Getting Started with Device Profiles

Docs > Network Monitoring > Network Device Monitoring > NDM Profiles > Getting Started with Device Profiles

Overview

Device profiles define which SNMP metrics Datadog collects for a group of network devices. The SNMP Profile Manager provides a guided experience for enabling and managing those metrics. Starting from a single device, you can:

Browse available metrics grouped by category and enable them with one click.
Manage the devices covered by a profile and enable or disable available metrics.
Use metric packs for AI-guided bulk metric recommendations.
Save and deploy profile changes directly to your Agents, with a built-in audit view and Agent health check.

For advanced profile configuration, see Build an NDM Profile.

Prerequisites

Agent version 7.75.2 or later.
Remote Configuration enabled for your organization.
Permissions required:
- NDM Device Profiles View: Provides read-only access to the profile page. (Included in the Datadog Standard Role).
- NDM Device Profiles Edit: Allows editing of device profiles. (Included in the Datadog Admin Role).

Setup

Enable device scanning by setting network_devices.default_scan.enabled: true in your datadog.yaml:
```
network_devices:
    default_scan:
      enabled: true
```
Set use_remote_config_profiles: true in your configuration:
For SNMP Autodiscovery, add the following to your datadog.yaml file under network_devices.autodiscovery:
```
network_devices:
    autodiscovery:
      use_remote_config_profiles: true
```
For manual SNMP checks, add the following to your conf.d/snmp.d/conf.yaml file under init_config:
```
init_config:
  use_remote_config_profiles: true
```

Note: EXOS 33.1.1 devices may crash when device scan is enabled due to a firmware bug. As a workaround, disable device scan globally (network_devices.default_scan.enabled: false) or upgrade the device firmware. If you are affected by this issue, contact Datadog Support for assistance.

Configure metrics

The recommended entry point for the SNMP Profile Manager is from a single device in NDM. Every device matches to a profile, either a custom profile or a generic Datadog-provided one. Editing a profile from a device automatically creates a custom version of that profile on your behalf, so you never need to create a profile from scratch.

Navigate to Infrastructure > Network Devices.
Click on a device to open the device side panel.
Click the View all metrics to view the list of metrics being automatically collected for the device.
The Metrics tab opens, showing all metrics collected for the device. Use the left sidebar to browse by category: Alerting Metrics, Starred Metrics, Key Metrics, and Additional Metrics.
To open the profile editor and manage which metrics are collected, click SNMP Profile in the sidebar.
This opens the profile editor in the Metrics tab, containing the list of all available metrics for the devices covered by the profile, organized by name, MIB, OID, category, and compatibility. This is the primary view for controlling what data Datadog collects from your devices. You can filter the metric list by category or use the search bar to find specific metrics by name or OID.
To enable a metric, click the Enable toggle next to the metric name. To disable a metric, click the toggle again. Changes are not applied until you save and deploy the profile.

Device coverage

The Device Coverage tab shows which network devices are associated with a profile and how the profile is applied. Use this view to verify device associations, filter devices by attributes, and identify SNMP collection issues.

Use the filters at the top of the table to narrow results by SysObjectID, SysType, vendor, model, device type, or device name.

To update which devices are associated with the profile, click Manage Devices. From there you can:

Search for devices to add or select object IDs to remove. Removing an object ID removes all matching devices from the profile’s coverage.
Filter the device list by device type, name, or other attributes.

SNMP walk status

The Last SNMP walk column indicates whether Datadog was able to successfully query the device:

Failed: The SNMP walk did not complete successfully. Metrics may be missing or incomplete.
Timestamp: Indicates the date and time of the last successful SNMP walk.

If SNMP walks are failing, verify that:

SNMP is correctly configured on the device.
Network connectivity allows SNMP polling.
Credentials and ports are correct.

Advanced options

Click Advanced Options to access device metadata and global tag configuration. These settings are not required for most use cases.

Device metadata

The Device metadata section defines how Datadog maps SNMP OIDs to device attributes. Each metadata field corresponds to a standard device property, such as:

Device name
Vendor
Model
OS version
Location

Values are defined using SNMP OIDs. During collection, Datadog queries these OIDs to populate device metadata. For example:

1.3.6.1.2.1.1.5.0 maps to device name.
1.3.6.1.2.1.1.1.0 maps to device description.

This metadata enriches device details in the UI, enables filtering and grouping, and provides consistent tagging across devices.

Click the pencil icon to edit a metadata field. Metadata is displayed on the Network Device Monitoring page as searchable facets and in the device side panel.

