An SNMP simulator is a type of

computer simulation Computer simulation is the process of mathematical modelling, performed on a computer, which is designed to predict the behaviour of, or the outcome of, a real-world or physical system. The reliability of some mathematical models can be dete ...

, that simulates the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent. Contrary to

network simulation In computer network research, network simulation is a technique whereby a software program replicates the behavior of a real network. This is achieved by calculating the interactions between the different network entities such as routers, switche ...

, which models the behavior of a network within a computer, the SNMP simulator actually interfaces with outside systems, for example

network management application In the network management model, a network management application (NMA) is the software that sits on the network management station (NMS) and retrieves data from management agents (MAs) for the purpose of monitoring and controlling various devices ...

software. An SNMP simulator fools the network management application software into believing it is talking via the SNMP protocol to one or more devices, just like a flight simulator allows a pilot to believe they are flying a plane.

Uses

SNMP Simulators are used for development, testing, and training of

network management system Network monitoring is the use of a system that constantly monitors a computer network for slow or failing components and that notifies the network administrator (via email, SMS or other alarms) in case of outages or other trouble. Network monitorin ...

software. Before the advent of simulators, actual physical equipment was used. The scalability of simulators dramatically reduces the cost in this area. Features in this area vary widely, from the no-cost to commercial offerings. It is not uncommon for higher-end simulators to simulate thousandsMIMIC simulates network of 20000 devices
/ref> of devices on common PC hardware or virtual machines. Setting up any number of instances of any number of device type is standard functionality. The better simulators will allow creation of any type of dynamic scenario, both in terms of MIB object behavior as well as trap generation. Since current network management standards comprise a set of protocols, the better simulators integrate the current network management standards, such as

NetFlow NetFlow is a feature that was introduced on Cisco routers around 1996 that provides the ability to collect IP network traffic as it enters or exits an interface. By analyzing the data provided by NetFlow, a network administrator can determine thin ...

command-line interface A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...

s (CLI), etc. Typically, SNMP simulators are deployed in laboratories which contain both Network Management Application software and devices to exercise the software for the above purposes.

References

{{reflist Network management