Routers, switches and controllers

Your network devices, in one view

NetPulse receives data through its native agent, SNMP, external agents or a beacon embedded in the switch firmware. The right source depends on the software each device can run.

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Compatibility

How each platform connects

These are the supported families and what to expect from each source. Exact coverage depends on the model and its firmware.

Data sources, coverage and requirements by platform
Platform Data source Available data Requirements and limits
OpenWrt and GL.iNet Native agent on the router System, WiFi, clients and ports Install from NetPulse on supported versions
MikroTik RouterOS 7+ External Go pusher Hosts, access points and ports Read-only user and a machine for the supervisor
Asuswrt / Asuswrt-Merlin Probes and pusher on the router System, WiFi, clients and ports SSH access and persistent space in /jffs
Other integrations BBox local API poller and RTLPlayground beacon BBox: system, WAN, hosts and port rates. RTL: port state, rates and FDB BBox: local API and a machine for the supervisor. RTL: advanced, replace firmware with a recovery copy
UniFi External controller poller Gateways, switches, APs and clients in one site No ui.com cloud, CPU or temperature
Managed switches SNMP from NetPulse Ports, speeds and LLDP-MIB neighbours Available MIBs depend on the device
netpulse-integrations

External agents

MikroTik, Asuswrt and UniFi query routers or controllers and send data to NetPulse over HTTPS. The final card groups additional sources with their own transport.

MikroTik RouterOS 7+

Queries RouterOS and sends hosts, access points and ports.

  • Read-only user and a machine for the supervisor
  • Binary API on port 8728, with REST as fallback
  • WiFi Wave2 advertises the wifi interface, not capsman

Asuswrt and Asuswrt-Merlin

The pusher runs on the router and reuses the portable NetPulse probes. It can live in /jffs.

  • SSH access and persistent space in /jffs
  • Clients, radios, channels and Ethernet ports
  • Coverage depends on the firmware and installed tools

UniFi

Reads gateways, switches, access points and clients in one site on your controller.

  • UniFi OS consoles and standalone controllers hosted by you
  • Read-only user on the controller
  • No ui.com cloud accounts, CPU or temperature

And more integrations

Two additional sources with different requirements.

  • BBox: local API poller sending system, WAN, active hosts and port rates.
  • RTLPlayground: firmware beacon for RTL8372/8373 switches, with port state, rates and FDB.
View agents, requirements and instructions
Advanced firmware

A beacon inside the switch

Realtek web-managed switches cannot run the Go agent. The RTLPlayground fork adds a beacon that sends data directly to the NetPulse listener.

What NetPulse receives

  • Link state and speed every 30 seconds
  • Traffic rates calculated from each port octet counter
  • FDB table every five minutes to locate clients by MAC address

What it requires

  • A model on the RTLPlayground device list
  • Build the fork for your machine and set the switch identifier
  • Replace the firmware and have a flash backup and recovery method

The beacon uses UDP with a clear-text token inside a trusted LAN. It does not use the signed HTTPS transport of the external agents.

Open the NetPulse guide View the fork firmware
External agents only

Why they have a separate repository

RouterOS, Asus, BBox and UniFi share a separate repository. NetPulse maintains the ingest contract and each integration follows its vendor release cycle.

Separate lifecycles

An integration ships fixes under its own tag, without waiting for a server release.

Isolated credentials

The router or controller password stays in the integration configuration. NetPulse receives the agent token.

Read-only

These integrations query and send data. They do not change device configuration from NetPulse.

Only what you enable

The core does not run code for integrations you do not use. It stays small and stable, and you add only the agents you need.

External agent transport

A signed contract

The agent signs every snapshot with HMAC-SHA256 in the X-Agent-Signature header and sends it to NetPulse ingest with its token. The device appears as external.

  • A NetPulse reachable over HTTPS from wherever the agent runs
  • A router token created in the app
  • A read-only user on the router or controller

Build the supervisor

git clone https://github.com/gnacho/netpulse-integrations cd netpulse-integrations go build -o netpulse-integrations ./cmd/integrations-supervisor

The repository publishes static binaries for amd64 and arm64 with SHA-256. An example systemd unit is included.

Limits worth knowing

  • External agents do not configure routers or controllers.
  • The native agent remains the recommended source for OpenWrt and GL.iNet.
  • The beacon does not report CPU, RAM or temperature, and does not send the LLDP table.
  • A beacon-fed switch cannot add SNMP as a second source in NetPulse.
  • The fork beacon is not part of upstream RTLPlayground.

Start with your device

Install NetPulse and follow the guide for your platform.

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