Frequently Asked QuestionsGeneral
1. What are the tools provided by Simulation Toolkit? Can each tool function as a separate application? The tools provided by AdventNet Simulation Toolkit are as follows:
Yes. Each tool can function as a separate application. You can use the .bat/.sh file in the <Simulator Home>/bin directory to run each application separately. 2. What markets (or customers) does Simulation Toolkit serve? Testing departments can test management applications by simulating large, complex network environments with SNMP and TL1 devices without requiring large budgets. Management application developers can develop their applications in parallel with agent development through simulation of device prototypes. Enterprises can evaluate the suitability of applications with anticipated failure and growth scenarios or qualify purchases before deployment. Equipment Manufacturers can demonstrate how their hardware scales and how its management application is used. Marketing and Sales can demonstrate the capabilities of their network management product easily and effectively. Simulations can be used to train network operators, administrators, and technicians. End-users can easily yet exhaustively evaluate new management products prior to purchase, and customize them after purchase. 3. What is the process of licensing a copy of AdventNet Simulation Toolkit ? There are two types of licenses for AdventNet Simulation Toolkit Trial User License AdventNet provides an Evaluation period for 30 days on the trial copy that can be extended if required. The evaluation copy is a fully functional version of the product but provides certain restrictions on the number of nodes that can be simulated. AdventNet will provide a Registered License after you purchase the product. 4. What are the restrictions imposed on the evaluation version? The evaluation copy is a fully functional version of the product but provides certain restrictions on the number of nodes that can be simulated. The evaluation version has the following restrictions: Network Simulator:
SNMP Agent Simulator:
TL1 Agent Simulator:
5. Can a simulated network configuration be copied from one platform to another ? Yes, the Network Designer tool allows you to package the network that you have created with the desired configurations and install it in any other system having Simulation Toolkit. 6.Will Simulation Toolkit work with any management application? Yes, Simulation Toolkit will work with any management application which supports SNMP and TL1 protocol. 7. How many NMS systems can refer to simulator simultaneously ? There is no limitation based on the number of NMS querying simulator simultaneously. 8. How many agents can be run simultaneously on one computer ? You can run a maximum of 10000 agents in Windows, 50000+ agents in Linux and 4096 agents in Solaris. 9. What is the maximum SNMP packet size that the simulator supports? The maximum SNMP packet size supported in Network Designer is 20000 bytes. That is, in a single PDU, you will be able to send/receive a maximum of 20000 bytes. 10. Is it possible to control the simulation running in a machine from another machine ? For example, start/stop/set config/send trap etc. ? Simulation Toolkit provides "RMI support" that enables
management of agents and network through RMI. The RMI client API
methods can be used to programatically start/stop individual SNMP/TL1
devices in the network, send SNMP v1/v2/v3 traps and TL1 autonomous
messages, update values for a specific SNMP/TL1 device in the network,
and so on. 11. How to start the simulator, if Simulation Toolkit is installed in a system with multiple NIC (Network Interface cards)? If your system has multiple interface cards installed, the following configurations must be made before starting the simulator. For Windows
For Linux / Solaris
12. Is is possible to simulate proxy agents using simulation toolkit? Yes, Simulation Toolkit supports SNMP Proxy Agent Simulation to simulate multiple SNMP agents with same IP Address, but with different community strings. This utility can be started from command line by executing the StartSnmpProxyAgent.bat/.sh in <Simulator_Home>/bin/cmdline directory. You can refer to the following Help Documentation section "SNMP Proxy Agent Simulation" to learn more about this feature. Network Simulation
1. How easy it is to create a network with Simulation Toolkit's Network Simulator? The Network Simulator offers an integrated network design studio to create and configure huge networks in seconds. Click here to learn about the unique capabilities of Simulation Toolkit 6 that enables creation of large networks in seconds. 2. Does the Network Simulator support dynamic configuration of virtual IP addresses? Yes, the Network Simulator supports dynamic configuration of virtual ipaddresses in Windows NT, 2000, XP, 2003 and Linux/Solaris OS. 3. When I create a network, I am able to view the Template tree on the left side? What is the difference between the Template Tree and the device tree? The device tree consists of all the pre-configured devices in the device library and any new devices configured by the user. The Template tree view is enabled only after creating the network. The template tree will list only the template devices (devices in the device library) that were used to create the network and the number of devices of each type. For example, Cisco3600_1(3) means that the loaded network consists of 3 devices created using the device Cisco3600. Refer Template Devices and Bulk Configurations for more information. 4. How do I do bulk confgurations on the nework devices? Bulk configurations can be done in the following ways: a. Template based bulk configurations: Refer Template Devices and Bulk Configurations for more information. b. Using the Bulk Modification option in the Tools menu: Using this option, you can modify the IP address, Port number and SNMP agent values corresponding to SNMP OIDs across all or selected agents present in the network. 5. Is starting and stopping of single/multiple agent in a network supported ? Yes, you can start and stop individual/multiple agents in the network either from the UI or at runtime through scripts or using RMI. 6. Can I load a TCS/MIB in a device which is already started ? No, you cannot load a MIB/TCS in a device/network which is running. 7. What functionality does the initialize
