Gambit Communications Blog

Social Security Administration is looking for an NMS system

2012-01-20T10:56:00.001-08:00

The Social Security Administration just issued a RFI for a
"Enterprise Network Monitoring and Event Correlation System".
From the requirements:

" ...
- Provide continuous availability monitoring of 20,000 devices polling
each device every 4 minutes or less.

- Monitor at least 700,000 network adapters for availability every 4
minutes and for performance problems every 15 minutes or less.
..."

How can you assure that your solution satisfies the requirements of such
a large-scale installation? Run it in a simulated environment provided
by MIMIC Simulator.

MIMIC allows you to build a simulated network environment to exercise
any standards-based network management system. With protocol support
for SNMP, Telnet, SSH, Cisco IOS, SYSLOG, NetFlow, etc; point-and-click
snapshots of existing network infrastructure; recording and replication
of network elements, MIMIC can cost-effectively recreate networks with
tens of thousands of nodes for your testing and demos.

New Year offer: practice 1 week for your CCNA for $9

2011-12-28T10:36:00.000-08:00

Would you like to practice for your CCNA on the same simulator used by training centers like Kaplan / Selftest?

http://www.selftestsoftware.com/gen.aspx?pn=p00555&pf=page

We have a limited New Year promotion: rent your own MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud CCNA practice lab for less than half the regular price: $9 for one week. Valid until Monday January 9, 2012 only on our Facebook wall

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/CCNA-Lab-Simulation/155028001250199

Have a prosperous 2012!

Gambit Communications Receives International Green Apple Award - Winner - Fourth Year in a Row

2011-12-01T11:46:00.000-08:00

MIMIC Simulator Simulates 50,000 Devices in One Machine, Saving Electricity Requirements By 90 Percent

Nashua, NH - November 29, 2011 -- Gambit Communications, a leading provider of network simulation tools, has been announced as a winner of the prestigious International Green Apple Environment Award in The Green Organisation's international campaign to find the world's greenest companies. The Award was in recognition of Gambit's environmentally friendly product - MIMIC Simulator, that creates a greener environment by simulating 50,000 networking and storage devices in one machine.

The trophy was presented by The Green Organisation at 18th annual international awards ceremony at the House of Commons, London on Monday, November 14th. This is the forth time in a row that Gambit was honored with the award. Gambit competed against more than 500 other nominations.

The Green Apple Awards are presented annually in recognition of companies, councils and communities carrying out projects that are environmentally friendly; there were 500 nominations this year. Other winners include Coca-Cola, BP, Ford and McDonalds.

More details at http://www.gambitcomm.com/site/pr/mimic_Green_Apple_award_PR_11.htm

Are you ready for the CCNA exam?

2011-11-23T06:52:00.001-08:00

Determine in a couple of minutes whether there is a missing skill that could prevent
you from passing the CCNA certification exam. Your only investment is a couple of clicks.
No extraneous software to install or configure, connect to the lab in under one minute.
.
MIMIC Virtual Lab CCNA at http://www.gambitcomm.com/live has a list
of challenges to test your skills. For example:

Enable IPv6 connectivity between router1 and router2 over the serial interface connecting
them, so that you can ping each other's IPv6 address.

Use IPv6 subnet 2001:A10:1:10::/64 for this exercise. What are the IOS commands necessary
to accomplish this? Obviously, your last command would be a successful ping command.

Anatomy of a virtual network management training appliance

2011-10-19T11:49:00.000-07:00

Overview

Traditionally, providing a training lab for network management software meant setting up a physical environment featuring the desired variety of networking equipment to cover the training curriculum. Furthermore, certain training scenarios required complicated setup, and required travel to a training site, or time-sharing of central facilities. These limitations made such training cost prohibitive, both for the provider and student, resulting in less than adequate training.

With the advent of ubiquitous virtual machines (VMs) and network simulation, training labs can be provisioned cost-effectively by implementing virtual training appliances on either public or private clouds. Bundling the management app and MIMIC Simulator on a VM image, allows the training provider to instantiate as many training labs as needed at any point in time, and for the student to access the training environment over the Internet whenever and as long as needed.

Benefits of cloud based training

Besides the obvious benefits of reduced customer support, higher customer satisfaction and more customer loyalty (thus, repeat business), here are some additional advantages of appliance-based training:

On-demand pre-sales training can be used for application evaluation. With a larger variety of scenarios, training can be tailored to the customers needs.

Partner training reduces the sales cycle and improves closing rate by better demonstrating features that specifically solve customer requirements

Implementation

MIMIC Simulator is a software suite including SNMP simulation designed to accurately create virtual environments to interoperate with network management applications. This simulator is already used in a multi-tenant cloud offering called MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud, with on-demand training pods for Cisco CCNA training from training houses like Kaplan IT/Transcender. This offering leverages the Cisco IOS simulation features of MIMIC toward low-cost CCNA training. OEMs layer their own training curriculum on top of the virtual lab.

The virtual training appliance can easily be implemented as an on-demand, single-tenant offering. Similarly to traditional software installations, the network management application is installed in a VM along with MIMIC Simulator. The simulator transparently provides a scalable, dynamic network environment to be managed by the application. The student does not even need to know what is running behind the scenes.

Setting up a training environment and all feature-specific scenarios can be a significant task. It can be alleviated by leveraging the work of the engineering folks. R&D and Quality Assurance departments already test network management applications against MIMIC Simulator. They setup the simulator to provide predictable, repeatable, regressionable scenarios that run the management software through its paces. Those scenarios can be adapted for training.

An extra customization adds a simple training scaffold to provide the student a user-friendly choice of scenarios to train on. Each scenario configures the simulator to create a particular network configuration and traffic patterns to impact the management application. For example, a faulty configuration can be simulated to train troubleshooting procedures.

Once a snapshot of this VM is saved, any number of independent instances can be provisioned for the required training periods. The cloud framework isolates each of the VMs from each other, preventing them from impacting each other.

Summary

A combination of MIMIC Simulator and network management application bundled on a virtual machine provides cost-effective, on-demand training tailored to customer needs. Deploying this appliance on the public cloud scales the training resources at incremental and predictable cost.

Contact Gambit’s support to help you setup a virtual appliance for your training.

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 11.30 interoperability testing

2011-10-18T06:42:00.000-07:00

Screenshots below show SNMP simulation activity on virtual machines running
the MEPIS 11.0 and openSuSE 11.4 LXDE flavors of Linux.

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 11.30 performance for 50,000 agents

2011-09-30T07:57:00.000-07:00

We have run our standard performance tests on our V40z quad dual-core
server with 32GB RAM running Fedora 13, and there is no performance
degradation for 50,000 active agents.

MIMIC Simulator rent-to-own program

2011-09-14T09:25:00.000-07:00

You asked for it and we listened.

In order to alleviate the up-front cost of using MIMIC SNMP Simulator
software in these tough economic times, we are announcing a rental program
with option to acquire the software: rent MIMIC on a monthly basis for 10%
of the cost of the software, and have the option to acquire the software
at the end of 10 months.

MIMIC allows you to test the scalability of your application against 50,000
devices and all possible pathological network scenarios.

This program gives you the most advantages: like a lay-away program it
allows you to spread payments over time, except you get the benefits of
the product before completing the payment plan. This offer is available
for a limited time only.

For details, please visit http://www.gambitcomm.com .

Practice for your CCNA and win cash

2011-09-07T09:13:00.000-07:00

Get ready for your CCNA: A new contest with $70 grand prize

http://www.gambitcommunications.com/contest/

and win the contest by answering this question:

Log on to router1, and verify that you can ping 10.201.1.10 on switch1.

Using the "Connection" menu, disconnect the Ethernet link between router1
and switch1 (simulating a link failure).

Notice the console message. Send us a copy of the log message

that is generated.

Verify that you cannot ping 10.201.1.10 any more.

What commands do you need to execute to re-route traffic to reach
10.201.1.10? Your final command should be a successful ping.

Hint: you only need to execute commands on router1.

-------------------------------

Rules:

The contest is open until Friday September 30, 2011 at 12pm EDT.
Email your answer to us at contest-20110907@gambitcomm.com .
At that time we will conduct a random drawing of the correct entries.
The grand prize is USD $50 cash transfer via Paypal or USD $50 gift card
to Amazon (your choice) plus one free week of MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud ($20
value), and 4 second prize winners will win a free week of MIMIC Virtual
Lab Cloud (USD $20 value) to practice their skills. We will announce
the winners on this forum. Previous winners of our contests are excluded.

Good luck!

Double the CCNA practice time on MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud

2011-08-11T08:14:00.000-07:00

For a short time, we have increased demo pod time from 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Practice for your CCNA for free!

http://www.gambitcomm.com/live/

Scale with MIMIC Simulator and get 30,000 additional devices

2011-08-03T11:41:00.000-07:00

Gambit Communications has a special for this month.

Buy a MIMIC SNMP Simulator 20,000 agent license and you will get
a *FREE upgrade to 50,000 agent* license instead.

