Jalasoft’s Brand New Xian SNMP Simulator v4

Whether it serves for testing purposes or for demonstrations, an SNMP Device simulator is always a useful tool to have at hand if you have to deal with SNMP Devices. Instead of creating an unnecessary overhead on your network, you simply use a certain tool and keep it local. However, finding a good one might be hard.  A straightforward and simple tool to use is the Jalasoft Xian SNMP Simulator v1.0. This version has been built based on previous experiences with our former simulator and has been thought of from the ground up to deliver an easy and robust simulated network experience.

Architecture

In order to deliver a robust and scalable solution the simulator has been based on agents. This means that the actual simulation takes place as a running service. This service can be installed on any Windows 7 or 8 or Windows Server 2008 or 2012. For control of the running services you need to run the console in the same place where you connect to the different agents. From there on it’s simple work to simulate any device.

Figure 1, An overview of the Jalasoft Xian SNMP Simulator architecture.

Simulating a device

Simulating a device has been simplified in this new version. Just open the console and right click on the agent that you want to simulate an SNMP Device, and then click on ‘Add device’. A simple wizard appears to help you with the simulation process. In case you don’t have an agent visible in the console, you just need to right click on the Agent Manager and choose ‘connect’.

Figure 2, The Jalasoft Xian SNMP Device Simulator console.

First you need to select the device you want to simulate and on which agent. The last one is already preset if you previously right clicked on the agent that you wanted to begin simulating a device. You have several out of the box options to chose from for the  device that will be simulated.  Select the device you want to simulte and click next. If you want to add a new simulater file you can do so by clicking ‘Add’ and selecting the appropiate file. Normally, Jalasoft support can help you in the process of creating a simulator file of one of your own real devices.

Figure 3, selecting the agent and the device to be simulated.

In the IP Address tab you need to select on which IP address you want to simulate the device.  It is possible to simulate the same device on multiple IP Addresses. This can come in handy when you want to do some scalability testing. Also, you do need to note that it only shows the IP Addresses that are available on the machine where the agent is installed and adding IP Addresses has to be done manually.  

Figure 4, selecting the IP Address you want to simulate the device with.

The last aspect that you have to configure are the SNMP settings. You have the option for SNMP v1,v2 and v3 and once selected you need to provide the security settings of the chosen version.

Figure 5, the SNMP security settings.

Once you have everything configured to suit your needs, all you need to do is click ‘Finish’ and the simulation of the device will automatically start on the agent that you assigned. Depending on the size of the device this can vary from a few seconds to a few minutes.

Now you have your device simulated and you can add it to network monitoring tools as if it was a real device. Just bear in mind that it is a read-only device.

Looking to do more?

Want to do more? Well, you have the option to create a simulation file from any real SNMP device that you have in your environment. Also, you can modify the simulation files that the product is shipped with to increase the ‘action’ of the published values.

When will it be available?

This new simulator will be freely available around the beginning of may 2013. For more information, keep an eye on this blog or contact Jalasoft Sales. 

 UPDATE!: The new Jalasoft SNMP Device Simulator is now available for download. Click here