service option provide ? 8. Why does the Stop Network option stop all the network that is running? How should I stop a single network ? The Stop Network menu option stops the network simulation itself. Hence all the networks will be stopped. To stop a single network, the Stop All Agents option can be used. Refer to Help documentation section, Simulating a Network -> Starting and Stopping Agents in the Network for starting and stopping of agents in the network. 9. Is it possible to customizing the SNMP request/response PDU in the Network Simulator?Yes, the network simulator supports the "SNMP PDU Scrambler"
for customizing the request/response PDU by exposing it to the user
for customization. For example, a request SNMP PDU can be customized
to validate that it contains multiple 10. Can batches of Traps be defined by the simulator? Traps are created in a number of alternate ways : 1. Default generation of Traps defined in the MIB. Traps are sent based on Request, on Threshold or on a Timer, with ‘repeat’ parameters that govern how many traps are sent or for what time period. The repeat parameters effectively define batches of traps to be sent or, for more complex situations, JPython scripts can be used to simulate the sending of a group of different traps. 11. Can I control the simulator via RMI RMI (Remote Method Invocation) is implemented in the network simulator and the agent simulators, to control the simulated agent and network behavior from a remote client program. The SNMP and TL1 RMI client APIs, defines the methods in the simulator, which can be accessed via RMI from the client program. The methods can be used to programmatically update values for a specific SNMP/TL1 device within the simulated network, start/stop individual SNMP/TL1 devices in the network, send SNMP v1/v2/v3 traps and TL1 autonomous messages, etc. The javadocs of the RMI client APIs are available in <SimulatorHome>/examples/javadocs directory. For more information, refer Behavior simulation scenarios. 12. I have created 200 nodes
at one time through network designer wizard. Now can i dynamically
assign them unique system name property? You can refer to the following Help Documentation section "Network Simulator Guide -> Creating and Configuring a network -> Creating a new network" to learn more about this feature. 13. Does the simulator support SNMP v3 informs? If so, how do I configure and receive the inform messages in the simulator? Yes, the simulator supports configuring and receiving snmpv2 and v3 informs. For more information, refer Configuring Informs. 14. Will the network simulator allow me to configure real time behavior of devices? What are the different scenarios in which the behavior of the network can be customized? Simulation Toolkit's Behavior Simulation feature offers powerful built-in SNMP script APIs and RMI client APIs to automate a complete network environment.For more information, refer Behavior simulation scenarios. 15. From your documentation I understand
that you support TFTP. Is it possible to control the simulated TFTP
client of the agent via a script (Jython or alike)? Yes, you can control the simulated TFTP client through jython scripts. We have provided the following script API methods which can be used inside jython files. 1. stopTftpServer("ipaddress", "portno") where, the mode is 0 for netascii mode and 1 for octets mode. The source file and destination file have to be specified with absolute paths. 16. Can I start multiple networks? Yes, the Network Simulator supports starting of multiple networks both in GUI and command line. 17. Is there a topology editor to create the connections between the devices easily?Yes, the topology editor enables you to visualize interconnections between the devices in the network. You can connect new devices or disconnect existing devices in the topology. Refer to Network Simulator Guide -> Topology Editor for more information. 18. Will the product work with multiple network cards?
The product does not support Multiple Network card environment. As virtual IPs are created dynamically it is not possible to distribute the creation of IPs to multiple cards. 19. I cannot start agents in simulator. I get "Unable to start agent" error when starting an agent instance. Why?
The above error will occur in Network Simulator in any one of the following cases:
20. I have started agents in the simulator, but I cannot ping them from my management station. Why?
If the simulator and the manager application is running in separate machines on the same network, the virtual ipaddress configured in the simulator ( machine where the simulation application is running ) will not be accessible from the Manager ( machine where the manager application is running ).
To access the simulated network, execute the route add command in the system where the manager application is running. 21. How do I add a MIB to an existing simulation?