You will get a scalable lab the way you always wanted, filled with
thousands of devices without spending your entire capital budget.
You will be able to test the scalability of your management applications
with 30,000 more devices.

Please use the promo code: *August11 *
This promotion is valid until August 31st, 2011.

Best Regards,

Tested MIMIC 11.20 on VectorLinux 7.0 RC1

2011-08-02T07:27:00.000-07:00

FYI, we ran MIMIC SNMP Simulator 11.20 with no problems on VectorLinux 7.0RC1.
Below is a screenshot of an agent with a SNMP simulation being accessed.

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 11.20 runs on Fedora 15 LXDE spin

2011-08-01T07:40:00.000-07:00

FYI, MIMIC SNMP Simulator 11.20 runs out of the box on the recently released Fedora 15 LXDE spin.
Previous reports have demonstrated MIMIC operating on a variety of Linuxes.
This demonstrates that MIMIC can run well on the most recent Linux distributions.
The screenshot below shows a SNMP simulation being queried remotely.

Gambit Facebook followers weekly drawing for 1-week CCNA pod ($20 value)

2011-07-20T05:45:00.001-07:00

Like the "Gambit Communications" Facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nashua-NH/Gambit-Communications-Inc/105269342840455

and be automatically entered in a weekly drawing for a 1-week CCNA
practice pod ($20 value). This promotion runs until September 1, 2011.
We'll announce the weekly winner on our wall.

Get ready for your CCNA: A new contest with $70 grand prize

2011-07-07T06:19:00.000-07:00

We are announcing a new contest, free to all.

All correct answers will be entered in a drawing for a grand prize valued
at $70 ($50 cash transfer + 1 week rental CCNA pod), and four other prizes
for free rental of our Cisco CCNA lab. No need to fill out any forms.

To enter, connect to your free demo pod at

http://www.gambitcommunications.com/contest/

and win the contest by answering this question:

- enable IPv6 connectivity between router1 and router2 over the serial
interface connecting them, so that you can ping each other's IPv6
address.

Use IPv6 subnet 2001:A10:1:10::/64 for this exercise. What are the IOS
commands necessary to accomplish this? Obviously, your last command
would be a successful ping command.

-------------------------------

Rules:

The contest is open until Tuesday July 20, 2011 at 12pm EDT.
Email your answer to us at contest-20110706@gambitcomm.com .
At that time we will conduct a random drawing of the correct entries.

The grand prize is USD $50 cash transfer via Paypal or USD $50 gift card
to Amazon (your choice) plus one free week of MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud ($20
value), and 4 second prize winners will win a free week of MIMIC Virtual
Lab Cloud (USD $20 value) to practice their skills. We will announce
the winners on this forum. Previous winners of our contests are excluded.

To see winners of our previous contests, just search for "contest" in this
forum.

Regards, and good luck!

Changing statistics values in MIMIC SNMP Simulator

2011-06-22T10:31:00.000-07:00

FYI, we have published a new instructional video

"Changing statistics values in MIMIC SNMP Simulator"

which shows how to easily change specific statistics counters and
visualize them in a management application.

The video is at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0HU8P0MVz8

Follow us on Facebook to be the first to hear about our latest news and promotions.

Study for the Cisco CCNA certification and win cash

2011-06-01T07:15:00.000-07:00

We are announcing a new contest, free to all.

All correct answers will be entered in a drawing for a grand prize valued
at $70 ($50 cash transfer + 1 week rental CCNA pod), and four other prizes
for free rental of our Cisco CCNA lab. No need to fill out any forms.

To enter connect to your free demo pod at

http://www.gambitcommunications.com/contest/

and win the contest by answering this question:

1) log onto the console of "Switch 2" and reset the running config using
these commands:

erase nvram:
reload

2) once the device reboots, implement the configuration to connect it
to both uplink switches and "Router 2".

NOTE: Saving the running config before the reload and restoring it
afterwards is NOT what we are looking for!

3) verify connectivity with 3 ping commands.

What are the commands necessary for steps 2 and 3?

Hint: you only need to execute commands on switch2.

-------------------------------

Rules:

The contest is open until Tuesday June 7, 2011 at 12pm EDT.
Email your answer to us at contest-20110524@gambitcomm.com .
At that time we will conduct a random drawing of the correct entries.

The grand prize is USD $50 cash transfer via Paypal or USD $50 gift card
to Amazon (your choice) plus one free week of MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud ($20
value), and 4 second prize winners will win a free week of MIMIC Virtual
Lab Cloud (USD $20 value) to practice their skills. We will announce
the winners on this forum. Previous winners of our contests are excluded.

To see winners of our previous contests, just search for "contest" in this
forum.

Regards, and good luck!

Gambit Communications
Developers of MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud and MIMIC SNMP Simulator

MIMIC SNMP Simulator at Tokyo Interop

2011-05-26T05:59:00.000-07:00

If you are planning to visit Interop in Tokyo -

http://www.interop.jp/2011/english/index.html

please stop by at our Booth # 4M14.

You will see how the latest version MIMIC Simulator is working with
management applications. You will also get to see MIMIC Netflow
Simulator in action.

Hope to see you there.

MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud integrates Twitter-based real-time chat

2011-05-24T09:13:00.000-07:00

Gambit Communications' online CCNA lab product now integrates a
real-time chat feature based on Twitter that allows its users to exchange
messages in real-time in order to swap tips, ask questions, give advice.

The new real-time chat feature is provided by Nurph, a Twitter application.
It transparently opens another window in the user's browser, allowing
them to use their Twitter account to chat with other online users that are
practicing for the CCNA. This introduces a new collaborative atmosphere
to studying for the Cisco CCNA exam.

MIMIC Simulator helps Fed Tech to provide Network Management Solutions to Federal Customers

2011-05-19T08:21:00.000-07:00

"MIMIC Simulator provides the network environment that is utilized by FTS to engineer holistic solutions that exceed customer standards and expectations while remaining under budget and on time ", Jason Pulfer, VP Service Delivery, FedTech Services, Inc.

For details on how MIMIC SNMP Simulator is used to support FedTech Services see

http://www.gambitcomm.com/site/news/news_files/MIMIC_FedTech_Case_Study.pdf

MIMIC SNMP Simulator now supports SNMPv4...

2011-04-01T11:04:00.000-07:00

... in order to take advantage of the new IPv8 256-bit addresses
and AES512 encryption.

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 11.00 now supported on Oracle Solaris 11

2011-03-22T14:08:00.000-07:00

FYI, we have verified that MIMIC SNMP Simulator runs on Oracle Solaris 11.

Cheating on certification exams is nothing new

2011-02-23T06:44:00.000-08:00

The recent Network World article on cheating should remind us that certifications
and diplomas are really just claims of knowledge. This topic was covered more
than 2 years ago in this Network World article, so is nothing new, except to point
out that the problem has not gotten better.

What is the prospective employer to do? Take the certification and diplomas with
a grain of salt, and do your due diligence. Interviews should uncover whether the
candidate actually possesses the knowledge the diploma purports. If they claim
knowledge of Cisco IOS, ask the right questions, then sit them in front of a IOS
simulator such as MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud and have them solve a simple problem,
such as the one in this contest.

MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud is a SaaS-based CCNA practice lab powered by MIMIC
SNMP Simulator. Students can access their own Cisco IOS practice lab anytime
from anywhere, even from their Apple iPhone.

Internet runs out of addresses

2011-02-07T07:53:00.000-08:00

The Number Resource Organization (NRO) just announced the depletion of IPv4 addresses.

If you think of IPv4 addresses as a land-grab, then the days of cheap real-estate are done, and
IPv4 addresses just became more valuable. Organizations will have to either pay more
for addresses, or find some new land in IPv6, as explained in this article. The transition to IPv6
will take a while, and will be fraught with pain.

Gambit's products will help organizations in this transition, by simulating IPv6 environments.
MIMIC SNMP Simulator can create large IPv6 networks to develop and test network management
applications and customizations. MIMIC IOS Simulator and Virtual Lab allow training on IPv6
IOS commands and policies.

Cash for academic achievement: contest on MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud

2011-02-04T07:09:00.000-08:00

There is a recent trend towards rewarding academic achievement with cash.
We are joining the bandwagon by applying the same principle for CCNA
certification:

We are announcing a new contest, free to all on our MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud:

All correct answers will be entered in a drawing for a grand prize valued
at $70 ($50 cash transfer + 1 week rental CCNA practice pod), and four other
prizes for free rental of our Cisco CCNA lab. No need to fill out any forms.

To enter:

- connect to your free demo pod at

http://www.gambitcommunications.com/contest/

and win the contest by answering this question:

Log on to router1, and verify that you can ping 10.201.1.10 on switch1.

Using the "Connection" menu, disconnect the Ethernet link between router1
and switch1 (simulating a link failure).

Notice the console message.

Verify that you cannot ping 10.201.1.10 any more.

What commands do you need to execute to re-route traffic to reach
10.201.1.10? Your final command should be a successful ping.

Hint: you only need to execute commands on router1.

