SimpleAgentPro™ - network device simulator

Download a demo Quick Tour of SimpleAgentPro here.

SimpleAgentPro® is a SNMP Agent Simulator with a state of the art GUI that can simulate an entire network of LAN-WAN components made up of thousands of SNMPv1,SNMPv2C and SNMPv3 manageable devices.

Using this tool, you can develop, test and demonstrate SNMP management applications without requiring thousands of expensive and bulky hardware boxes. Simulated devices support Telnet/CLI and TL1 queries in addition to SNMP.

Enterprise Level simulations, made up of thousands of devices, can be distributed over multiple servers and still controlled from one user interface.

Each simulated device can support its own MIBs, data, IP Address and even MAC Address.  SimpleAgentPro's unique ability to create default variables from MIB or simply learn variables from an existing agent and its built-in support for dynamic values allows it be setup quickly.  The use of Tcl based scripting allows for advanced modeling of agent behavior, trap generation, creation of error scenarios and expression of inter-relationships between MIB variables.

Applications:

• Development teams can develop management applications even when the agent to be managed is incomplete or absent.  A MIB definition file alone is enough to instantly allow the SimpleAgentPro to simulate an agent which supports that MIB.  Application development can now proceed in parallel with agent development, thus significantly shortening the "time-to-market" and the associated development and testing costs.
• Testing departments can test management applications without requiring large inventories of testing devices in the lab.  Even large networks with thousands of devices can be quickly simulated without requiring large budgets.  Full control over the values returned by the agent for SNMP requests and the ability to generate SNMP traps on demand enable thorough testing of applications.
• Sales organizations can give demonstrations of management applications at customer premises or during trade shows without having to carry tons of bulky equipment and spend hours configuring it.   Hundreds of different devices can be simulated on the management station itself or on portable laptop PCs.
• Training groups can give animated, mobile demos of different networking scenarios by setting up user defined Tcl scripts to generate traps, change interface status, create error conditions and make agents stop responding to SNMP requests.  Costly hardware, installation and set-up can be eliminated and initial network environment can be easily restored after students have been trained on "set" configuration requests.

The SimpleAgentPro is available on a variety of platforms (SUN Solaris, Redhat Linux, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT), from high end workstations to laptop PCs.  It can even run on the same machine that runs your management application, to create a self-contained development and demonstration environment.  The device simulation files are ASCII files and can be shared by everyone in the organization.   Engineering and Testing departments can use them on UNIX/Win machines, while Sales and Marketing departments can use the same files on Win95/98/NT/XP laptop PCs.

Operation:

A few simple steps are required to start the SimpleAgentPro. They are:

1. Use the built in MIB compiler to load the MIBs supported by the Agent.
2. Use the built in MIB Instance creator to define the variables to be supported or use the MIB learner to learn them from an existing agent or simply select from pre-existing devices in the device library.
3. Edit the instance and value information if required. Valid defaults are automatically created. The SimpleAgentPro is now ready to receive SNMP Get/GetNext/GetBulk/Set requests and send replies. Simply repeat the above steps for each additional device to be simulated.
4. Use Tcl based scripts to emit any selected trap on demand.

Benefits:

• Shortened "Time to Market" by allowing development of management applications to proceed in parallel with Agent development.
• Improved quality of management applications and allows testing with hundreds of devices.
• Demonstration of capabilities of management applications in the absence of an agents at trade shows, customer sites or in training classes.

Features:

• Controls the value returned for each variable. Value types like fixed, sequential, random, randomUp, clock based, lastset supported.
• Allows editing of instance information to suit your needs.
• Generate SNMP Traps or change MIB data via Tcl scripts that get executed based on timers, user request or part of PDU processing.
• Supports dynamic row creation via new instance, EntryStatus and RowStatus methods.
• Supports Telnet/CLI capabilities.
• Supports TL1 capabilities.
• Uses Tcl based scripts to better model agent behavior and inter-relationships between MIB variables.
• Exposes APIs for user defined integration.
• Provides the capability to learn traps from devices and to generate traps from a device to be sent out to multiple trap managers.
• Provides utilities to ease learning, trap generation and RMON support.
• Can support more than 5000+ devices on Solaris, Linux, Win2K and NT in the unrestricted version.
• Versions of SimpleAgentPro limited to simulating upto 5, 50, 250, 500, and 1000 devices, are also available.
• Keep a log of SNMP requests in debug mode.
• Includes a MIB Browser for generation of queries to simulated devices.
• Displays device vendor information in graphical thumb-nail view.
• Supports additon of your own devices to the device library.
• Simple, intuitive, easy to use interface.

Hardware and Software Requirements:

• SUN Solaris (2.5.1/2.6/2.7/2.8) workstation or
• Linux (Redhat 7.2 and higher)
• IBM PC (or compatible) with Microsoft Windows 2000/NT 4.0/XP