setup

Prerequisites

Tool or access	Purpose	Verify
Bash and Python 3	Run bundled setup and validation helpers	bash --version && python3 --version
Required product/platform access	Inspect or configure the selected target	Complete the documented preflight
Credential files for live modes	Keep secrets out of chat	Verify paths only

Workflow Overview

┌───────────┐   ┌───────────────┐   ┌───────────────┐   ┌─────────────────┐
│ Preflight │ → │ Render/review │ → │ Apply/handoff │ → │ Validate evidence │
└───────────┘   └───────────────┘   └───────────────┘   └─────────────────┘

When to Activate

• SC4SNMP, Splunk Connect for SNMP, SNMP polling, or SNMP trap ingestion through HEC.
• Preview and review the splunk connect for snmp setup workflow before any live apply phase.
• Diagnose failed prerequisites, generated assets, configuration, or validation evidence.

Scope

Follow the documented read-only or render-first path whenever it is available. This skill does not imply permission to mutate live systems. Require explicit apply flags, protected credentials, and operator review for state changes.

Examples

Inspect the supported setup modes before selecting one:

bash skills/splunk-connect-for-snmp-setup/scripts/setup.sh --help

Expected output: usage, supported modes, and required arguments are displayed without changing the target environment.

Inspect validation modes before running completion checks:

bash skills/splunk-connect-for-snmp-setup/scripts/validate.sh --help

Expected output: offline, live, and completion options are displayed when the skill supports them; help exits without mutation.

Troubleshooting

Issue	Cause	Resolution
Preflight fails	A required tool or access path is missing	Resolve it before rendering or applying
Rendered assets are incomplete	Required non-secret inputs are absent	Complete intake and render again
Apply is blocked	Review, credentials, or explicit acceptance is missing	Use the documented handoff
Validation is incomplete	Live evidence is unavailable	Record the gap and keep completion open

Automates the operator workflow for Splunk Connect for SNMP (SC4SNMP), an external collector that polls SNMP devices and listens for traps before sending events and metrics to Splunk over HEC.

How SC4SNMP Fits This Repo

SC4SNMP is not a Splunkbase app install. The skill handles two separate areas:

1. Splunk-side preparation: create the default SC4SNMP indexes, verify or create a HEC token, and validate the Cloud vs Enterprise HEC target.
2. Runtime deployment: render deployment assets for customer-managed SC4SNMP infrastructure:
   • Docker Compose for a simple host-managed deployment
   • Kubernetes with Helm for the supported clustered deployment model

Agent Behavior — Credentials

The agent must NEVER ask for HEC tokens, SNMPv3 credentials, or other secrets in chat.

• Splunk credentials come from the project-root credentials file or ~/.splunk/credentials.
• Use skills/splunk-connect-for-snmp-setup/template.example as the non-secret intake worksheet.
• Keep HEC tokens and SNMPv3 secrets in local-only files. For example:

bash skills/shared/scripts/write_secret_file.sh /tmp/sc4snmp_hec_token

• For Docker Compose, keep SNMPv3 secrets in a local-only secrets.json file.
• For Kubernetes, prefer a token-free values.yaml plus a local-only values.secret.yaml and operator-managed Kubernetes secrets for SNMPv3 credentials.
• The default render path is the gitignored repo-local directory ./sc4snmp-rendered/. When a real HEC token is being rendered, the setup script blocks custom output directories inside the repo and asks you to use the default gitignored path or a directory outside the repo.

If credentials are not configured yet:

bash skills/shared/scripts/setup_credentials.sh

Environment

Item	Value
Search-tier API	SPLUNK_SEARCH_API_URI env var (legacy alias: SPLUNK_URI)
Cloud stack	SPLUNK_CLOUD_STACK for Splunk Cloud
Runtime image	ghcr.io/splunk/splunk-connect-for-snmp/container:latest
Credentials	Project-root credentials file (falls back to ~/.splunk/credentials)
Skill scripts	skills/splunk-connect-for-snmp-setup/scripts/
Templates	skills/splunk-connect-for-snmp-setup/templates/

Setup Workflow

Step 1: Collect Non-Secret Deployment Inputs

Copy the worksheet locally:

cp skills/splunk-connect-for-snmp-setup/template.example template.local

Capture items such as:

• Splunk platform: Cloud or Enterprise
• deployment model: Docker Compose or Kubernetes
• HEC URL and HEC token name
• trap listener IP, trap port, and DNS server
• poller inventory source
• scheduler profiles/groups source
• trap communities source
• optional image, replica, and secret-file paths

Step 2: Prepare Splunk

Create the SC4SNMP indexes and verify or create a HEC token:

bash skills/splunk-connect-for-snmp-setup/scripts/setup.sh --splunk-prep

Useful partial runs:

bash skills/splunk-connect-for-snmp-setup/scripts/setup.sh --splunk-prep --indexes-only

bash skills/splunk-connect-for-snmp-setup/scripts/setup.sh --splunk-prep --hec-only

If you want the script to write the created token value to a local-only file when Splunk REST returns it:

bash skills/splunk-connect-for-snmp-setup/scripts/setup.sh \
  --splunk-prep \
  --write-hec-token-file /tmp/sc4snmp_hec_token

If Splunk cannot return that requested token value, preparation exits nonzero and emits a rotate/create handoff; it does not report a usable token file. Visible Selected Indexes restrictions must include every SC4SNMP event and metrics index; otherwise preparation and validation fail with a token handoff.

