Enabling and Configuring SNMP on VMware ESXi Hosts

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

PRTG failed to monitor VMware ESXi hosts using standard SNMP sensors. 

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

By default, the SNMP service on VMware ESXi is disabled and has no community strings configured. PRTG requires these settings to be manually initialized via the ESXi Command Line Interface (CLI) before it can successfully poll performance data.

Resolution

Step 1: Check Current SNMP Status
 #esxcli system snmp get

Expected Output (Service Disabled):

• Communities: (Blank) ---> No Community String configured. PRTG cannot access without this password.
• Enable: false ---> The SNMP service is currently STOPPED.
  
  

Step 2: Configuration & Activation

 Set Community String：
#esxcli system snmp set --communities public
  (Replace public with your actual setting in PRTG)

 Enable the SNMP Service
#esxcli system snmp set --enable true

Step 3: Verify Result

#esxcli system snmp get

Expected Output (Service Active):

• Communities: public
• Enable: true
• Engineid: (Automatically generated ID)

To ensure PRTG can reach the host, ensure the ESXi firewall allows SNMP traffic:
#esxcli network firewall ruleset set --ruleset-id snmp --enabled true