How does the "mikrotik" probe work?

RouterOS The Dude
1

The “mikrotik” probe in The Dude is documented to use SNMP to confirm that a device is a MikroTik, but beyond that the information is sparse.

I have a remote (affiliated with but not belonging to me) MikroTik on my network map, and use the mikrotik probe to double-check that it’s working and that its IP address hasn’t been released and dealt to someone else. The probe was working for a few days after I added it, then it stopped working, showing “timeout”.

The Dude can snmpwalk this device and display all its information, so I know it’s the right device at the right address, the name and password are right, and SNMP is working. I’ve boosted the timeout to 30s, but apparently the problem is not really time-related. I assume the mikrotik probe needs something subtle to do its job that I’m not aware of. Any advice?

2

a few of my probes went off-line and after reading a bit more I figured out that the firmware updates are the problem in the sntp area. ie. my rb260gs won’t reply since 6.19, running 6.24 now.

but, the owner of that equipment may have noticed your probe and change up some things to keep you from probing them?

3

No, the owner and I have a very cooperative relationship, and he relies on me to keep his network healthy.

I do remember reading about SNTP deficiencies between 6.20 and 6.23, so this explanation seems plausible. Thanks.

4

I think I have narrowed down the problem. If a router gets rebooted, the “mikrotik” probe will fail for that router from then on… until the Dude is quit and relaunched, at which time the probe will show up as good again. I believe this is a bug in the Dude. As long as you know you can solve the problem by relaunching the Dude, it’s not so serious. I’m running RouterOS 6.22 right now, in case the behavior changes in the future.

5

No. Just wait some time more. It will go up finally. At least it works so in my case. There is no need to restart dude.

6

The first time I encountered this, on my production system, the router stayed “orange” for over a week, until I rebooted the Dude in the course of a Windows update – then it went back to green and I didn’t make the mental connection as to why it “fixed itself.” This week, I am live-testing a new installation, and routers I rebooted went to “orange” and stayed there for several hours, but went back to green every time the Dude was rebooted, so I finally made the mental connection. In all cases, punching the “Reprobe” button did absolutely nothing, only relaunching the Dude did anything; so I am not confident that just waiting is going to make the problem go away.

7

You are right. I have never rebooted dude because of this, but I remember that I deleted device and insert it again sometimes and sometimes helped just to remove the probes from device and detect again.