Step 3: Render Docker Compose Assets

bash skills/splunk-connect-for-snmp-setup/scripts/setup.sh \
  --render-compose \
  --output-dir ./sc4snmp-rendered \
  --hec-token-file /tmp/sc4snmp_hec_token

Optional custom config files:

bash skills/splunk-connect-for-snmp-setup/scripts/setup.sh \
  --render-compose \
  --output-dir ./sc4snmp-rendered \
  --hec-token-file /tmp/sc4snmp_hec_token \
  --inventory-file /path/to/inventory.csv \
  --scheduler-file /path/to/scheduler-config.yaml \
  --traps-file /path/to/traps-config.yaml

Step 4: Render Kubernetes Assets

bash skills/splunk-connect-for-snmp-setup/scripts/setup.sh \
  --render-k8s \
  --output-dir ./sc4snmp-rendered \
  --namespace sc4snmp \
  --release-name sc4snmp \
  --poller-replicas 2 \
  --trap-replicas 2 \
  --hec-token-file /tmp/sc4snmp_hec_token

Optional trap service IP and DNS override:

bash skills/splunk-connect-for-snmp-setup/scripts/setup.sh \
  --render-k8s \
  --output-dir ./sc4snmp-rendered \
  --hec-token-file /tmp/sc4snmp_hec_token \
  --trap-listener-ip 10.10.10.50 \
  --dns-server 10.10.10.53

Step 5: Optionally Apply Rendered Assets

Live Compose or Kubernetes apply requires a nonempty, owner-only --hec-token-file (no group/other permission bits). A single combined run may instead use --splunk-prep --write-hec-token-file PATH; apply is blocked if preparation does not produce a nonempty token file.

Compose:

bash skills/splunk-connect-for-snmp-setup/scripts/setup.sh \
  --render-compose \
  --output-dir ./sc4snmp-rendered \
  --hec-token-file /tmp/sc4snmp_hec_token \
  --apply-compose

Helm:

bash skills/splunk-connect-for-snmp-setup/scripts/setup.sh \
  --render-k8s \
  --output-dir ./sc4snmp-rendered \
  --hec-token-file /tmp/sc4snmp_hec_token \
  --apply-k8s

Step 6: Validate

bash skills/splunk-connect-for-snmp-setup/scripts/validate.sh

Runtime-specific checks:

bash skills/splunk-connect-for-snmp-setup/scripts/validate.sh --check-compose

bash skills/splunk-connect-for-snmp-setup/scripts/validate.sh --check-k8s

Key Learnings / Known Issues

1. The default indexes are split by signal type: em_logs and netops are event indexes, while em_metrics and netmetrics must be metrics indexes.
2. SC4SNMP is hybrid in Splunk Cloud: prepare indexes and HEC in Splunk Cloud, but run SC4SNMP on infrastructure you control.
3. Trap listener IP planning matters: HA or MetalLB-style Kubernetes deployments need an explicit shared IP.
4. DNS matters for HEC reachability: the collector environment needs a DNS server that can resolve the Splunk HEC endpoint.
5. SNMPv3 secrets stay local-only: do not commit secrets.json, values.secret.yaml, or token files to git.
6. Re-run apply workflows for upgrades: compose apply now pulls images before up -d, and Kubernetes apply continues to use helm upgrade --install.

Additional Resources

• reference.md — indexes, deployment notes, and configuration guardrails
• template.example — non-secret intake worksheet
• templates/compose/README.md — compose template notes
• templates/kubernetes/README.md — Helm template notes

MCP Tools

This skill includes checked-in, read-only Splunk MCP custom tools generated from mcp_tools.source.yaml.

Validate or regenerate the tool artifact:

python3 skills/shared/scripts/mcp_tools.py validate skills/splunk-connect-for-snmp-setup
python3 skills/shared/scripts/mcp_tools.py generate skills/splunk-connect-for-snmp-setup

Load the tools into Splunk MCP Server:

bash skills/splunk-connect-for-snmp-setup/scripts/load_mcp_tools.sh

The loader uses the supported /mcp_tools REST batch endpoint by default. Use --allow-legacy-kv only for older MCP Server app versions that lack that endpoint.