Tutorial - C++ SNMP Agent Studio - Visual MIBuilder®
The Visual MIBuilder® evaluation demonstrates the speed and ease with which you can create or edit a MIB file.
Visual MIB Builder opens with a tree view on the left, and an area on the right that can contain various dialog boxes and windows. The tree view shows the structure of the MIB you are editing. The dialog boxes and windows on the right convey information about whatever object in the MIB tree that is selected. statuses, errors, log window, a window representing the ASN.1 text relating to the highlighted portion of the MIB in the tree view, and dialog boxes where the properties of the selected MIB object can be viewed and edited.
To begin, we will step through creating a MIB from scratch.
- First, click the "New" icon in the MIB Builder toolbar to prepare the workspace for editing. The options available, such as adding branches, tables, or leaves to the MIB; importing a MIB; adding textual conventions, notification types, notification groups, object groups and so forth are shown by colored icons in the toolbar. Valid options are colored, and invalid options are greyed out:
- Next, highlight the "enterprises" entry in the tree, as shown below.
- Right-click to open the editing options available at this point. Once a new MIB is started, MIB Builder prevents mistakes in its logic and syntax by presenting only the valid options available, and by checking that the syntax of entries is valid. Right-clicking on the "enterprises" entry opens the following menu, showing the various elements that can be legitimately added at this place in the MIB.
- Add a branch to the MIB by either clicking on the "Add Branch" icon on the toolbar, or by selecting "Add Branch" from the menu to that appeared when you right-clicked the "enterprises" entry. As soon as you do so, a "Properties" dialog box like the one below appears, in which you can add or edit the specific values and parameters of the MIB object that is the current focus, in this case the branch you have just added to the MIB.
- Now add a leaf to your MIB by clicking on the "Add Leaf" icon. Again, the "Properties" dialog box appears, and you can add or edit the specific values and parameters of the new leaf.
- At this point, test the MIB for errors by clicking on the "Compile" icon. You will be warned that your MIB needs a Module Identity to be a valid SMIv2 MIB; add one by highlighting the branch that you have created, then clicking the "Add Module Identity" icon. Checking the MIB again shows that it is valid:
- You can now save your MIB. It is ready for xAgentBuilder.
Before moving on, you may wish to look at a more fully fleshed-out MIB. For example, opening the MIB file "NDGarageV2.mib" in Visual MIB Builder and Visual xAgentBuilder. The file is available, without charge, with any of the and then expanding its tree reveals the structure of the NDGarage MIB, as shown below. Icons in the tree indicate objects' types, and the tree shows the relations between objects. As always, items in the tree view can be dragged and dropped, added, deleted, copied, and reordered simply and easily. Changes made in the tree view are automatically updated in the ASN.1 text of the MIB.
The properties of individual nodes of the MIB are set in the "Properties" dialog box, which automatically presents the options available, as well as their current status. The entry fields in the "Properties" dialog box prevent invalid syntax from being entered.
Finally, the "ASN.1" window shows the ASN.1 syntax of the element highlighted in the tree view.
You can now use the MIB that you have just constructed, or the tutorial's NDGarage MIB in the SNMP Agent code generation phase. You can also use any other MIB for the next phase. You may however want first to load that MIB into the Visual MIB Builder tool to verify it compiles properly. If it contains any fatal errors the Visual MIB Builder will launch and edit window, highlighting the error and allowing you to repair it before re-saving. You are now ready for SNMP Agent building phase.
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