InterWorking Labs Announces the Release of SilverCreek 7.1, the SNMP Test Suite; New Features for MIB Manipulation, XML Output, DOCSIS Support and AGENT-CAPABILITIES.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

InterWorking Labs, developers of state-of-the-art tests for computer networking standards compliance, today announced the release of SilverCreek, 7.1, the SNMP Test Suite, with several new features and capabilities.

New Features in SilverCreek 7.1

Test Operation Enhancements

New with the release of 7.1 is the ability to specify a range of MIB objects for testing. The scoping feature is now expanded to include multiple selections for MIB objects to be tested. The tester may now scope a range of variables, a MIB branch, or multiple combinations of the two. This allows the tester to easily and automatically focus on key problem areas, or work around other areas.

AGENT-CAPABILITIES statements may be specified during testing. SilverCreek will automatically check your agent based on the loaded MIBs and AGENT-CAPABILITIES statements, which specify various implementation variations. If your agent does not strictly conform to the specification due to implementation choices, and you have noted these changes in your AGENT-CAPABILITIES statement, SilverCreek will now interpret that statement, and run tests according to the capabilities of your agent.

The tester may now select a configurable number of errors before a test fails out. SilverCreek will retry a test that failed against an agent to account for network abnormalities. In certain cases, where the tester knows that a certain category of test will fail, the tester can set the number of errors before a failure, and this will automatically be applied to each test.

The tester has the option to add a sysUpTime check before and after each test to ensure the agent/system did not reboot during the middle of a test. This provides for more control and accuracy in test results and guards against the need to repeat inconclusive test results.

New Test Result Enhancements

Large test departments may now display their test results on their internal intranet using the XML result facility. SilverCreek now permits testers to save standard text test results and journal files results in XML formatted output. Default style sheets are included and may be used for the department to customize its own particular color and style. A DTD file is provided as well for tag reference and parsing ability.

The tester may now save the agent's MIB walked variables after running the corresponding SNMP version MIB walk test. These MIB walk variables are exportable to a file. This provides a "snapshot" in time to verify basic agent functionality.

MIB Handling Enhancements

For testers who must rapidly add and delete large numbers of MIBs for every device under test, the new MIB store enhancement permits the deleting of a loaded MIB at run time. Using this feature will remove the definitions from the MIB store held in SilverCreek as well as remove the files from the current MIBs directory.

The tester may save the MIB compilation and load information (or errors) to a text file by simply selecting the save button on the MIB loading information window. This is useful for more detailed analysis of highly error prone MIBs.

SMIv1 Textual Conventions can be IMPORTED as SMIv2 Textual Conventions, just like any other object type without objection from the MIB compiler. This allows more flexibility and less work for the tester in utilizing these declarations in SMIv2 MIBs.

For testers using the SilverCreek API to write test scripts, two newly added APIs allow you to retrieve information from the loaded MIB store. You can use them both in the private test scripts, which are run under SilverCreek GUI or from an external tcl8.3 shell.

                snmpinfo mibprop name/oid children
                    This command will return a list of all nodes under
                    the given name/oid in the loaded MIB store. For
                    example, you can use it to determine what columnar
                    objects defined in a table.

                snmpinfo mibprop name/oid parent
                   This command will return the parent node of the
                   specified name/oid.

For the testing of DOCSIS-compliant cable modem and cable modem termination systems, SilverCreek now includes the Diffie-Helman module and associated cable modem tests. (It is no longer in a separate package.) Under the Tools menu, a Diffie-Helman Utility option allows the tester to generate a Random Number and Public Value and to do a DOCSIS Diffie-Helman Initialization. The context configuration dialogue includes an SNMPv3 and Diffie-Helman selection and the associated test suite is listed in the main window.

Self-contained Help Enhancements

New self-contained help system is included with SilverCreek. The new system provides several enhancements in speed, search-ability, and content.

About InterWorking Labs

InterWorking Labs, developers of state-of-the-art products for computer networking standards compliance, provides solutions for testing and interoperability of network protocols. SilverCreek, the official SNMP Test Suite, verifies correct operation of SNMP agents and their standard and private MIBs. Boreal, the SNMP Vulnerability Test Suite verifies the robustness of network devices in the face of SNMP vulnerabilities.

InterWorking Labs has its offices at:

4113 Scotts Valley Drive Suite 200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066-4547
Voice:[phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
http: www.iwl.com

SilverCreek and InterWorking Labs are registered trademarks of InterWorking Labs, Inc.