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Elements of AdventNet Agent Tester
AdventNet Agent Tester primarily consists of
SNMP Agent Tester that provides you a GUI-based automated environment for testing your SNMP Agent. Testing includes performing standard SNMP operations on the implemented MIBs, checking the MIB syntax, checking for compliance, validating traps, and so on.
MIB Browser that enables loading, browsing, and searching MIBs, walking the MIB tree, and performing all other SNMP-related functions.
SNMP Agent Tester as a Testing Tool
SNMP Agent Tester is a software designed to test the implementation of Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and Management Information Base (MIB) in an agent. It provides you an automated environment for testing your SNMP agent exhaustively and rapidly. All you have to do is to provide the agent information, load the MIBs implemented in the agent, and validate.
To validate an SNMP agent, SNMP Agent Tester takes the following agent information:
agent host,
agent port,
authentication details for v1 and v2 agents (read community and write community),
USM table user name for v3 agents, and
MIBs, both standard and private, implemented in the agent
SNMP Agent Tester supports a variety of validations, which can be triggered either selectively or collectively on need basis.
SNMP Agent Tester has a set of built-in test cases for almost all the validations to test the agents. Validation is done for all SNMP operations (GET, GETNEXT, SET, and GETBULK) on all the OIDs implemented in the agent to check if the response contains the appropriate error status and the error index for various combinations. Validation is done for all the syntax types including range and enumeration. This kind of validation is called Functionality Validation, which is just one of many tests that SNMP Agent Tester provides.
Apart from validating built-in test cases, SNMP Agent Tester also enables you to define your own test cases to test the behavior of the agent through Behavior Validation. Unlike other testing tools, AdventNet Agent Tester does not require scripting to define test cases for testing the agents behavior. Behavior Validation helps you to define your own test suites according to the behavior of the agent. Test cases can be defined using a simple, intuitive, easy-to-use graphical user interface. You can define the flow of the test cases similar to a flow chart. You can also record SNMP operations in the MIB Browser and play it back as a test case or include them in the flow of a test case.
Fig: SNMP Agent Tester
SNMP Agent Tester, apart from Functionality and Behavior validations, supports the following validations:
MIB Syntax Validation: Validates and compiles MIBs according to the RFCs and gives out errors if any.
V3 Security Validation: Checks whether the V3 user names in the USM Tables have proper access or not.
Compliance Validation: Checks whether v2c and v3 agents are compliant with v2c and v3 standards respectively.
Trap Validation: Checks if the traps/notifications generated by the agent are compliant with the RFC standards.
Inopportune Validation: Checks if the agent drops an incomplete request or any other invalid messages sent to the agent.
Performance Validation: Gives out the performance metrics of the agent, which reflects the agent's capability when different types of operations are performed.
Stress Validation: Checks if the agent continues to respond after strenuous testing.
Validations can be triggered either from the GUI or from the command line. Tests can be configured, packaged, and ported anywhere in the network. They can also be put in regression mode.
Upon successful completion of the validation, the validation reports can be viewed from the GUI. You also have an option to generate reports in HTML format that can be accessed from a remote machine.
The MIB Browser can be used to perform the following functions:
Load and browse the MIB modules in a MIB tree.
Walking the MIB tree to retrieve all the values of the MIB objects.
View the description of each MIB objects.
Parse the MIB and check for the macro constructs. It allows different levels of parsing and the parsing is done as per the standard definition of the macros.
Perform all SNMP operations, such as GET, GETNEXT, GETBULK, and SET.
Debug the output of the SNMP operations. The Debug window is used to show the PDU that is sent from the manager and the response PDU that is received from the agent.
Monitor traps/notifications received from one or more SNMP agents. You can also set filters for traps.
View the SNMP Table data in a separate window called the SNMP Table Panel. You can add and delete rows, view graphs, and use index editor.
View the real-time plotting of the SNMP data through graphs.
Benefits of Using Agent Tester
Productive environment with complete test case automation.
No scripting knowledge required for testing the agents' behavior.
Proactive detection and isolation of problems in SNMP agent implementations.
Customizable test cases based on agent behavior.
Validates in accordance with standard RFCs, SMI standards, and ASN.1 rules.
Shorter learning curve: Easy to learn.
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