ISPPlanet NMS Series - Castle Rock SNMPc

SNMP Browse and Query

SNMPc can send GET or GET-NEXT requests to each SNMPv1 agent's management information base (MIB). Over 340 standard and vendor MIBs are included with SNMPc; others can be added using a compiler (right). Copy .mib files to the SNMPc directory, add files in dependency order, then compile. All 340+ MIBs are recompiled, but at least the compile is fast (we averaged 30 seconds). Errors and warnings appear in the event viewer, but this compiler overlooked several minor syntax and import errors found by other compilers we've tested. Faulty MIBs are easily backed out by removing them, then recompiling.

At the most rudimentary level, you can "walk" an agent's MIB using the SNMPc MIB Browser (left). Step through MIB objects one-by-one with the Next button, or configure Repeat-Next and Update-MIB-Display options to retrieve the entire MIB. Results can be exported to a tab or comma-separated file. This can be useful to poke about a new device, but most admins will prefer launching SNMP GET requests from device icon right-click Tool Menus.

 

The default Tool Menu includes queries for standard MIB-II groups and tables (e.g., List System Info, Display Interfaces Table, Display TCP Port Table). You may also add "custom tables" to appropriate device object menus (right). Custom tables not only incorporate enterprise MIBs—they let you combine SNMP objects into virtual tables with derived values (e.g., compute throughput rate from counter object). This powerful customization capability can place the information you need for any object literally at your fingertips.

Custom tables and menus are amply illustrated by SNMPc Hubview and Bitview, a pair of tools that display "chassis views" for more than 40 vendor products (mostly routers and hubs). Hubview uses a generic bitmap to illustrate the ports on each device. The more narrowly-supported Bitview presents unique bitmaps for each device. By default, Hubview is launched when double-clicking on any map icon.

For example, this Cisco Hubview module (left) depicts the faceplate of our c2514 router. An extensive collection of standard and Cisco-specific MIB objects can be queried and updated using the custom menus in this module. For example, view buffers and flash memory, list or graph ICMP and SNMP stats, list or edit info for a selected port (interface), display SNMP tables and derived stats for all network protocols supported by 2500-series routers.

Devices without vendor-specific modules are depicted using the generic SNMP MIB-II module (right). This module can list, graph, and set MIB-II objects for any device. Additional menu items are accessible on Windows workstations and servers. For example, list NT domains, servers, users, shares, and services known to the Windows device.

These examples briefly illustrate the custom device browse and query functions possible with SNMPc. Custom tables and menus require no programming. Hubview and Bitview scripts and custom WinSNMP applications can be developed in C++ using the SNMPc software developers kit (SDK), included at no cost.