-------------------------------

Rules:

The contest is open until Friday February 18, 2011 at 12pm EDT.
Email your answer to us at contest-20110204@gambitcomm.com .
At that time we will conduct a random drawing of the correct entries.
The grand prize is USD $50 cash transfer via Paypal or USD $50 gift card
to Amazon (your choice) plus one free week of MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud ($20
value), and 4 second prize winners will win a free week of MIMIC Virtual
Lab Cloud (USD $20 value) to practice their skills. We will announce
the winners as follow-up to this posting. Previous winners of our contests are
excluded.

MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud now supports SSH access

2011-01-26T08:47:00.000-08:00

You were already able to login to simulated Cisco devices on the console
and via Telnet to practice IOS commands for your CCNA certification. This
Youtube clip demonstrates SSH access to devices in a CCNA pod on
MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5u5_EnhO2Y

or search for "ccna pod ssh access" (without double-quotes).

MIMIC 11.00 released - new NetFlow Simulator, 50,000 agents

2011-01-11T08:30:00.000-08:00

There is a new release of MIMIC Simulation Suite, version 11.00. New features
include:

MIMIC NetFlow Simulator
50,000 agents simulated on one box (instead of previous limit of 20,000)
UDP support in MIMIC Server Simulator

The NetFlow Simulator in combination with SNMP Simulator allows simulating large
flow-based monitoring environments. MIMIC Simulator is the engine behind Gambit's
24/7 SaaS offering for Cisco CCNA practice labs, MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud. With MIMIC
scaling to 50,000 devices, it enables Cisco training organizations to provide thousands of
CCNA lab pods running simultaneously. UDP support in the Server Simulator allows
proxying of scores of DNS servers, for example.

The complete press release with more details is at

http://www.gambitcomm.com/site/news/press_release.shtml

Kaplan IT / Transcender recommends MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud

2010-12-14T14:32:00.000-08:00

Did you know that Kaplan IT / Transcender is using IOS simulation provided
by MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud from Gambit Communications for its CCNA
practice courses? Find out here.

MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud is based on MIMIC Simulator, the premier SNMP simulation product.

iCCNAlab 5.50 for Apple iPhone / iPod / iPad

2010-11-19T07:23:00.000-08:00

We have just released a new version of the iCCNAlab app for Apple
iPhone / iPod / iPad. The app provides the user interface to CCNA practice
labs. These are on-line labs simulated by MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud. The
new version sports a much improved interface, including the new
"learn-by-example" frame which shows what other users are currently
doing in their pods.

Gambit's MIMIC Virtual Lab along with the Cisco certification course
material provide you a complete package for your Cisco CCNA training.
You have access to a virtual practice lab of Cisco routers and switches
to explore troubleshooting scenarios and apply classroom coursework at
your own pace, anywhere, anytime.

Using your Apple mobile device, you can access the lab and can quickly begin
practicing a large set of Cisco IOS commands on various Cisco Routers and
Switches. These devices are connected using LAN, WAN and Serial links.
You can interact with the lab network, just like they are accessing real
devices. At the same time you can experiment with different
configurations on the devices and network without worrying about
misconfiguring them, at a fraction of the cost of a physical lab. In addition, you
also have access to these labs through any web browser, which gives you the
added choice and flexibility to practice your course work from anywhere.

Below is a sample pod session on an iPad.

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.30 runs on Fedora 14 LXDE spin

2010-11-15T11:52:00.000-08:00

FYI we ran MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.30 out of the box on this popular Fedora spin.

The screenshot shows an SNMP simulation being discovered.

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.30 runs on Puppy Linux 5.1.1

2010-11-12T07:42:00.000-08:00

FYI, MIMIC Simulator 10.30 runs out of the box on Puppy Linux 5.1.1.
Previous reports have demonstrated MIMIC operating on a variety of Linuxes.
This demonstrates that MIMIC can run well on the smallest of Linux distributions.
The screenshot below shows an agent being queried remotely.

MIMIC 10.30 Performance Test Report: Linux vs. Windows

2010-11-11T09:43:00.000-08:00

FYI, we have just published a new MIMIC Simulator 10.30 Performance Report

"Fedora 13 vs. Windows Server 2003"

This report is part of a series meant to answer the question "which
combination of hardware and software performs the best for a particular
SNMP simulation scenario?".

The summary is:
"...
This report documents the performance differences between the recently
released Fedora 13 and Windows Server 2003.

Previous performance reports had established Windows Server 2003 as the
clearly best performing Windows platform to run MIMIC on. This report
establishes how much faster MIMIC 10.30 runs under Fedora 13.

The first table shows the difference for the 64-bit executable
performance between Windows Server 2003 (left) and Fedora 13 (right).
Fedora 13 greatly outperforms Windows 2003 everywhere (green cells) by
as much as 24-fold at 20,000 agents.

The second table shows the difference for the 32-bit executable
performance. The difference is not as dramatic here. While Windows 2003
is better than Fedora 13 between 3% and 5% for 4 cells at the low end
(red cells), Fedora 13 greatly outperforms Windows 2003 everywhere else
(green cells) by as much as 7-fold at 10,000 agents.
..."

Please contact support@gambitcomm.com for details.

Options for CCNA study

2010-10-07T12:28:00.000-07:00

Options for CCNA study
Usually you get what you pay for, sometimes less, rarely more

The aspiring CCNA certificant has a multitude of options to study
for their CCNA. The logical choices largely depend on the individual's
current skillset, their talent, and their future aspirations for after
their certificate.

Choices range (sorted largely by price) from

illegal braindumps, to
no-cost study guides, practice labs, to
emulators like GNS3, to
pirated versions of PacketTracer, to
renting racks, to
low-cost simulators, to
books, to
refurbished hardware on eBay, to
full-fledged courses by established training houses, etc.

All of these approaches have their pros and cons. Combinations or
sequences of any of these are usually applied towards achieving the
certification.

First, the CCNA student has to ask themselves whether they want to
only get the certificate, or actually learn the material. Assuming
the latter, that would eliminate choices like the braindumps.

The next issue is how much effort the student wants to invest in ancillary
tasks, like installing software, setting up labs, dealing with incorrect
material, etc. that have nothing to do with the curriculum.

The last decision is about "bang for the buck": what is the cheapest
combination of these choices that will lead to success? This is a tough
question, because each individual learns differently, and we are talking
about probabilities: will the effort and the method I invest in result in
a passing grade in the test, and ultimately in learning the material?

This is also about wasted effort: what parts of the approach are
unproductive towards the certification? Will a solution costing hundreds
(if not thousands) of dollars lead to more success than one costing less
than a hundred dollars? What is the hidden cost of the free option?

For example, while free study guides such as Matt Basham's "Learning
by Doing: CISCO Certified Network Administrator (CCNA) Lab Manual"
provide a good introduction to the material, they lack the hands-on practice
lab that the certification requires. A good book will include a lab or point
to one.

Ultimately it comes down to investing a small amount of effort into
investigating proven solutions and their alternatives. The first-class
choice comes at a premium. The free approach comes at the expense of
effort. The middle options range in cost effectiveness. Products which
let you try before you buy are always preferred to shelling out your
buck for an unknown solution.

Every "expert" will give you a different recommendation, every vendor
will push their solution.

What was your sequence of solutions and would you do it again?
Were there unexpected costs in your CCNA studies?

We encourage you to spend 20 minutes to investigate for FREE a solution
where you get MORE than what you pay for: MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud,
a simulated practice lab for CCNA certification. Kaplan IT Learning
has chosen it, shouldn't you?

Go to http://www.gambitcomm.com/cloud_vlab/ or search on Youtube for
"ccna lab one minute".

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.30 runs on Slackware 13.1

2010-09-27T08:01:00.000-07:00

FYI, we have recently tested MIMIC SNMP Simulator on the newly released Slackware 13.1.

This adds to the already tested Linux platforms (RedHat, SuSE, CentOS, Fedora, Ubuntu,
Knoppix, antiX, MEPIS, Debian, etc), and Windows and Solaris.

We show an active SNMP simulation in this screenshot:

MIMIC 10.30 Performance Test Report: Windows 64-bit bakeoff

2010-07-28T11:32:00.000-07:00

FYI, we have published a new MIMIC Simulator 10.30 Performance Report

"Windows 64-bit bakeoff on dual-core Intel Pentium"

This report is part of a series meant to answer the question "which
combination of hardware and software performs the best for a particular
SNMP simulation scenario?".

The summary is:
"...
This report compares MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.30 running under 4 recent Windows versions

Windows Server 2003 Standard SP2

Windows Vista Ultimate SP1

Windows Server 2008 Standard

Windows 7 Professional

on a commonly available desktop model Dell Vostro 200 with a Intel Pentium dual core E2160 1.8GHz and 2 GB of RAM.

In this report we focus on the 64-bit executable version of MIMIC. The 32-bit version is documented in a separate report. The 2 versions run comparably for all platforms, overwhelmingly within single-digit percentage difference, except for Windows 7, where 64-bit runs around 20% slower for some cells in the 2,000 and 5,000 agent configurations.

