These easy-to-use Windows applications are essential for anyone who is managing or developing SNMP-related applications or agents.  They allow users to receive and log SNMP Traps, monitor, manage, archive, and analyze data retrieved from SNMP Agents.  All NuDesign SNMP MIB Browsers come integrated with powerful MIB Compiler as well as with MIB Viewer and MIB Editor applications.  The MIB handling capabilities include automatic resolution of MIB IMPORT dependencies, and convenient management of loaded and available for loading MIB modules.

Visual MIB Browser Basic – provides basic support for SNMPv1 and v2.  It present the user with the MIB tree based GUI interface and performs simple Get or Walk operations on user configured SNMP agents.  It comes with full feature NuDesign’s MIB Compiler providing for compiling, viewing and editing of MIB modules.  It is licensed as free of charge SNMP application.

Visual MIB Browser – provides fully featured support for SNMPv1 and v2, allowing users to perform additional tasks such as auto-discovering SNMP Agents, setting alarm thresholds and alarms, sending and receiving Traps and Informs, then real-time data charting and graphing, performing Get, Set, Log or Walk operations on auto-discovered or pre-configured SNMP agents.  Please see Table 1 below for full list of Visual MIB Browser features.

Visual MIB Browser Professional – extends these capabilities with comprehensive SNMPv3 support, user assignable color-coded alarm priority settings, user definable MIB groups, database interfacing, VB scripting capabilities.  The support for SNMP Proxy Forwarder functionality has also been included to simplify configuration and use of rfc3413, Proxy MIB compliant agents.

With Release 6.0 of Visual MIB Browser Pro the user can enable SNMP Traffic Monitor and Analyzer functionality monitoring, capturing and storing SNMP packet exchanges between the MIB Browser and the Agent, an invaluable tool when pin-pointing difficult problems.  The SNMP Traffic Monitor is also available as a standalone product, however developers will benefit from having this powerful functionality available from within the Browser.

Also new is the SNMP CLI interface providing the user with complete control over the content of SNMP PDUs, for example issuing a Get Request to any object with user provided OID.

The SNMP developers and test departments find SNMP traffic monitoring, CLI interface and VB scripting capabilities of particular interest.  A number of enclosed scripting examples provide a framework for creation of user specific regression, stress or compliance testing suites.  With VB scripting the user can extend the SNMP MIB Browser’s user interface and functionality, for example a script could monitor the reception of notifications and forward summary notifications to other management application(s), based on the notifications that MIB Browser has received.

With the Release 6.0 NuDesign has further automated testing of customer’s SNMP Agent MIB’s implementations.  First the Browser determines which of the pre-loaded MIBs are implemented by the agent, then it provides for complete testing of MIB implementation.

The Read access with GetNext & Get is verified, Read-Only objects are confirmed to be not writable, Write access is verified as well.  The tests terminate with detailed report for every MIB / object tested and short summary, example of which is included below.

Report:

Of the modules currently loaded into MIB Browser, the agent at ‘ip address:161’ using SNMP version: 1 and read credentials: public, implements some or all of the following modules:

RFC1213-MIB

And following the detailed report, omitted here, a summary is provided:

RFC1213-MIB Test Results:

• Objects tested = 174
• No response to a Set on an object = 1
• Objects not implemented or not instantiated = 21
• Obsolete or deprecated objects implemented = 3
• Writable objects implemented ReadOnly = 26
• Object values not in range = 0
• Object values not in enumeration = 1
• Object values not the correct size = 0

