SimpleTester™

Automated SNMP Agent Tester, The #1 Standard for SNMP Testing

Overview

SNMP managers and agents can communicate with one another because they share a common understanding of the data being exchanged (MIBs) and use the same mechanism to exchange that data (SNMP protocol). Hence, to ensure interoperability, an agent must be tested to check if its data matches the MIB definition, and if it adheres to the data exchange mechanisms

(Get/GetNext/Set/GetBulk operations) specified in the SNMP protocol.

The SimpleTester™ is the industry leading SNMP test tool that automatically exercises SNMP v1, v2C, and v3 agents. All types of SNMP Agents (standalone, proxies, sub-agents) implementing one or more standard, experimental or private MIBs can be exhaustively tested, within minutes.

Operation

A few simple steps are required to start an Agent. They are: 

As the number of MIBs, MIB variables and instances supported by an SNMP agent grows, it can take weeks or even months to manually test each variable using tools like a typical MIB Browser. This is where the SimpleTester is most useful. The SimpleTester is an “SNMP Expert” program that will intelligently interpret MIB files, SNMP protocol specifications, and all the MIB objects supported by the agent. Using this knowledge, it automates the testing process to complete weeks worth of manual testing – in just minutes.

The SimpleTester contains syntax tests, semantic tests, performance tests, and other utilities.

The predefined syntax tests check for MIB and SNMP protocol compliance for any MIB by sending hundreds of different Get/GetNext/Set/GetBulk requests and analyzing the response for each and every MIB object supported by the agent. With each test result, reference is given to the RFC which specifies the behavior being tested.

The semantic tests include over 1100 tests to validate the semantics of popular MIBs like MIB-II, RMON, SNMPv3, and the NTCIP Global Objects MIB. These tests further ensure that the agent has implemented the behavior of each MIB object properly. For example, in MIB-II if 2000 octets are sent to the agent, its ifInOctets for the corresponding interface should at least increment by that amount. The tests can be easily customized by making changes to configuration files. In addition, the source code of all the 1100+ tcl scripts is also available for perusal. The framework is also fully documented to allow users to easily add their own test suites.

The performance tests measure the agent’s ability to handle a stream of requests, one after another, and its ability to handle a set of requests all at once. With these tests the SimpleTester is measuring response times and creates a report which indicates the shortest, the longest, and the average response time given the number of messages sent and received.

The test suite structure support is fully extensible. Users can develop and add their own semantic test suites using the test suite builder which has a very easy to use graphical user interface.

The built-in Tcl interpretor has support for SNMP, Telnet, Serial I/O, as well as the Simple Transportation Management Protocol (STMP), to allow users to define their own scripts that test other aspects of the device including its Command Line Interface (CLI).

The SimpleTester includes a MIB Browser that graphically displays the object registration tree and allows the retrieval and setting of manageable objects.

In addition to the user interface, the SimpleTester can also be run in an unattended mode by specifying the tests to be conducted in a command file.

SimpleTester also includes support for Diffie-Hellman Key Change and Key Ignition. Ability to create random numbers and their corresponding keys is also available. This functionality is particularly useful within the Cable Modem industry implementing the DOCSIS 1.1 specifications.

Features

Test Suites Included

Additional Test Suites Available

Supported IETF RFC’s

SNMPv1

SNMPv2

SNMPv2 Data Definition

SNMPv3

MIBs

Authentication/Privacy

Hardware and Software Requirements

The SimpleTester is supported on the following:

Product Family

SimpleSoft provides a whole family of SNMP Agent testers to ensure that as your agent complexity and testing requirements grow, SimpleTester solutions grow with it. The smooth upgrade path also minimizes the need for retraining and learning a new and different test tools. As your test environment grows, individual testers familiar with SimpleTester will find it straight-forward to migrate to the SimpleTesterPro and carry out additional vulnerability testing. Test departments with many test engineers can migrate to using the floating license to carry out SNMP testing, by using a license server-based solution. 