As we have seen in past reports, the Windows OS versions successively perform worse in our standard SNMP performance tests. Windows Server 2003 performs best, followed by Vista and Server 2008 (although it is a toss-up between those 2, depending on your requirements), and finally Windows 7 performs worst.

The following matrix compares Windows Server 2003 to Windows Vista. The 2 versions are about even (within single-digit percentage difference) for 10 and 100 agent configurations. But, for 1,000 to 5,000 agents, Windows 2003 outperforms Vista (red cells), even though Vista seems to perform better for low agent numbers.
..."

Please contact support@gambitcomm.com for details.

MIMIC 10.30 Performance Test Report: Windows 32-bit bakeoff

2010-07-26T10:37:00.000-07:00

FYI, we have published a new MIMIC Simulator 10.30 Performance Report

"Windows 32-bit bakeoff on dual-core Intel Pentium"

This report is part of a series meant to answer the question "which
combination of hardware and software performs the best for a particular
SNMP simulation scenario?".

The summary is:
"...
This report compares MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.30 running under the 5 most
recent Windows versions

    * Windows Server 2003 Standard SP2
    * Windows XP Professional SP3
    * Windows Vista Ultimate SP1
    * Windows Server 2008 Standard
    * Windows 7 Professional

on a commonly available desktop model Dell Vostro 200 with a Intel
Pentium dual core E2160 1.8GHz and 2 GB of RAM.

In this report we focus on the 32-bit executable version of MIMIC. The
64-bit version is documented in a separate report.

As we have seen in past reports, the Windows OS versions successively
perform worse in our standard SNMP performance tests. Windows Server 2003
performs best, followed by XP, Vista and Server 2008 (although it is a
toss-up between those 3, depending on your requirements), and finally
Windows 7 performs worst.
..."

Please contact support@gambitcomm.com for details.

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.30 runs on Fedora 13 LXDE spin

2010-07-13T06:43:00.000-07:00

In our quest to run MIMIC Simulator on as many platforms as possible, we have
recently tested it on the newly released Fedora 13 LXDE spin.
After disabling the firewall, we show an active SNMP simulation in this screenshot:

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.30 runs out-of-the-box on Knoppix 6.2

2010-07-12T12:09:00.000-07:00

We have just run MIMIC SNMP Simulator on Knoppix 6.2
without any problems. The screenshot shows activity on a SNMP simulation:

New MIMIC Application Brief: Port Scanner and Sweeper Testing

2010-06-28T06:21:00.000-07:00

We have just released a new application brief for MIMIC Server Simulator, which
in conjunction with MIMIC SNMP Simulator creates virtual networks for development,
testing and training of network management applications.

Here is an excerpt:

A fast, easy way of containing capital expenditures for port scanning and network management
software testing is by using the MIMIC Server Simulator. MIMIC Server Simulator creates a large
network with a variety of devices with different IP addresses. Each of them can be setup to
support many services running on different ports. MIMIC makes it easier to switch ports on/off at
run-time. It is also very easy to add latency or create a faulty links by dropping packets. Since
MIMIC’s services are proxied, even the advanced port+probing software can be fooled into
thinking that the actual service is there.

For details, see the Gambit website.

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.30 runs on antiX-M8.5

2010-06-25T08:33:00.000-07:00

FYI, we have run MIMIC SNMP Simulator on antiX-M8.5 Linux with no problems. The screenshot of an active SNMP
simulation being accessed remotely is below:

MIMIC SNMP Simulator runs on MEPIS Linux 8.5

2010-06-21T11:15:00.000-07:00

FYI, we were able to run MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.30 on
MEPIS Linux straight out of the box,
as shown in the screenshot below.

MIMIC 10.30 Performance Test Report: High-scalability (64-bit) Linux bakeoff

2010-06-16T10:05:00.000-07:00

FYI, we have published a new MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.30 Performance Report

"High scalability (64-bit) for 9 Linux distributions on quad-CPU Sunfire V40z"

This report is part of a series meant to answer the question "which combination of hardware
and software performs the best for a particular SNMP simulation scenario?".

The summary is:
-----------------------------------------------------------

This report compares MIMIC 10.30 running 64-bit mode under 9 different Linux distributions
on a quad CPU AMD Opteron 850 2.4 GHz Sunfire V40z:

1.Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS release 4
2.Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5.5
3.CentOS 5.2
4.Fedora Core 6
5.Fedora 7
6.Fedora 9
7.Fedora 10
8.Fedora 11
9.Fedora 12

The 32-bit and 64-bit executables have comparable performance on all tested platforms
(within single-digit percentage difference with minor exceptions). We focused on the low
range (10 to 1,000 agent configurations) in a previous report. In this report we focus on
high-scalability (2,000 to 20,000 agents) requirements which can only be handled with the
64-bit distribution of MIMIC.

In summary, the best overall performer is RedHat Enterprise Linux AS4. RHEL4 substantially
outperforms all other tested distributions in the mid-range (2,000 to 5,000 agents). At the
high-end (8,000 to 20,000 agents), 2nd place goes to Fedora 10, followed by Fedora 9 and
Fedora Core 6, with the remaining distributions trailing badly. Unfortunately we are noticing
that newer releases of Fedora are performing worse in this test.

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.30 Performance Report: Linux Bakeoff

2010-06-15T10:37:00.000-07:00

FYI, we have published a new MIMIC Simulator 10.30 Performance Report

"Low scaleability (32-bit) for 11 Linux distributions on quad-CPU Sunfire V40z"

The summary is:
-----------------------------------------------------------
This report compares MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.30 running 32-bit mode under 11
different Linux distributions on a quad CPU AMD Opteron 850 2.4 GHz Sunfire V40z:

1. Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS release 4
2. Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5.5
3. CentOS 5.2
4. Fedora Core 6
5. Fedora 7
6. Fedora 8
7. Fedora 9
8. Fedora 10
9. Fedora 11
10. Fedora 12
11. Ubuntu 9.10

The 32-bit and 64-bit executables have comparable performance on all platforms (within single-digit percentage difference with minor
exceptions). In this report we focus on low-scaleability (upto 1000 agents) requirements which can be handled with the 32-bit distribution
of MIMIC.

In summary, the best overall performer is RedHat Enterprise Linux AS4, followed by RedHat Enterprise Linux 5.5, then CentOS 5.2, Fedora 7,
Fedora Core 6, Fedora 8, with the remaining distributions trailing the field. Unfortunately we are noticing that newer releases of Fedora are
performing worse in this test.
-----------------------------------------------------------

Mibtree Provides Training for Multiple Network Management Applications using MIMIC Simulator Suite

2010-06-07T08:13:00.000-07:00

“MIMIC allows us to simulate multiple network configurations quickly and easily."

Tony Barratt
Training Consultant
Mibtree

Mibtree is a systems integration, training and consultancy company specializing in the design and deployment of network management solutions based around best of breed products, including IBM Tivoli BMC, CA, Compuware and Adaptive Computing. Mibtree provides training and consultancy services worldwide through dedicated training centers and offices.

Training Environment

Mibtree is proud of its reputation of providing training that improves a student’s confidence as well as their skills and knowledge. To achieve this, along with the strong curriculum, Mibtree makes use of realistic labs for the hands-on training. Many of the products monitor or control networked environments.

Providing network management training is a difficult task. Underlying the training of the software needs an extensive network of multi-vendor hardware that gives the student a real-world network management experience. Also, the training environment should be safe enough so the students can exercise the hands-on training freely without disturbing other students or the network.

The difficulty faced by Mibtree, however, is providing students with real life infrastructures and situations. They had a hardware lab consisting of a Cisco switch and a couple of small routers on the local LAN. They really needed many more devices from a variety of manufacturers to setup the training, but the expense in terms of time and money, along with complications was very high. The hardware expense, space and setup requirements at multiple sites, was cost prohibitive. Also setting up practice networks to any realistic degree in order to train students with a wide variety of element configurations and other negative conditions is challenging. It was harder to setup the network for training, dismantle it and then setup another one for different management software. To set this up at a customer site is even more cumbersome.

Instead of using a costly hardware infrastructure, Mibtree decided to create a safe sandbox environment for students, which closely simulates the required networks. After looking at a few simulators, Mibtree chose MIMIC SNMP Simulator to provide the underlying network for their network management training classes.

Solution

Mibtree selected MIMIC SNMP Simulator as a way to create realistic network environments. It provided the flexibility they needed to create any network lab they needed, at their local and remote locations.

MIMIC is used with the training of the following products:
   • IBM Tivoli Netcool Manager for IP Networks (NMIP)
   • IBM Tivoli Netcool Proviso
   • Nimsoft

Figure 1 - IBM Tivoli ITNM connected to MIMIC and shows the network view

Mibtree uses MIMIC to simulate mesh network containing multiple routers and switches from various vendors. MIMIC is used to demonstrate SNMP based discovery, specifically with IBM’s NMIP product. MIMIC simulated networks are also used to teach network monitoring and root cause analysis techniques such as suppressing downstream symptom alarms and escalating actual root cause alarms.

