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Side by side comparison
HI,
From time to time on the comp.protocols.snmp news group people ask
the question of which tools to use in developing MIB modules,
which agent tool kit to use, which management app to use, etc.
I'm considering doing a comparison of MIB development tools, and
writing up an article. If so, I would appreciate getting suggestions
on the attributes that I should use evaluating in the tools.
For example, here is my quick list:
1) Does the tool check MIB modules for correctness?
2) For MIB checking, are the types of checks configurable?
3) For MIB checking, can the type of module be specified (such as
module originally in SMIv1, but converted to SMIv2; MIB module
for IETF standards track, etc) because the "rules are different".
4) Does the tool check versions of modules, including splitting
or combining definitions to/from several modules? (That is,
check if the modifications from collection 1 of MIB modules
to create collection 2 of MIB modules is valid, and summarize
the changes.)
5) What types of outputs are available, such as C code for agents,
diagrams, conversion to another SMI version, pretty printed module,
etc.
6) Verification that a MIB module does not conflict with a collection
of other MIB modules. For example, "descriptors" in IETF MIB
modules have to be unique, but the descriptor in an enterprise
MIB module does not have to be unique from descriptors in MIB
modules from the IETF (or other enterprises). Or, that OID values
used for registration are globally unique.
7) Does the tool set have a "MIB editor" to assist creation and
modification of MIB modules, and is the editor GUI or text based?
8) Does the tool set have a mechanism to associate new information
fields with definitions from MIB modules, such as adding field
"short description" to definitions of object types? And a way
to populate the values of the additional fields?
9) Does the tool set have the capability to search a collection of
MIB modules for the value of a field, such as find all object types
whose descriptor matches a specified regex? Or find all items
whose description text matches a regex? Or find all tables
that use a specific object in the INDEX or AUGMENTS clause?
Regards,
/david t. perkins