SimpleTester Family Feature Comparisons provides a tabulated description of the features available in SimpleTester and SimpleTesterPro.

Current Users Include

More than 250 networking companies including CableLabs, Cisco, Nortel, Lucent, 3Com, Alcatel, Nokia, HP, TI, Fujitsu, Ericsson, and Deutsche Telekom.

History

Back in 1994, some of the openly available ISODE 8.0/SNMPv2 software distributions included a number of Tcl based test scripts to check for SNMP MIB and protocol compliance. But the process of getting the dependent software packages (BLT,ISODE, Tcl/Tk) and compiling them was fairly long and cumbersome and required gigabytes of space as well as a good understanding of the UNIX operating system. The test suite was also only available on UNIX.

Realizing the ubiquity of PCs, SimpleSoft created the first commercially available Microsoft Windows 3.1 based automated SNMP agent tester (SimpleTester). It was written in C, easy to use, and included some of the tests in the openly available package augmented with script generation and trap checking capabilities. The shrink-wrap product required only a few megabytes of space and could be used out-of-the-box. This made the test engineers productive very quickly without requiring them to be UNIX gurus. 

SimpleTester’s ease of use soon made it a popular SNMP tester on hundreds of PCs in testing labs all around the world and its popularity continues to grow with every passing day.

SimpleSoft Agent Tester Overview

This short tutorial will give you an overview of SimpleSoft’s Automated SNMP Agent Tester which can complete weeks worth of manual testing in minutes.

SimpleSoft - an Industry Leader

Over the last 30+ years, 1000+ companies in 35 countries, have come to depend on SimpleSoft to simplify their development, testing, demonstration and management of networks and systems.

Resources

Explore our blogs, whitepapers, videos and product updates

SimpleSoft Network Simulator Overview

SimpleSoft Agent Tester Overview

SimpleSoft SimpleIoTSimulator Overview

SimpleSoft releases Version 27.5 of SimpleAgentPro/Enterprise
SimpleAgentPro/Enterprise 27.5 now GetBulk based, faster learning, include file support in Telnet modeling files to reduce duplication, automatic handling of filters in Cisco IOS CLI commands,…
Release Notes

December 20, 2023

SimpleSoft releases Version 27.0 of SimpleAgentPro/Enterprise
SimpleAgentPro/Enterprise 27.0 now supports common data representation of variables for use by many management protocols, saving of configuration command information during CLI provisioning, simplified GPB buffer specification for Telemetry, Modeling file debugger,…
Release Notes

June 29, 2023

SimpleSoft releases Version 26.5 of SimpleAgentPro/Enterprise
SimpleAgentPro/Enterprise 26.5 now supports performance statistics in Netconf, provides remote host/port information in Telnet/SSH for filtering, allows timer_action to be staggered in SNMP,…
Release Notes

December 20, 2022

SimpleSoft releases Version 26.0 of SimpleAgentPro/Enterprise
SimpleAgentPro/Enterprise 26.0 now enhances Telemetry support in HTTP2/client and HTTP2, adds valuelist support in Netconf data modeling, AES-192-C and AES-256-C support for Cisco key initialization in SNMP,…
Release Notes

July 29, 2022

SimpleSoft releases Version 25.5 of SimpleAgentPro/Enterprise
SimpleAgentPro/Enterprise 25.5 now adds enhanced Netconf support for data modeling and namespaces, improved Telnet config command score handling, HTTP/2 server response generation without data,…
Release Notes

December 14, 2021

SimpleSoft releases Version 25.0 of SimpleAgentPro/Enterprise
SimpleAgentPro/Enterprise 25.0 now includes support for HTTP/2 client for dial-out telemetry with gRPC, exporting and importing of maps, device diagnostic connectivity checking, support for a config command score to give different show command responses after config changes in Telnet/SSH,…
Release Notes

July 27, 2021