Instructors just need to load the saved lab configuration before the class. They don’t need to worry about the network setup or trouble shooting. They are able to simulate a variety of scenarios that students might shortly face back at their workplace. For example, instructors are also able to simulate failure in any node and train students in root cause analysis. They can also dynamically simulate lightly loaded and overloaded routers by changing some parameters using the MIMIC GUI. They can deliver the same labs at all locations so all instructions in the course material remain the same.

MIMIC allows Mibtree to simulate multiple network configurations quickly and easily. With MIMIC, Mibtree can do this with a much lower capital investment than buying real network equipment for demonstration purposes and with much higher availability and security than if they tried to reuse bits of their live infrastructure. Mibtree deploys the same MIMIC simulator for different courses as needed and turns it on only when required which minimizes power costs.

MIMIC saves time in setting up the lab by creating complex scenarios and storing those for future use. With MIMIC, Mibtree saves a significant amount of money by simulating expensive devices which are cost prohibitive. Instructors can train on the real issues quickly and reliably using simulation rather than physical devices. The consulting division can tailor demos to the individual customer's environment. MIMIC Simulator helps Mibtree to keep their enterprise students happy and staff more productive.

MIMIC SNMP Simulator on Debian GNU/Linux 5.04

2010-06-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

We have been able to run MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.30 on
Debian GNU/Linux 5.04 straight out of the box.

10 new H3C devices for MIMIC SNMP Simulator

2010-06-01T08:12:00.000-07:00

FYI, we have released 10 new H3C device SNMP simulations:

H3C Comware Software Version 5.20, Release 1206P02, Basic..H3C Series
Router MSR30-20
H3C Comware Software, Version 3.40, Release 0112P02.H3C Router AR18-31E
H3C Comware Software, Version 3.40, Release 6101.H3C Router AR18-63-1
H3C Comware Software, Version 3.40, Feature 1643 H3C Router SecPath F100-E
H3C Comware Software, Version 3.40, Feature 1655 H3C Router SecPath F1000-S
H3C Comware Software, Version 3.40, Release 1608 H3C Router SecPath F100-S
H3C S7500E -CMW520-6105P05, H3C S7500E Series Switch
Huawei-3Com Comware, Version 3.40, Release 1607 Router SecPath F1000-A
H3C Versatile Routing Platform Software..VRP (R) Software Version 3.40, Release 0201..Quidway Series Router AR46-40
H3C Versatile Routing Platform Software..VRP (R) Software Version
3.40, RELEASE RT-0014..Quidway Series Router AR46-20

You can download them with the Update Wizard in MIMICView.

18 new Huawei devices for MIMIC SNMP Simulator

2010-05-26T12:44:00.000-07:00

FYI, we have released 18 new Huawei device SNMP simulations:

* HUA WEI CORP. SNMP agent for Quidway R2621 Software Version VRP 1.65
* HUA WEI CORP. SNMP agent for QuidWay R2621E Software Version VRP 1.4.1
* HUA WEI CORP. SNMP agent for QuidWay R2631E Software Version VRP 1.5.6
* Huawei VRP Software Version 3.40, Release 0201P07..Quidway Series Router AR46-40
* Huawei Versatile Routing Platform Software Version..Quidway S2008-HI
* Huawei Versatile Routing Platform Software Version 3.10..Quidway S2016-EI
* Huawei Versatile Routing Platform Software, Software Version 3.10, Release 0010..Quidway S2016-HI
* Huawei Versatile Routing Platform Software Version..Quidway S2403H-HI
* Huawei Versatile Routing Platform Software Version 3.10..Quidway S2403H
* Huawei Versatile Routing Platform Software, Software Version 3.10, Release 2107P01..Quidway S2403TP-EA
* Huawei Versatile Routing Platform Software Version 3.10..Quidway S3528G
* Huawei Versatile Routing Platform Software Version 3.10..Quidway S3528G
* Huawei Versatile Routing Platform Software Version 3.10..Quidway S3552G
* VRP Comware Platform Software, Software Version 5.20, Release 5303..Quidway S3552P-EA
* Huawei VRP Software Version 3.10, Release 1510P02..Quidway S3928P-EI
* Huawei VRP Software Version 3.10, Release 1510P02..Quidway S3952P-EI
* Huawei Versatile Routing Platform Software, Software Version 3.10, Release 1278P08..Quidway S8512-EI
* Huawei VRP Netengine Software Version VRPV500R001B12D053SP05..NE20-4 Version V200R002C01B200

You can download them with the Update Wizard in MIMICView.

Preventing network outages

2010-05-19T05:45:00.001-07:00

Outages for major networks and websites have become so common-place, there
are even sites dedicated to reporting them.

For example, the recent Youtube outage caused a flurry of tweets. This
interesting posting details a technique to use Google's timeline feature to track
outages of major sites. Using that technique, one can search for "network
outage", and track down a Playstation 3 network outage starting February 28
that lasted for a couple of days.

Rarely does one get to know the specifics of a particular outage, such as
root cause and duration. When details are reported, one has to be skeptical
as to the veracity of the report. Regardless of the cause, what is interesting
is the relation of the cost of downtime caused by outages vs. the cost to prevent them.

The telephone companies calculated that relation a long time ago when they
instituted the five nines metric of uptime. They figured they could live with
the cost of 5 minutes downtime a year, and spent the money on resources to get
there.

When you plan for spending resources on your network reliability, ask yourself
how long a downtime you can live with first, then allocate the resources in
man-power, equipment and software to achieve the desired reliability.

SNMP simulation software allows you to test your network management
procedures before network outages occur.

Lessons learned from Toyota

2010-04-14T05:43:00.000-07:00

The recent Toyota safety problems remind us of the need for more thorough testing
of complicated, interconnected systems, such as computer networks. As networks
become ever more entangled in human lives, preventing problems such as Toyota's does
not only make financial sense, but also could affect our comfort, safety and health.

What if you could put your network management system through its paces like driving
a car at 500 miles per hour for years? What if you could introduce glitches into your
correlation engines like those acceleration anomalies? What if you could drive your
network around the proverbial test track not once but a million times?

With SNMP simulation you can, and if there is any pushback, just remind them of Toyota.

HP Procurve network in MIMIC SNMP Simulator

2010-04-12T14:15:00.000-07:00

FYI, we have recently released a new network in the network library
for MIMIC SNMP Simulator: a small network comprised of HP Procurve
switches. The topology is shown in this diagram produced by
CastleRock's SNMPc.

MIMIC SNMP Simulator on Mandriva Linux 2010

2010-04-09T06:57:00.000-07:00

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.20 ran out of the box on Mandriva Linux 2010
after disabling the firewall.

MIMIC SNMP Simulator on Fedora 12 LXDE Spin

2010-04-08T13:01:00.001-07:00

FYI, we were able to run MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.20 on Fedora 12 LXDE Spin
after disabling the Firewall. See the screenshot:

The iPhone bandwidth dilemma

2010-04-06T12:14:00.000-07:00

With Verizon eyeing the iPhone (see PC World Story) the trend for bandwidth-hogging
smart phones (see Fortune story) continues to accelerate.
In addition to expanded spectrum, the additional network infrastructure will have to be
managed efficiently. Gambit Communications' MIMIC Simulator is uniquely
positioned to assist in developing smart network management and provisioning
environments, as it has already done for Go Networks and other wireless vendors.

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.20 runs on VectorLinux

2010-03-05T07:15:00.000-08:00

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.20 has been tested on VectorLinux 6.0. See screenshot:

Gambit Releases New Version 10.20 of MIMIC SNMP Simulator

2010-03-04T08:05:00.000-08:00

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.20's new features include:

* Significant performance boost on multi-CPU systems.
* MIMIC is now supported on Fedora 11 and 12.
* Server Simulator now also supports IPv6; Additionally it allows communications from IPv4 to IPv6 and vice versa.

For more details see the press release.

MIMIC SNMP Simulator runs on Ubuntu 9.10

2010-02-16T11:33:00.000-08:00

This screenshot shows MIMIC SNMP Simulator running on Ubuntu 9.10.

For list of supported platforms check our support page.

Gambit News: IndUS Business Journal "Going Green"

2010-02-12T08:46:00.000-08:00

FYI, this article highlights how the MIMIC SNMP Simulator product saves energy costs
for customers:

Gambit Communications Inc. is a company, like AirGenerate, that scores with its customers on its cost-savings, but the green awareness quotient does continue to rise.
...
Now, however, Shah said that all IT managers and chief information officers always consider energy saving and "have green on their minds."

More details here.

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.10 on Crunchbang Linux

2010-02-08T07:15:00.000-08:00

MIMIC SNMP Simulator runs out-of-the-box on
Crunchbang Linux:

MIMIC Simulator 10.10 runs on PuppyLinux 4.1.2

2010-01-21T06:51:00.000-08:00

We have reports of MIMIC Simulator 10.10 running on PuppyLinux 4.1.2.
This SNMP simulation is running on a Thinkpad 380Z.
Attached is a screenshot.

Watch4net uses MIMIC Simulator

2010-01-15T12:48:00.000-08:00

Watch4net has announced that they use MIMIC Simulator.