MIB Browser Family Feature Set

Feature Set	Visual MIB Browser Pro	Visual MIB Browser	Visual MIB Browser Basic
SNMPv3 User Management Wizard
Support for IPv6
Support for SNMPv1/v2
Support for SNMPv3 security (HMAC-MD5, HMAC-SHA, SHA224, SHA256, SHA384 and SHA512 authentication; CBC-DES, 3DES, CFB128-AES-128, AES192 and AES256 privacy)
SNMPv3 Administration Framework Support for Notifications (implements SNMP-TARGET-MIB and SNMP-NOTIFICATION-MIB)
Device centric view for managing devices organized by network
Hierarchical device specific alarm detection, filtering, presentation and management
Device alarm “short cut” to Alarm Log
Device web interface
“Plug in” component interface for user specific functionality extension
sample “Plug in” C++ project
Expression based charting and alarm detection
SNMPv3 reports detection with configurable alarm forwarding
“Ledger” style information presentation
Table pivot view
Splitter window in pivot view to pan data.
Automatically inserts Spinlock for SNMPv3 Framework Management Operations
Integrated V3 User and Notification Management
Find SNMPv3 Agent Engine ID Tool
Create default NuDesign USM Users with single button push
SNMP Proxy Forwarder Support
Snmp “Get”
Snmp “Walk”			*
Snmp “Set”
support for UTF-8 encoding for Windows-1252 character set
Easy viewing of Scalar, Table, Row and Columnar Objects
Quick Set from Get Scalar, Table, or Row Object Applets
SNMP CLI interface to the SNMP Agent (provides for complete control over PDU fields, for example Get any object with a user provided OID)
User assignable, color coded alarm and trap priorities
Alarm Detection & Notifications through Emails or Traps
Multiple, user selectable, alarm detection algorithms
SNMP Trap / Notification Send / Receive Tool
Includes MIB Compiler (settable error tolerances)
Enhanced MIB loading (multiple user – definable MIB search directories)
Maintains a MIB Load / Unload log
Automatic resolution of MIB IMPORT dependencies.
View Module Dependencies and Predecessors
User definable MIBs groups
MIB Viewer & Editor that presents errors of MIB being loaded in a diagnostic view
MIB Component Tab view
VB and JScript capabilities (included are sample scripts implementing typical SNMP functions)
Enhanced scripting object model with access to internal components, such as the MIB compiler.
Automatically finds what MIB modules the agent implements (of the MIB modules currently loaded into the MIB Browser)
Tests the MIB modules the agent implements (it evaluates SNMP read / write access compliance using Get-Next / Get / Set.  Tests write operation on read-only objects.  Produces report.)
Save and Replay previous operations
Logging (alarms, received notifications, SNMP operation results):
– to Text File
– to Database
– to Excel spreadsheet
Improved browsing and searching
SNMP session characteristics short cut
Create, manage and execute: queries / groups / scripts
Hyperlinking of MIB variables to source ASN.1 MIB docs
Select Browser nodes, queries, etc. as “Go to Favorites”
Select Device nodes as “Go to Favorites”
SNMP Traffic Monitor and Analyzer (capture, custom filter, decode, store & retrieve SNMPv1/v2c/v3 exchanges, including encrypted.  Display using object’s MIB names)
Support for UDP port numbers up to 65535

    *    walk up to 5 objects at a time with Visual MIB Browser Basic

Table 1. Feature Set Comparison

Detailed Feature List

Visual MIB Browser provides:

• VB scripting that provides an interpretive programmatic interface to the SNMP engine and other components of MIB Browser.  All the features of VB scripting are available plus you can send and receive SNMP requests and also interact with certain aspects of MIB Browser itself.
• A Browse Tree tab displaying all MIB constructs that have an OID assignment
• A MIB tab displaying all loaded and compiled MIB
• Simultaneous SNMP communication with multiple agents (including SNMP Trap / Inform reception.)
• Multiple query output Windows.
• A Notification Generator for sending “test” traps or informs.
• An import/compile facility for enterprise MIBs including automatic loading of MIB Import dependencies.
• A MIB Compiler with configurable sensitivity.
• A MIB editor Window, launched automatically by MIB Compiler’s directive upon loading a MIB with errors. (includes error highlighting)   (Screen Capture)
• A MIB compile error log, containing a list non fatal MIB errors detected at MIB Browser startup.
• A discovery tool for detecting SNMP agents on the network.   (Screen Capture)
• A handy ASN.1 reference of each object.  (Screen Capture)
• A MIB viewer Window for view a specific MIB in its entirety, selected from either the file system or currently “compiled” into MIB Browser.
• The ability to save and re-execute commonly used operations.
• The ability to save results for use by other programs.
• The ability to configure and detect alarm conditions, with alarm priorities and notify via email, trap or logged alerts.
• The ability to chart/graph results, saving them in a variety of formats.

With Visual MIB Browser you can:

