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From this article you learn how SNMP operations can be done by consuming the open source SNMP API. A question then is what values MIB documents provide, as they are said to be an important part of SNMP protocol but not seem to be utilized anywhere if we solely use #SNMP Library.

Well, a rough answer is MIB documents mean everything,

• They tell what each object identifiers (OID) mean.
• They tell which OID is for a table, a row, and a column.
• They tell which kind of data we should expect for an object, OCTET STRING or any other valid types.

Thus, a MIB specific library such as SharpSnmpPro.Mib can help build a much more powerful SNMP manager.



Now let us see a few examples.

MIB Document Compilation

The following code shows how to compile several essential MIB documents and load the metadata into memory,

var registry = new SimpleObjectRegistry();
var collector = new ErrorRegistry();
registry.Tree.Collector = collector;
registry.Import(Parser.Compile(new MemoryStream(Resources.SNMPv2_SMI), collector));
registry.Import(Parser.Compile(new MemoryStream(Resources.SNMPv2_CONF), collector));
registry.Import(Parser.Compile(new MemoryStream(Resources.SNMPv2_TC), collector));
registry.Import(Parser.Compile(new MemoryStream(Resources.SNMPv2_MIB), collector));
registry.Import(Parser.Compile(new MemoryStream(Resources.SNMPv2_TM), collector));
registry.Refresh();

SimpleObjectRegistry is a class that holds metadata in memory. It can be used to import metadata generated via Parser.Compile. ErrorRegistry is the container of errors and warnings. When SimpleObjectRegistry.Refresh is called, all errors and warnings can be found in the ErrorRegistry instance, to help you identify why some MIB documents cannot be compiled or imported.

Name/OID Translation

The translation is two-way. You can convert from names to OIDs or vice verse.

const string textual = "SNMPv2-SMI::zeroDotZero";
var number = new uint[] { 0, 0 };
Assert.AreEqual(textual, registry.Translate(number));
Assert.AreEqual(number, registry.Translate(textual));

Extract Object Identifier Metadata

Once all metadata are loaded in a SimpleObjectRegistry instance we can easily extract the information for individual objects,

Definition item = registry.Tree.Find("SNMPv2-MIB", "sysDescr");
IEntity entity = item.DisplayEntity;
Assert.AreEqual("A textual description of the entity.  This value should include the full name and version identification of the system's hardware type, software operating-system, and networking software.", entity.DescriptionFormatted());
Assert.AreEqual(EntityStatus.Current, entity.Status);
Assert.AreEqual(string.Empty, entity.Reference);

var obj = entity as IObjectTypeMacro;
Assert.AreEqual(Access.ReadOnly, obj.MibAccess);
Assert.AreEqual(SnmpType.OctetString, obj.BaseSyntax);

We can see that if we are looking for SNMPv2-MIB::sysDescr (whose OID is 1.3.6.1.2.1.1.1), we can use SimpleObjectRegistry.Tree.Find method to locate the Definition instance. Each such instance contains one or more IEntity instances to match their entity definition in MIB documents.

From Definition.DisplayEntity we can get one of the entities, and check its properties such as IEntity.DescriptionFormatted, IEntity.Status, and IEntity.Reference.

Since SNMPv2-MIB::sysDescr is an OBJECT-TYPE macro entity, we can further cast it to IObjectTypeMacro to access more properties, such as IObjectTypeMacro.MibAccess and IObjectTypeMacro.BaseSyntax. It is obvious that the data type of SNMPv2-MIB::sysDescr is OCTET STRING.

There are of course other properties you can review, which are documented online at http://help.sharpsnmp.com. Note that our trial version limits which attributes you can see, while the full version does not have such limitations.

Table Validation

With MIB documents, it is very easy to determine if an OID is a table.

var table = new ObjectIdentifier(new uint[] { 1, 3, 6, 1, 2, 1, 1, 9 });
var entry = new ObjectIdentifier(new uint[] { 1, 3, 6, 1, 2, 1, 1, 9, 1 });
var unknown = new ObjectIdentifier(new uint[] { 1, 3, 6, 8, 18579, 111111 });
Assert.IsTrue(registry.ValidateTable(table));
Assert.IsFalse(registry.ValidateTable(entry));
Assert.IsFalse(registry.ValidateTable(unknown));

Data Validation

In SNMP managers or agents, it is a common need to determine if a piece of data is valid for an OID. Various constraints can be defined at MIB document level, but it is often difficult to extract that from the files. With a few lines of code you can now do that

Assert.IsTrue(registry.Verify("SNMPv2-MIB", "sysDescr", new OctetString("test")));
Assert.IsTrue(registry.Verify("SNMPv2-MIB", "sysDescr", new OctetString(string.Empty)));
Assert.IsFalse(registry.Verify("SNMPv2-MIB", "sysDescr", new Integer32(2)));

We can easily test if the data is valid for SNMPv2-MIB::sysDescr. Note that our trial version does only support data validation against a limited set of default types (defined in core MIB documents), while the full version supports even custom types such as BITS, CiscoRowOperStatus, and CiscoPort.

Complete Sample Project

The Full Edition is sent to registered users only via emails, and is packaged up with #SNMP Library 8.5. So below are the assemblies in the ZIP package,

• SharpSnmpPro.Mib.dll
• SharpSnmpLib.Full.dll
• SharpSnmpLib.Portable.dll

To test it out, we reuse the default test projects for Trial Edition, which can be found at GitHub. It can be cloned to a local folder, such as D:\sharpsnmppro-sample.

git clone https://github.com/lextm/sharpsnmppro-sample.git

Then the assemblies can be copied to that folder (D:\sharpsnmppro-sample for example).

Tests.csproj is an NUnit project that shows the below,

• How to compile and load MIB documents.
• How to query entity by name.
• How to check description of entities.
• How to verify data against entities. (note that the trial edition only support simple entities, while the full edition supports all entities).
• How to check OBJECT-TYPE macro specific properties.

To make the test project work with Full Edition, the following changes need to be made,

• Remove the original reference to SharpSnmpPro.Mib.Trial.dll.
• Add a new reference to SharpSnmpPro.Mib.dll.
• Modify sharpsnmppro.txt following the instructions in the email.
• Remove TRIAL from "Conditional compilation symbols", which then enables Full Edition only test cases.

The class reference documentation can be downloaded from here.