The Advanced Options tab with Device metadata selected, showing a table of metadata field names such as Device name, Vendor, and Location, and their mapped SNMP OID values

The following table describes the different modification options for a metadata field:

Modification	Description
No Modification	The device’s returned value is used directly as the tag value.
Format	This can be mac_address or ip_address.
Extract Value	A regular expression used to extract the tag value from the SNMP value provided by the device.
Mapping	See the profile format reference.

Global tags

Use Global tags to apply tags to all metrics and device-level metadata for devices associated with the profile. Global tags help standardize tagging across similar devices and add context such as environment, location, or ownership.

Explore metric packs

Metric packs are curated sets of metrics you can enable in bulk. They are accessible from the Metrics tab and provide AI-guided recommendations based on your devices.

The Metrics tab showing the Start with metric packs banner at the top and the Metric packs button highlighted in the top right corner

To add a metric pack:

From the Metrics tab, click Metric packs in the top right corner, or click View All in the Start with metric packs banner.
In the Add metric pack modal, browse all available packs or click Suggested packs to view AI-guided recommendations.
Click a pack to preview its included metrics, global tags, and metadata.
Click Add metric pack to enable all metrics in the pack at once.

The Add metric pack modal showing the pack list on the left and a preview of the selected pack's metrics, global tags, and metadata on the right

Inventory page

To view all profiles in one place, navigate to Infrastructure > Network Devices > Settings and click SNMP Profile Manager in the left sidebar. This page lists all profiles, both Datadog out-of-the-box profiles and any custom profiles you have created.

Use the Device vendor filter or the search bar to narrow the list by profile name, vendor, or device name. Toggle Show only profiles with matching devices to hide profiles with no associated devices.

If Agents are misconfigured for Remote Config, a warning banner appears at the top of the page. Click Fix Agents to resolve the issue.

To open the profile editor, click on any profile. For Datadog-provided profiles, editing creates a custom version on your behalf.

Click the three-dot menu to the right of a profile row to:

Edit profile: Open the profile editor for that profile.
Delete profile: Permanently remove a custom profile.
Review related devices: Navigate to NDM filtered to the devices matched to that profile.

Download profiles

To download profiles as YAML files, click Download Profiles in the top right corner of the page. This generates a .zip bundle containing the yaml files for your custom profiles. To apply profiles manually to Agents:

Place the yaml files in the profile directory on each relevant installed Agent.
Restart the Datadog Agent.
Confirm that NDM is receiving metrics from the matched devices.

Profile inheritance

Profile inheritance happens automatically in the background. When you edit a profile, Datadog creates a custom extension of the matching profile. You do not need to configure inheritance manually. Datadog automatically includes base inherited profiles (_base.yaml, _generic-if.yaml, _generic-ip.yaml, _generic-ospf.yaml, _generic-tcp.yaml, and _generic-udp.yaml).

For advanced inheritance configuration, see Profile Format Reference.

Troubleshooting

What is a profile?

A profile is a configuration file that defines the metadata, metrics, and tags to collect from a device. See metadata definition for more information.

What is a device scan?

A device scan conducts a complete SNMP walk of the device, collecting all available data and forwarding it to Datadog for display in the UI. This process identifies the OIDs available on the device and populates the list of available metrics in the profile editor.

Why are there no matching devices?

If no matching devices are found, it may be due to the following reasons:

The profile is applied but is not matching any device(s):
- Profiles are matched to devices using their SysObjectID. Confirm that the SysObjectID in the profile matches one or more of your monitored devices.
Multiple profiles have the same SysObjectID(s):
- If multiple profiles share the same SysObjectID, it can cause matching conflicts at the Agent level. Confirm that each SysObjectID is assigned to only one profile.

Why would a device not be scanned?

The device scan may take up to 10 minutes to complete. You can monitor the scan’s progress in the UI.

If a device is not being scanned, it may be due to the following reasons:

Default device scan is disabled: Device scan is disabled by default in Agent 7.75.2+. Set network_devices.default_scan.enabled: true in datadog.yaml.
Infinite loop detected: The scan detected an infinite loop and was terminated. Check the Agent logs for next OID 'X' is not after last OID 'Y'. This can occur with some device firmware.
Known issue: EXOS 33.1.1 firmware bug: EXOS 33.1.1 devices may crash when device scan is enabled. As a workaround, keep device scan disabled or upgrade the device firmware. Contact Datadog Support for assistance.

Remote Configuration is not enabled on collectors

The Profile Manager requires:

Agent version 7.75.2 or later
Remote Configuration enabled
use_remote_config_profiles: true in your SNMP configuration
network_devices.default_scan.enabled: true for device scanning

If Remote Configuration is not enabled, you cannot trigger device scans or sync profiles to Agents through the UI. To apply profiles manually, see Download profiles.

Datadog recommends enabling Remote Configuration to take advantage of the full UI-based experience and minimize manual Agent interactions.