• using VB scripting develop custom testing suites or extend MIB Browser’s user interface and functionality or implement scripts that perform complex interactions on a group of agents
• Perform standard SNMP management functions on any object of pre-loaded rfc1213 – MIB-II, rfc1514 – Host Resources MIB or any imported standard or enterprise MIB.
• Monitor status of the network.
• Walk any MIB from any given object to another object.  (Screen Capture)
• No need to worry about what type of SNMP operation to use.  Access data logically. Get scalar variables individually or by groups; table variables by rows, columns, individually or in their entirety via one simple operation or ‘iterate’ through a table row by row.
• Perform trending and monitor for alarm conditions with configurable thresholds.
• Track alarm history with the Alarm Log, send an email to one or more recipients or a SNMP notification (trap or inform) when logging specific, configurable alarm types.
• Keep a log of SNMP v1 or v2 Traps or Informs Received or Sent.
• Save common operations as macros and invoke them from a shortcut command line, or later from a menu.
• Hide and unhide processing Windows for “background” processing of alarm detection, logging or charting.
• Search for/Find objects or Modules in the Browse and Modules trees.
• Goto to the first object of a MIB in the Browse tree, from a selected MIB in the Module tree.
• Plot multiple objects in a single chart.
• Monitor multiple thresholds in a single chart.
• Log communication failures with agents, to the Alarm Log.
• Create and manage an internal configuration database of agents, complete with individual session characteristics, including timeout, retry, poll period and authentication policies.
• Minimize MIB Browser to the system tray, to minimize clutter on the task bar.
• Execute commands and options on startup to enable multiple, “task” oriented configurations.
• Add MIBs to those compiled into MIB Browser with “drag & drop”, pushbutton or File menu operations.
• Remove MIBs currently compiled into MIB Browser.

Visual MIB Browser Professional provides these additional features:

• Automated testing of SNMP Agent MIB implementations – two buttons: one to find MIBs implemented by the agent, second to invoke pre-canned tests that verify accuracy and completeness of SNMP Agent MIB implementation against its MIB document.
• SNMP CLI interface to the SNMP Agent
• SNMP Traffic Monitor capturing data from the wire, for display and storage in files for playback (public domain, WinPCap library is used to capture the data).
• full SNMP decoding of all SNMP packets which are on the network that the Browser is attached to.
• Support for SNMPv3 operations.
• An improved MIB Tab:
  • Show Loaded and Unloaded Modules, color coding those Unloaded Modules that represent different revision of the already Loaded Module
  • Select multiple MIBs simultaneously
  • Create and delete MIB groups
  • Move selected MIB(s), into groups, out of groups, elsewhere in the tree
• A MIB Components Tab:
  • View MIB nodes organized by components (TEXTUAL-CONVENTION, Notifications, V1 traps….)
  • Look up SNMP Trap definitions
• Support for rfc3413, Proxy MIB compliant agents.
• Automatic conversion of files names into module names for easier MIB selection and loading.
• SMIv1 Traps and SMIv2 Notifications presentation.
• Handling of notifications as per SNMPv3 specification.  As a SNMP entity, it implements SNMP-TARGET-MIB and SNMP-NOTIFICATION-MIB.
• Rich alarm handling capabilities: support for different alarm detection algorithms for charts, e.g. thresholds: rising, falling and rising or falling, value: change and no change, audio alarm notification when browser is minimized to the system tray.
• User definable, color coded alarm priorites.
• User definable, color coded notification priorities.
• Automatic resolution of IMPORTed MIBs.
• Configurable, continuous data logging in a database engine.
• Improved user interface and search capabilities.

With Visual MIB Browser Professional you can:

• use all Visual MIB Browser’s features like VB scripting and in addition:
• use pre-canned SNMP Agent MIB implementations testing for any of your MIBs.  The Browser uses its MIB Compiler and VB scripting to quickly generate a detailed implementation compliance report.
• interrogate “raw” your agent under development using Get, GetNext or GetBulk to any OID from SNMP CLI interface.
• record and display SNMP packets in a “human readable form”, analyse those hard-to-debug SNMPv3 packet exchanges between the MIB Browser Pro and your SNMP Agent.
• set up and use SNMPv3 Proxy mechanism in your v3 agents.
• Query pre-configured SNMPv3 agents.
• Save query results in a database for long term trends reporting.
• Communicate securely with V3 agents, using your choice of HMAC-MD5, HMAC-SHA, SHA224, SHA256, SHA384 or SHA512 authentication; CBC-DES, 3DES, CFB128-AES-128, AES192 or AES256 privacy.
• Continuously log results as either text files or via to the database of your choice, for use by other programs.
• Turn audible alarm notification on and off.
• View the MIB module in which an object if defined, from that object in the Browse Tree.
• Mark a new alarm log entry or notification entry as “viewed”

Please also view our on-line Tutorial on use of NuDesign SNMP Tools and review these Documents:

• Advanced Features Guide of NuDesign Visual MIB Browser Pro
• Scripting Capabilities of NuDesign Visual MIB Browser Pro
• Receiving SNMP Traps Using NuDesign Visual MIB Browser Pro
• Configuring and Testing Audio Alarms in NuDesign Visual MIB Browser Pro