Watch4net, one of leading providers of service assurance software, announced that it is using Gambit Communications' MIMIC® Simulator to simplify the cycle of adding new vendors/technology support to its Watch4net APG Software Suite portfolio.

"MIMIC helps us maintain our leadership in service assurance software." said Vincent De Garie, Director Marketing Operations at Watch4net. "We use MIMIC in functional testing to simulate a controlled device behavior. MIMIC allows our engineers to run performance load tests and certify analytics from multiple technologies domains including Network, Wireless, Applications, and Storage. It is saving us time, money and enables us in creating many test scenarios which are hard to build."

See the full release here.

MIMIC simulates servers

2009-10-02T11:59:00.000-07:00

Gambit has just released version 10.00 of MIMIC Simulator.
New functionality includes a generic server simulator, which in addition to its
SNMP simulation capabilities allows creating large-scale server farms for testing.

See the press release at this location.

Other improvements were made to IPMI simulation, Telnet simulation.

MIMIC SNMP Simulator now runs on Windows 7

2009-07-14T09:43:00.001-07:00

With MIMIC 9.40, Gambit has announced Windows 7 support.
See the 9.40 press release.

You can now run SNMP Simulations also on Fedora 11 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.

MIMIC JUNOS Simulator

2009-06-08T08:09:00.000-07:00

MIMIC Simulator Suite has added a JUNOS Simulator in addition to its
SNMP Simulator, IOS Simulator, IPMI Simulator, Cable Modem Simulator
and Wireless Simulator.

Check it out at Gambit's product page.

MIMIC Simulator for WiMax and LTE

2009-05-28T07:43:00.000-07:00

MIMIC Simulator is being used in WiMax and LTE environments as well as WiFi
environments, to simulate a multitude of SNMP agents for OSS testing.

MIMIC SNMP Simulator allows wireless equipment manufacturers to create a virtual
lab with thousands of 3G or 4G Wireless (WiMAX, Wi-Fi, LTE) devices and related
infrastructure. Developers can perform real world tests on large networks at a
fraction of cost of buying the equipment. Carrier-grade Ethernet manufacturers
can verify proper OAM of their demarcation devices. Wireless operators can verify
that their OSS handles the transition from 3G to 4G. MIMIC simulates Ethernet
Demarcation Devices, Wireless Switches, Routers, Gateways, Intermediate stations
and base stations.

MIMIC allows manufacturers to design, develop and test their products in a virtual
and scalable network environment, assuring customers that their applications will
work properly when deployed across heterogeneous environments. MIMIC simulates
standard MIBs (802.16 MIBs: WMAN-DEV-MIB, WMAN-IF-MIB, WMAN-PRIVATE-MIB) as well
as enterprise MIBs from vendors such as Alvarion, Trango, etc.

See the MIMIC Simulator page for details.
From Gambit, the leaders in SNMP simulation.

Software tests network software

2009-05-21T06:17:00.000-07:00

Here is an old article in Test & Measurement magazine about how Adtran uses MIMIC
SNMP Simulator:

Software tests network software

Engineers at Adtran, a maker of DSL equipment, must test new features in the company's
system-management software while making sure the existing features still work.

Martin Rowe, Senior Technical Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 9/1/2006

Click here for more details.

Kaplan IT CCNA Simulator

2009-05-20T09:27:00.000-07:00

Gambit has released another CCNA lab based on the MIMIC Virtual Lab platform.
The Kaplan IT CCNA Simulator is available from SelfTest Software or Transcender.

It is based on the MIMIC Virtual Lab CCNA from Gambit Communications.
This OEM version includes CCNA training material from Kaplan.
For more details, see also this blog entry.

MIMIC Virtual Lab is based on MIMIC Simulator, the premier SNMP simulator.

MIMIC Virtual Lab Helps Students At Franklin University

2009-05-08T08:55:00.000-07:00

Franklin University’s new Computer Networks course has integrated the use
of MIMIC Virtual Lab CCNA for providing hands-on Cisco-based labs.

Todd A. Whittaker is a Program Chair for the Information Technology major.
As a Program Chair, it is Todd’s responsibility to acts as a focal point
concerning the program within the University and take a leadership role in
promoting the program within the community.

When Todd Whittaker decided to start a new computer networking course for
both face-to-face and online students, he also wanted to make sure that
students receive the necessary hands-on experience along with theoretical
knowledge. While purchasing Cisco devices was an option, he didn’t want
either the expense or the difficulty of scheduling equipment time for 40 to 50
remote students. Additionally, Todd wanted to provide the entire lab setup
with Cisco routers and switches for students to practice while they go through
the course material. Especially when the students had to perform the
assignments, Todd wanted them to actually go through the exercise of
setting up, configuration and design of networks. Todd needed a simulation
tool that supported all those requirements at a reasonable price. Since
students were going to use this tool, he also wanted to make sure that it was
error proof and students can reset the configurations whenever they wanted.
After researching and looking at different tools, he turned to MIMIC Virtual
Lab CCNA from Gambit Communications.

Solution

MIMIC Virtual Lab gave Franklin University students an access to a real world
lab environment with a network of Cisco Routers and Switches. Students
participate in a hands-on learning experience without buying an expensive,
cutting edge Cisco lab, or worrying about remote access to the University lab
and sharing.

Students now have the ability to practice Cisco network configuration instead
of just reading instructions. They can interact with routers and switches, just
like with real devices. Students can also practice different Cisco IOS
commands and device configuration. But, moreover, Virtual Lab permits
flexible customization and the ability to create entirely new lab
configurations.

MIMIC Virtual Lab became a part of the course material.

“MIMIC Virtual Lab is helping us to achieve the educational outcomes
we have set for the IT program. Unlike many traditional colleges and
universities, Franklin wants its students to apply on the job
tomorrow the skills learned in class today and MIMIC Virtual Lab helps us to
bridge the gap between theory and practice. Moreover, the people at Gambit
Communications have been exceptionally helpful, courteous, and
knowledgeable throughout the implementation of this course.”
Todd Whittaker, Program Chair, Information Technology

Franklin University

For more than 100 years, Franklin University has been a pioneer in meeting
the needs of busy working adult students who juggle work, family and many
other responsibilities. Franklin offers a high-quality, accessible, and
affordable education. Based in Columbus, Ohio, USA, Franklin serves more
than 11,000 students annually from all across the country and around the
world.

The Technology – MIMIC Virtual Lab CCNA

Award winning MIMIC Virtual Lab is for beginners interested in familiarizing
themselves with the complex environment and for intermediate or expert
users looking to sharpen their skills and move to a higher level.
MIMIC includes a lab with Cisco Routers (2811, 3640 and 7206) and Cisco
Switches (2950, 3550 (2) and 6500) connected with LAN, WAN, ISDN and Serial
links.

Students can Telnet in to any of these devices as if they are connecting to real
devices. Then they can use a large set of IOS Commands to different
operations, e.g. Logging in/out, Get into different modes - User, Privileged,
Configuration and Interface, Set passwords, IP/IPv6 addresses, clock rates,
hostname and bandwidth, Assign routing protocols - RIP, IGRP, EIGRP, BGP,
OSPF and IS-IS, Ping other devices in the lab, Save/load configurations, Boot
using flash or TFTP protocol, Configuration of VLAN, ISDN, CDP, PPP, Frame
Relay ACL and NAT protocols and many other functions required for network
training and Cisco certifications.

Each device in the simulated lab also has Exercises and Tutorials connected to
it to help perform many different configurations.

The Benefits

Students have a private Virtual lab to practice along with the course material.
With the use of MIMIC, practice drills and assignments provide a safe
environment to practice without worrying about bringing down any
equipment/network and affecting other users.

Now students will be able to have the hands-on experience needed in a
competitive job market. More importantly, they will have a solid confidence
about going into the real world, and setting up and configuring networks.
MIMIC Virtual Lab, as a part of the course curriculum, represents a cost-
effective tool which they can use in privacy of their home or work.
Since every student has their own lab, Franklin University does not need to
invest in a facility with equipment costing tens of thousands of dollars.

The Course

ITEC 275: Computer Networks: Switching, Routing/WANs. This is a 15 week
distant learning course. It is expected that more than 120 students will attend
this course annually.

This course covers both the design and basic configuration of computer
networks. Using Cisco Systems CCDA® certification as a guide, students will
learn about the OSI model, network topologies, Wide Area Network (WAN)
technologies, wireless LAN, IP addressing, routing protocols, and network
security mechanisms. This course also utilizes simulation software (MIMIC
Virtual Lab) to create a small virtual network on the student’s personal
computer running Windows XP or Vista. This provides the student interactive
configuration experience with the Cisco Systems Internetworking Operating
System (IOS) in an isolated environment.

Todd Whittaker’s goal is to also offer this course in a class room setting.

New simulations in the Cisco device library ..

2009-02-20T11:45:00.000-08:00

FYI, we have released 13 new SNMP simulations in the Cisco device library.
The complete list is at

http://www.gambitcomm.com/dllib/

bringing the total to 163 devices.
You can also install these devices with the Update Wizard.

