MIB Browser
To work with SNMP, network devices utilize a data store called the Management Information Base (MIB), a hierarchical collection of device attributes organized in tree format. Each attribute contains a name, object identifier (numeric value), data type, and indication of whether the value associated with the object can be read from and/or written to. Some attributes are fixed or “hard coded” while others are dynamic values calculated by software running on the device. The MIB Browser enables users to browse MIB details and query devices with snmpget. To access the MIB browser, select Tools > MIB Browser.
Figure 1: MIB Browser
A number of MIB modules are preloaded into the software, and are listed in the left pane of the MIB Browser. Each module is a collection of the descriptions of all the manageable features.
To load new MIB subtrees, download the appropriate MIB files from the appropriate router vendor. Then click MIB > Load MIB... to select the MIB file. Note that there may be some dependencies among MIBs in which case certain MIBs need to be loaded first.
To unload a MIB subtree, select the MIB and click MIB > Unload MIB.To unload all MIBs not originally installed with the software, click MIB > Unload All User MIBs. (This may be desired if there are conflicts between different MIB files.) After unloading MIBs, close and reopen the MIB browser to clear the cache.
The MIBs can alternately be displayed using the Module or Module Identity field by selecting MIB > Organize > by Module or MIB > Organize > by Module Identity. Additionally, the tree can be organized by OID, by selecting MIB > Organize > by OID as shown below.
Figure 2: MIB Browser Organized by OID
The MIB Detail tab contains details such as the Object Type, OID, Syntax, Access, Status, and Description while the Access Device tab provides users with a means of querying the router for MIB data. Click the MIB Detail tab and then click any object from the MIB tree to view details about the MIB.
Different icons and colors are used in the MIB tree to differentiate the object types and statuses. Object types are shown in Table 1.
Table 1: MIB Browser Object Types
Object Type | Icon |
|---|---|
Module (top level) or Object Identifier object type: Folder icon |  |
Notification object type: Trap/Loud Speaker Icon. |  |
Notification Group and Object Group object type: Package Icon. |  |
Compliance object type: Light green circle. |  |
Table: Grid Icon. |  |
Table Row: Grid icon with orange row. |  |
Obsolete or Deprecated status: Yellow ball. |  |
Not Accessible status: Red ball. |  |
Textual Convention: Blue square. |  |
Others: Green ball. |  |
Obtaining SNMP Mib Information
- To obtain the SNMP MIB information from a device, select the Access Device tab and enter in the IP address, or click the magnifying glass to the right of the IP Address field and select a router to automatically populate the IP Address field.
- Enter in the Read Community string. If this field is left empty, the default value “public” will be used.
- Select the appropriate SNMP version (1, 2c, or 3) by clicking
the SNMP button at the bottom of the window. To determine which version
of SNMP is supported by the router, check the router’s config
file. For SNMP version 3, additional fields can be specified, including
User Name, Authentication type and Authentication password, and Privacy
type and Privacy password.
Figure 3: SNMP Version 3 Options
- Select an item from the left pane that you want to collect information for, or search for the item via MIB > Find... (F5) and MIB>Find Next (F3). This will automatically populate the OID in the Access Device tab on the right pane.
- If the IP/MPLSView jump server package has been installed and is needed as an intermediate hop before reaching the router, then specify the remote collection server machine’s IP address as the Proxy IP and 1099 and the Proxy Port.
- Click “Retrieve > Get” to get the
data for a selected OID. To stepthrough the OIDs, continue clicking
“Retrieve > Get Next.” To get all of the child OIDs associated
with the selected parent OID, click “Retrieve > Get All
(Text)”. The details will be shown in the Results section.
To clear the results view, click “Clear.”
Figure 4: MIB Browser
- To retrieve every OID within a table click on the table
icon and then select “Retrieve > Get All (Table)”. After all the data is collected, it will be displayed in table
format.
Figure 5: Retrieving All OIDs Under ifXEntry
