Tuesday, April 04, 2006
The NetDecision SNMP Agent Simulator enables simulation of standalone SNMP agents to test and demonstrate SNMP-based management applications. Its unique ability to create default values from any SMIv1 or SMIv2 compliant MIB or record variables from an existing agent and create variations on this basic simulation enables rapid simulation of SNMP devices. All SNMPv1, SNMPv2, and SNMPv3 operations (Get / Get-Next / Get-Bulk / Set / Traps / Notifications) are supported.
The advanced modeling of SNMP agent behavior and trap generation can be done with ease using Script-based mechanism. The SNMP agent simulator combined with the SNMP Trap Simulator and SNMP Trap Vision provides a complete suite for testing SNMP manager applications.
SNMP Agent Simulator Features
- Real-time customizable SNMP Simulation
- Click and Go customization, tuning and deployment
- SNMPv1, SNMPv2, SNMPv3 (USM and VACM) support
- RDBMS storage for MIB values
- External ODBC database support
- Configurable Trap Generation
- Recording (Real SNMP Agent capturing)
- User-friendly graphical interface
- MS Office Look and Feel
- Customizable GUI
- Script-based value generation
- SNMP PDU tracing
- SNMP SET custom handling
Sunday, April 02, 2006
There is number of powerful utilities in NetDecision:
- TrapVision is an SNMP trap management and distribution application, which allows users to receive, visualize and handle SNMP traps in various ways. Due to its flexible trap handling capabilities, TrapVision can be used together with other network management applications to provide distributed and structured trap handling. TrapVision supports SNMPv1, SNMPv2c and SNMPv3 TRAP messages and SNMPv2c and SNMPv3 INFORMs.
- MIB Manager is an application that compiles/validates SMIv1, SMIv2 MIB files. Compiled MIB files are stored as XML which streamlines the performance of all NetDecision applications. Several RFC or vendor specific MIB files can be added to the single MIB tree.
- MIB Browser >provides easy-to-use graphical interface to view the results of SNMP GET, GET-NEXT, GET-BULK, GET-WALK, SET queries. Data from MIB tables (interface table, routing table, etc.) is presented in the form of actual tables.
- MIB Editor application allows the user to design and modify SMI v1/v2 MIB files.
- SNMP Packet Analyzer application decodes SNMP packets and displays them according to the ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation One) BER (Basic Encoding Rules).
- SNMP User Manager is the application to create/modify SNMPv3 user profiles.
SNMP User Profiles is a set SNMPv3 User Security Model (USM) related information (User Name, Authentication password, Privacy Password, Context Name, Context Engine ID). Once created the profile can be used in different applications.
- SNMP Trap Simulator is a utility, which is used to simulate SNMP notifications(SNMPv1 traps, SNMPv2 traps and INFORMs). This utility is very useful on development stage of your network management system.
- LogVision is a general purpose log mediation application that allows users to receive, visualize and handle syslog and Windows event log messages in various ways.
- TFTP Server provides an Internet-standard TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol) server on any Windows workstation or server. It supports all TFTP clients that are RFC 1350-compliant, including those integrated into network devices, such as routers.
- HTTP Server - simple HTTP server
- Quick Launcher is an application bar, which is used to start applications and open documents quickly.
- Script Server is an application that runs as a standalone server and handles remote demand requests to run Script Studio created scripts.
- Script Player is a command line utility that runs Script Studio scripts in console mode. This is quite useful for integration and automation solutions.
- Parameter Editor is an application to build Script Studio parameter files. By using parameters the user can create multi purpose scripts that can change their behavior based on those parameters.
- Script Editor is an IDE to build script files. It features syntax highlighting, bookmarks, IntelliSense support, etc.
From the user perspective all the NetDecision application have the same consistent look and feel that has been achieved by using powerful customizable GUI framework.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
The presentation layer is powered by NetDecision Network Manager. The information about network entities is maintained by network model which is based on CIM model. The network topology is presented graphically in NetDecision Network Manager. The network topology consists of several layers. So the user can drill down the network from the very top layer (for example: geographical location) to the very detailed card/slot information. There is also a navigation tree that allows the user to access a particular managed element quickly. One physical network entity could have several logical presentations. The idea behind that is to have the ability to present the same managed element in different views. For example, one presentation could show the geographical location of the managed element and the other - logical interconnections with other elements within network infrastructure.
The presentation layer is driven by network events at runtime. The network event is for example SNMP trap that is originated by SNMP enabled entity. Sometimes the event flow needs to be controlled in order to determine the root cause of the problem and also to prevent the system from being overloaded. There is a Smart event filtering/blocking mechanism that is fully customizable by the user. The filter is a hierarchical set of rules that is built using logical operations (OR, AND, NOT).
NetDecision Autodiscover allows the user/administrator to determine the IP network topology automatically.
Each network element has a number of mandatory attributes (Name, Description, type, IP address, status, etc.). In addition to standard network element attributes the user is able to define the custom attributes. For example, in case of SNMP enabled entities, the custom attribute can be mapped to SNMP OID (Object Identifier) that gets polled periodically.
The status of the element in NetDecision Network Manager is presented graphically by element icon background color. The status of each element is propagated to the higher layer. So the user is capable of determining the root cause of the problem by drilling down the topology until the problematic network element is isolated. For example, if one of the router interfaces goes down the user is able to find out what the problem is instead of trying to figure out which interface is down.
NetDecision Script Studio is a development tool. This tool allows the user to customize the business logic involved in management procedures and processes. For instance the user can customize the SNMP notification handling logic (SNMP traps and informs processing). The default system reaction to an SNMP notification is to display notification record in the "events" window of Network Manager and highlight the corresponding network element in the topology view. However, the user can configure scriptable agent that handles notification and performs appropriate actions that may include sending e-mail/pager/SMS notifications to tech person, generating report, or even modifying device configuration on the fly to fix the problem automatically. This tool is also used to generate Web reports (charts, tables). The user can customize every single aspect of report generation. The application enables third party developers to scale the product by providing additional functionality. The plugin framework SDK is based on Open Standards and is fully documented.
NetDecision is the industry-leading management platform. This platform makes it possible to deliver superior management solutions in a cost-effective, low-risk, high-productivity model. NetDecision covers all the network management layers
- Element Management layer
- Network model layer
- Presentation layer
NetDecision has built-in support for the following protocols and technologies: XML, SNMP, ICMP, FTP, generic TCP client and UDP client/server, HTTP, SMTP, ODBC DB access, TFTP, syslog, Windows Event Log, Windows Services. Those protocols and technologies are commonly used on Element Management layer.
SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is an industry standard network management protocol. The NetDecision development team has implemented SNMP framework from the ground up using RFC specifications. The framework supports SNMPv1, SNMPv2C and SNMPv3.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
NetMechanica delivers network management software and services that enable IT companies to achieve greater productivity and dramatically improve the quality of their operations.
NetDecision is a network management software that combines equipment, server and application monitoring across entire enterprise. NetDecision can discover your network, group equipment into intuitive maps with drill-down capabilities, monitor devices via SNMP, alert instantaneously on failure and provide comprehensive reports and graphs. NetDecision has built-in support for major network protocols and technologies: XML, SNMP, ICMP, FTP, TCP/UDP client/server, HTTP, SMTP, ODBC, TFTP, syslog, Event Log, Windows Services. NetDecision is designed to be customizable to support multi-vendor environment. It comes with a number of powerful tools like MIB Browser, MIB Compiler, MIB Editor, SNMP Packet Analyzer, Trap Simulator, TrapVision, etc.