Gambit Communications receives International Green Apple Award - GOLD Winner

2008-12-03T06:52:00.001-08:00

Gambit Communications receives International Green Apple Award - GOLD Winner
MIMIC Simulator Decreases Electricity Requirements By 90 Percent

Nashua, NH - November 18, 2008 -- Gambit Communications, a leading provider of network simulation tools, has been announced as a GOLD winner of the prestigious International Green Apple Award for Environmental best practice. The Award was in recognition of Gambit's environmentally friendly product - MIMIC Simulator - Virtual Green Lab.

The trophy was presented by The Green Organisation at the annual international awards ceremony at the House of Commons, London on Monday, November 10th.

What is the fastest API to control MIMIC?

2008-10-24T12:23:00.000-07:00

Q. What is the fastest API to control MIMIC?

A. SNMP simulations in MIMIC can be controlled from various programming
languages (C++, Tcl, Java, Perl, Python). Each of them has different
performance characteristics (eg. interpreted vs. compiled).

We conducted performance tests to compare these languages.
For the detailed results matrix contact sales@gambitcomm.com .

As expected, the clear winner is C++, in local mode (which is the
most common form of control of MIMIC) by as much as 4 to 1 over the
next contender. The other compiled language, Java, is slower in local
mode, but in remote mode sometimes even faster than C++. The
interpreted languages are significantly slower than C++ in local mode.
In remote mode, the difference between fastest and slowest is at most 20%.

This section attempts to show in detail how they stack up to each
other and help with your selection.

Oftentimes your choice of language will be determined by factors other
than just speed, such as

* knowledge of the language
* efficiency and convenience of other services, eg. graphics, sorting, etc
* policy/politics

but if you have a choice, it could be influenced by speed, specially
if controlling MIMIC means issuing many commands (eg. frequently
configuring thousands of agents, or millions of MIB values) within
time constraints.

The control of MIMIC is a remote procedure call (RPC) mechanism into
the MIMIC server. MIMIC commands are performed via RPC calls. The
performance of an RPC call is impacted by:

time(RPC call) = time(language overhead to package and send request) +
time (transport of request) +
time (MIMIC server dispatch) +
time (transport of response) +
time (language overhead to receive and parse response)

The first thing to realize is that the MIMIC server dispatch time will
be the same for all language bindings. For this test, this can be
considered a constant for each distinct RPC call.

Second, the transport mechanism for the MIMIC RPC calls is TCP for
remote calls (MIMIC client and MIMIC server on distinct machines), and
a faster local transport mechanism for local calls (within a machine),
such as Unix domain sockets for Unix, and pipes for Windows. Some
languages, such as Java, do not support the local transport mechanism,
thus local transport will be slower than on languages that do.

Third, the difference in performance between the language bindings
will be reflected primarily in the time(language overhead to package
request) and time (language overhead to parse response) numbers, thus
our performance tests did focus on calls where the other 3 numbers do
not dominate the equation (such as large requests, for which the
difference will be much smaller).

Fourth, within a language you may find small fluctuations for
different versions of compilers or interpreters. We tested with a
recent version for each language.

MIMIC SNMP Simulator helps testing of Business Service Management Products

2008-10-21T08:05:00.000-07:00

"MIMIC SNMP Simulator helps testing of Business Service Management Products"
Case Study by Ryan Counts, Marketing Director, FireScope, Inc.

"Gambit's MIMIC SNMP Simulator allows FireScope to exercise the BSM Solution thoroughly
to make sure that all real-world environments and conditions are tested. MIMIC gives more
control over the test environment and makes testing a lot more efficient. It enhances their
ROI many folds by simulating a real world network in their lab, capable of duplicating the
required conditions at a fraction of the cost and effort. "

See the full article at
this link.

MIMIC Simulator supports Python API

2008-10-17T06:29:00.000-07:00

This will allow control of SNMP simulations through Python scripting, in addition
to the existing Tcl, Perl, Java and C++ language interfaces.
You can download it with the Update Wizard.

Gambit's MIMIC® Virtual Lab Simplifies CCNA® home study course

2008-09-29T13:05:00.000-07:00

Gambit's MIMIC® Virtual Lab Simplifies CCNA® home study course

Networks Inc’s book, “CCNA Simplified”, includes MIMIC Virtual Lab CCNA
software, which enables them to provide a hands-on experience to their students
for the preparation of the Cisco certification.

Networks Inc.:

Networks Inc. Ltd was founded by Paul Browning. It offers Cisco training courses,
boot camps and consulting. Students come from all over Europe to attend the
CCNA and CCNP courses.

Paul is author of the book “CCNA Simplified – Your Complete Guide to
passing the CCNA”. It has helped hundreds of people to pass their CCNA exam,
and more importantly, to enjoy a successful career in the IT industry.

The Challenge

CCNA Simplified includes 27 hands on labs along with real world advice and
scenarios. The idea is to let students study at their own pace, from home. They can
read the book, watch the videos of experts configuring the lab, and also practice.
Practicing on the Cisco routers and switches with IOS commands and trying
different configurations is essential to passing the CCNA certification test.
The CCNA Simplified package needed something that would help students to get
hands-on training without spending lots of money on equipment. They wanted to
make sure that students would have confidence to handle any configuration not
only for the CCNA exam, but also in real world scenarios.

Solution

Networks Inc. decided to include MIMIC Virtual Lab CCNA product in the
CCNA Simplified package. MIMIC gives students access to a real world lab
environment with a network of Cisco Routers and Switches. It lets them get the
hands-on learning experience without buying expensive, cutting-edge racks of
equipment.

MIMIC gives students the ability to practice for CCNA and other certifications
instead of just reading instructions. They can interact with Routers and Switches,
just like with real devices.

The Technology – MIMIC Virtual Lab CCNA

Award winning MIMIC Virtual Lab is for beginners interested in familiarizing
themselves with the complex environment and for intermediate or expert users
looking to sharpen their skills and move to a higher level.

MIMIC includes a lab with Cisco Routers (2811, 3640 and 7206) and Cisco
Switches (2950, 3550 (2) and 6500) connected with LAN, WAN, ISDN and Serial
links. It supports Cisco’s ICND2 exam, including IPv6 and VLAN support.

Students can Telnet in to any of these devices as if they are connecting to real
devices. Then they can use a large set of IOS Commands to different operations,
e.g. Logging in/out, Get into different modes - User, Privileged, Configuration and
Interface, Set passwords, IP addresses, clock rates, hostname and bandwidth,
Assign routing protocols - RIP, IGRP, EIGRP, BGP, OSPF and IS-IS, Ping other
devices in the lab, Save/load configurations, Boot using flash or TFTP protocol,
Configuration of VLAN, ISDN, CDP, PPP, Frame Relay ACL and NAT protocols
and many other functions required for certifications

Each device in the simulated lab also has Exercises and Tutorials connected to it to
help perform many different configurations.

The Benefits

Networks Inc. is able to supply to students a Virtual Lab along with the lab
instructions.

With the use of MIMIC, students have a safe environment to practice without
worrying about bringing down the equipment/network and affecting other users.
They can do the complete preparation for the certification test. Along with that,
they can confidently configure new devices on their production network.
Network’s Inc. can bundle a lab that can cost tens of thousands of pounds with the
book for free.

Here is what Paul Browning, Founder of Networks Inc. and author of
CCNA Simplified said, “MIMIC Virtual Lab has really helped my
students to get hands on time with Cisco devices without the expense
of buying equipment. For those who do have access to live routers and
switches, the MIMIC Virtual Lab gives an extra boost and a convenient
way to do labs.”

For more information, contact Gambit Communications, Inc (www.gambitcomm..com)
© 2008 Gambit Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
MIMIC and Gambit Communications are registered trademarks of Gambit Communications, Inc.
All other trademarks or service marks are the property of their respective owners.

MIMIC Performance Report: Fedora vs. Solaris Intel on dual-CPU Sunfire V20z

2008-09-11T12:27:00.000-07:00

MIMIC Performance Report: Fedora vs. Solaris Intel on dual-CPU Sunfire V20z

MIMIC is SNMP simulation software that supports up to 20,000 agents on one workstation. The main concern is the performance for a fully loaded workstation. You want at least hundreds of PDUs per second to make a simulation viable. Each hardware platform / operating system combination has different performance characteristics.

For MIMIC, performance is primarily governed by the amount of physical memory (RAM). The memory requirements depend on the simulations you are going to run. Obviously, a high-end router simulation with hundreds of interfaces, RMON tables, etc. is going to take more memory than the simulation of an end system.

As a ball-park estimate, we like to see at least 1MB of dedicated physical RAM per simulated agent, e.g., a 100 agent scenario should run fine on a 128MB system (depending on how much memory is used by the OS and other processes). For better performance (less swapping), 2MB per agent is recommended. When the agents are running the same simulation, MIMIC optimizes memory usage to contain only one copy of the simulation data for all agents of the same type.