To add a MIB to an existing simulation, select Configure -> SNMP Agent Values. Select the "Load MIBs" option to load and simulate new MIBs. SNMP Agent Simulation
1. What versions are supported in Snmp Agent Simulator? The Snmp Agent Simulator provides complete support for SNMP V1,V2c and V3 versions. 2. What kind of devices can
be simulated using the Snmp Agent Simulator? 3. What level of reality is guaranteed
in a simulated device? 4. Can traps be sent continously to the
manager? 5. Can the behavior of the simulated
agent be customized ? 6. We need to validate an SNMP PDU which contains multiple varbinds before the agent simulator performs SNMP operation in OIDs. Can this be done? The SNMP Agent Simulator provides PDU Scrambler interface to access and customize the request and /response SNMP PDUs. As per your requirement, the incoming PDU can be customized for the analysis and verification of the order of the OIDs present in the PDU. For more information, refer Behavior simulation scenarios. TL1 Agent Simulation
1. Can new TCS files be defined using Simulation Toolkit ? TL1MessageBuilder tool bundled with the product will help in creating tcs files which the TL1 Agent Simulator can recognize. 2. Can DENY responses be issued randomly? Yes, the TL1 Agent simulator supports to simulate DENY responses at random. 3. Can the behavior of the simulated TL1 agent be customized ? The behavior of the simulated device can be customized using Jython scripts and TL1 ScriptInterface API. For more information, refer Behavior simulation scenarios. Cisco IOS Software Simulation
1. What are the devices that support Cisco IOS Simulation ? The following series of pre-configured Cisco Routers, Switches and Firewall are available in the device tree of the Network Simulator.
The following series of pre-configured Cisco Routers and Switches are available in the device library:
2. Does the IOS Simulator support all modes supported by Cisco IOS ? The IOS simulator supports the following modes - user, privilegedEXEC, global configuration, Interface configuration, Router (BGP, OSPF, RIP ) and Vlan modes. 3. What are the commands supported by the IOS simulator? The IOS Simulatior enables you to configure cdp, access-list, rmon alarms and events, set passwords, ip addresses, clock rates, hostname, configure BGP, OSPF, RIP, EIGRP and vlan for a specific router, ping devices, display startup and running config and many other functions. Refer to the Help topic, IOS Simulator Guide -> IOS Commands supported, to learn about the complete set of commands supported. 4. What are the protocols supported by an IOS enabled device ? The IOS enabled devices support SNMP, CLI, TFTP and FTP protocols. The IOS Software Simulation can be accessed using CLI. 5. How can I use the IOS simulator to configure the router?
Refer to the Help topic, IOS Simulator Guide -> Getting Started, to learn more. 6. Are there any pre-configured cisco devices available with the product ? Yes, the Cisco Router/Switch devices available in the device tree are pre-configured devices that can be used directly in the network. 7. What are the operations that can be performed on an IOS enabled device ? You can login and logout of the IOS simulator, get into and out of different modes, configure cdp, access-list, rmon alarms and events, set passwords, ip addresses, clock rates, hostname, enable/disable SNMP trap service, configure SNMP community, contact, location etc., specify MTU value for the network interface node, configure BGP, OSPF, RIP and vlan for a specific router, ping devices, display startup and running config and many other functions. Refer to the Help topic, IOS Simulator Guide -> IOS Commands Supported, to learn about the complete set of commands supported. 8. Is it possible for me to customize commands supported by the IOS device? Yes, it is possible to customize the commands supported by the IOS device. The IOS simulator comes along with a Script Editor to facilitate viewing and editing of script files configured for the IOS commands. Refer to the Help topic, IOS Simulator Guide -> Script Editor, to learn about the complete set of commands supported. 9. Is it possible for me to add new commands to the existing IOS Device ? Yes, you can add new commands to the existing IOS devices from the device tree. Refer to the Help topic, IOS Simulator Guide -> Adding IOS Commands, to learn about adding new commands. 10. Do you have any relation of SNMP OIDs with the IOS Commands? If yes, how can I do that? If the IOS Command supports a MIB Object, the SNMP script API methods defined in the SNMP Script Interface can be used to implement the IOS command. For example, Cisco-CDP-MIB defines Mib object to enable/disable cdp. Hence, the command cdp enable uses the SNMP script API methods to implement the command. Refer to the script file cdp_enable_ci.py in <simulatorhome>/devices/db/Cisco1700/cli for further reference. The SNMP and CLI script api methods are available in Javadocs inside <SimulatorHome>/ examples/javadocs directory. 11. How can I send a trap on execution of an IOS Command ? You can send a trap by calling the SNMP Script interface method sendTrap() in the script file which is configured for the required IOS command.
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