Devices
The Devices page is the central inventory for all network infrastructure monitored by Chompy. Every router, switch, firewall, server, cloud VPC, and Chompy probe is registered here. Device records link flow data (via management IP or sampler address) to human-readable names, site assignments, and SNMP credentials — enabling device-level dashboards, topology maps, and health monitoring.
Device Management
The Device Management table displays all registered devices with the following columns:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| ID | Auto-generated unique identifier. |
| Device Name | The hostname or friendly name for the device (e.g., core-rtr01, vmware, probe-192-168-100-142). For SNMP-discovered devices, this is typically populated from the sysName OID. |
| Type | The device platform or category. Used by the SNMP poller to select the correct OID handler and by the UI to assign device icons on topology maps. |
| Role | The network role of the device, shown as a color-coded badge. Roles influence icon selection and can be used for filtering. |
| Mgmt IP / VPC ID | The management IP address for physical/virtual devices, or the VPC identifier (e.g., vpc-fa26ea91) for AWS cloud resources. This is the key field used to correlate incoming flow data with the device record. |
| Site | The site this device is assigned to. Determines where the device appears on the geographic map and enables site-level filtering and health rollups. |
| Credentials | Shows whether SSH credentials are configured for the device. Displays ✓ Set (green) when credentials exist, or ✗ Missing (red) when they haven't been configured. Click the badge to open the credentials editor. |
| Actions | Edit (pencil icon) or delete (trash icon) the device. |
Adding Devices
+ Add Device
Opens a form to manually register a new device. Fields include:
- Device Name (required) — Hostname or friendly label.
- Device Type (required) — Select from the available platform types:
- Cisco Device, Arista Switch, Juniper Device, Palo Alto Firewall, Fortinet Firewall, Linux Server, Windows Server, AWS VPC, or Other.
- The type determines which SNMP OID handler the poller uses (Cisco IOS/NX-OS, Arista EOS, Junos, etc.) and which icon is rendered in topology views.
- Role — The device's network function: Discovered, Core, Edge, Access, Router, Switch, Firewall, Server, Cloud, or Packet-Capture. Roles are displayed as color-coded badges and influence device icon selection.
- Management IP — The IP address used for SNMP polling and SSH access. For AWS VPC devices, this field changes to VPC ID and accepts the VPC identifier instead.
- Site — Assign the device to a site from the dropdown. Devices must be assigned to a site for geographic map placement and site-level health rollups.
After adding a device, click the ✗ Missing credentials badge to configure SSH via the credentials modal.
Bulk Upload CSV
For large-scale deployments, the Bulk Upload CSV button allows importing many devices at once from a CSV file. The CSV must include the following columns:
site_id,device,device_type,role,mgmt_ip
4,core-rtr01,Cisco Device,core,10.10.0.1
6,aws-edge-fw,Palo Alto Firewall,firewall,10.10.1.1
8,access-sw01,Arista Switch,access,10.10.2.1
| Column | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
site_id | Yes | Numeric ID of the site to assign the device to. |
device | Yes | Device name/hostname. |
device_type | No | Platform type (defaults to empty if omitted). |
role | No | Network role (defaults to empty if omitted). |
mgmt_ip | Yes | Management IP address. Also used as the sampler address for flow correlation. |
The upload processes each row sequentially and reports the total count of devices imported. Duplicate management IPs are not automatically deduplicated — ensure your CSV doesn't contain entries that already exist in the device inventory.
Importing Devices from NetBox
If you have a NetBox instance configured under Settings → Integrations → NetBox, you can import devices directly. The NetBox integration pulls device name, type, role, primary IP, and site assignment.
To import devices from NetBox:
- Navigate to Settings → Integrations → NetBox and ensure your API URL and token are saved.
- Check the Devices checkbox under Import Options.
- Click Preview Selected to review which devices will be created or updated. The preview shows each device's name, primary IP, site mapping, and whether it will be a new import or an update to an existing record. Devices whose NetBox site doesn't exist in Chompy are flagged with a missing site warning.
- Click Import Selected to execute the import.
Import sites before importing devices. The device import maps each NetBox device to a Chompy site by matching the site name, so sites need to exist first for the mapping to succeed.
Editing Devices
Click the edit (pencil) icon to inline-edit a device's name, type, role, management IP, and site assignment. For VPC devices, the management IP field switches to a VPC ID field. Click save to commit changes or cancel to discard.
Credentials
Click the credentials badge (✓ Set or ✗ Missing) to open the credentials modal for a device. Credentials are stored encrypted in PostgreSQL and are used for:
- SSH Username / Password — Used by the configuration management system for device config backup, and by the probe deployment system for deploying Chompy probes to Linux hosts.
- Enable Password — Used for Cisco and other devices that require an enable/privilege escalation password for configuration access.
Device Discovery
In addition to manual creation and CSV/NetBox import, devices can be automatically discovered through SNMP Autodiscovery (configured under the SNMP Autodiscovery tab). Discovered devices are added with a role of discovered and their type is determined by matching the SNMP sysDescr response against vendor-specific patterns (Cisco IOS/NX-OS, Arista EOS, Junos, Palo Alto PAN-OS, Fortinet FortiOS, Linux, etc.).
Probes also auto-register as devices when they first connect to the Chompy backend. Auto-registered probes receive a packet-capture role and are assigned to the Probes site (which is auto-created if it doesn't exist).
Deleting Devices
Click the delete (trash) icon to remove a device. This permanently deletes the device record from PostgreSQL. Historical flow data in ClickHouse is not affected — flows that referenced the device's sampler address will remain but will no longer resolve to a device name in queries.