You can more accurately measure this by running a simulation configuration, and checking on memory usage before and after starting the desired agent simulations. Notice that MIMIC uses memory on demand, so you should measure the memory after doing a walk of the desired tables (or a complete MIB walk). Eg. on Windows NT use the Windows Task Manager to check "Memory Usage", and on Unix use the "top" utility. The memory usage by MIMIC is approximately the same for all platforms.

The CPU is of secondary importance. Most modern processors (e.g., Intel Pentium 2GHz or faster, and Ultra Sparc) are adequate. MIMIC works with multi-processor systems, since it is a multi-threaded, distributed application. Agent thread processing will be distributed across multiple CPUs.

The final bottleneck would be the network pipe to your agents. 10Mb Ethernet is adequate for low-volume traffic, 100Mb is better for more demanding applications. MIMIC works with multiple network adapters on your system, so you can talk to the simulations over separate network pipes. MIMIC works with the OS-native protocol stacks, so that all network interface cards that your OS supports can be used. You can even run MIMIC over PPP.

This performance test is designed to measure peak performance of MIMIC on various supported platforms under common access scenarios. The variables in the test are the number of agents running simultaneously, and the number of agents being accessed simultaneously. It is assumed that the most common SNMP request is the GETNEXT, as is done in sequential table traversals.

The purpose of this report is to contrast various versions of Fedora Linux from Fedora Core 5 to Fedora 9 versus Solaris 10 on the identical dual-CPU (AMD Opteron 244 at 1792 Mhz) Sunfire V20Z hardware platform.

If you are interested in fastest numbers for a single agent, you want to look at the top row of each matrix. If you are interested in highest scalability, with multiple agents being accessed, you want to concentrate on the bottom row of each matrix.

Overall, you probably want one of the versions of Fedora Linux, if running small scale simulations (upto 1,000 agents), where Fedora 8 is fastest. In the mid range (1,000 to 2,000 agents), Solaris 10 performs best. At the high-end, Fedora 8 was overall best, although we were not able to test it at higher than 10,000 agents, because we only have the 32-bit OS.

Here are some specific results:

- Fedora 8 is the fastest of the Linux variants we tested upto 10,000 agents.

- Only at 1,000 agents is Fedora 9 slightly faster than Fedora 8 (above statistical error).

- Fedora 7 is consistently faster than Fedora 8 at 1,000 and 2,000 agents, but much slower at 5,000 agents or higher.

- Again, Fedora 8 and Fedora Core 6 are comparable at the low end, FC6 is faster at 1,000 and 2,000 agents, but much slower at the higher end.

- FC5 is consistently faster than Fedora 8 from 1,000 to 5,000 agents, but much slower at the higher end.

- On Fedora 9, the 64-bit numbers are comparable to the 32-bit numbers, except at the high-end, where 64-bit numbers are mostly better.

- On Solaris 10, the 64-bit numbers are comparable to the 32-bit numbers, except at 8,000 agents, where 32-bit numbers are slightly better.

- Fedora 8 numbers are the best at the low end (10 and 100 agents) by about 10% over Solaris 10.

- In the middle (1,000 to 2,000 agents) Solaris 10 performs much better than either Fedora 8 or 9.

- Solaris 10 is slightly better than Fedora 7 at 1,000 and 2,000 agents, but much better at the higher end.

- It's a toss up between Fedora Core 6 and Solaris 10 for 1,000 and 2,000 agents, but Solaris performs much better at the high end.

- Since we don't have the 64-bit version of Fedora 8, we cannot recommend it for 20,000 agent scaleability. Instead, Fedora 9 has the best numbers.

Gambit Releases Virtual Lab for Cisco ICND2

2008-09-05T07:48:00.001-07:00

Gambit Releases Virtual Lab for Cisco ICND2
Provides support for IPv6 and VLANs

Nashua, NH - September 1, 2008 -- Gambit Communications, a leading provider of network simulation tools, today announced the general availability of MIMIC® Virtual Lab CCNA version 3.42. MIMIC Virtual Lab is an enhanced PC-based training tool to support Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) CCNA® certification. It creates on a PC a real-world lab environment with a network of Cisco Routers and Switches for training centers and network engineers. The primary benefit is that it enables a hands-on learning experience without needing to buy expensive equipment.

MIMIC® Virtual Lab CCNA version 3.42 now supports Cisco's ICND2 (Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices Part 2) exams.

"MIMIC Virtual Lab appeals to a broad range of customers, from individual engineers to large enterprises to training organizations," stated Uwe Zimmermann, Gambit Communications' President and Chief Technology Officer. "This latest release will provide our users with powerful new features to prepare for the latest Cisco CCNA exam. For instance, Virtual Lab customers can now configure routers and switches using IPv6 and get trained using IPv6 hands-on tutorials."

MIMIC Virtual Lab CCNA consists of a simulated network of Cisco routers, switches with LAN, WAN and ISDN connections. It includes IOS commands and lab exercises related to the Cisco CCNA 640-802 exam.

MIMIC Virtual Lab CCNA 3.42 new feature highlights include:

# Support for IPv6 addressing and commands in addition to IPv4;

# Ability to configure VLAN with the support for the protocol Rapid-PVST;

# Provides hands-on experience with Cisco Routers (2811, 3640 and 7206) and Cisco Switches (2950, 3550 and 6500);

# Devices are connected with LAN, WAN, ISDN and Serial links, which can be reconfigured;

# Support for configuration of Frame Relay mappings;

# Implements a large number of IOS Commands for Router and Switch operations;

# Additional support for EIGRP commands;

# Ability to reconfigure the lab along with loading and saving your configuration;

# Access the lab using your favorite Telnet;

# Includes many hands-on exercises to train and test your skills to better prepare you for the CCNA exam.

The MIMIC Virtual Lab CCNA version 3.42 release is available immediately from Gambit.

About Gambit Communications, Inc.

Founded in 1995, Gambit Communications is a leader in network and SNMP simulation tools that enhance the productivity of management software developers and enterprise users while lowering their costs. MIMIC Simulator is a modular family of simulators used by leading networking vendors for use in applications from development and testing to operator training and disaster simulations. Gambit Communications' portfolio of over 500 customers includes: IBM, JP Morgan, VISA, Shell, US Army, US Air Force, CA, HP, Cisco, Intel, AT&T, MCI, Nortel, For more information on Gambit and MIMIC, please visit http://www.gambitcommunications .

MIMIC 9.00 Performance Report: Windows vs. Linux on dual-core Pentium

2008-08-28T11:18:00.000-07:00

MIMIC 9.00 Performance Report: Windows vs. Linux on dual-core Pentium

MIMIC is SNMP simulation software that supports up to 20,000 agents on one workstation. The main concern is the performance for a fully loaded workstation. You want at least hundreds of PDUs per second to make a simulation viable. Each hardware platform / operating system combination has different performance characteristics.

For MIMIC, performance is primarily governed by the amount of physical memory (RAM). The memory requirements depend on the simulations you are going to run. Obviously, a high-end router simulation with hundreds of interfaces, RMON tables, etc. is going to take more memory than the simulation of an end system.

As a ball-park estimate, we like to see at least 1MB of dedicated physical RAM per simulated agent, e.g., a 100 agent scenario should run fine on a 128MB system (depending on how much memory is used by the OS and other processes). For better performance (less swapping), 2MB per agent is recommended. When the agents are running the same simulation, MIMIC optimizes memory usage to contain only one copy of the simulation data for all agents of the same type.

You can more accurately measure this by running a simulation configuration, and checking on memory usage before and after starting the desired agent simulations. Notice that MIMIC uses memory on demand, so you should measure the memory after doing a walk of the desired tables (or a complete MIB walk). Eg. on Windows NT use the Windows Task Manager to check "Memory Usage", and on Unix use the "top" utility. The memory usage by MIMIC is approximately the same for all platforms.

The CPU is of secondary importance. Most modern processors (e.g., Intel Pentium 2GHz or faster, and Ultra Sparc) are adequate. MIMIC works with multi-processor systems, since it is a multi-threaded, distributed application. Agent thread processing will be distributed across multiple CPUs.

The final bottleneck would be the network pipe to your agents. 10Mb Ethernet is adequate for low-volume traffic, 100Mb is better for more demanding applications. MIMIC works with multiple network adapters on your system, so you can talk to the simulations over separate network pipes. MIMIC works with the OS-native protocol stacks, so that all network interface cards that your OS supports can be used. You can even run MIMIC over PPP.

This performance test is designed to measure peak performance of MIMIC on various supported platforms under common access scenarios. The variables in the test are the number of agents running simultaneously, and the number of agents being accessed simultaneously. It is assumed that the most common SNMP request is the GETNEXT, as is done in sequential table traversals.

This report contrasts Windows Server 2003 and XP to various flavors
of Linux on a dual-core 1.8 GHz Pentium E2160.

It shows:
1. The best performer at the low end (10 and 100 agents) is Ubuntu, by
10 to 20% better than Windows Server 2003 or XP.

2. In the mid range (1,000 agents) openSUSE is best by 10%.

3. At 2,000 agents, all OSs are comparable (within 10%), except for
Fedora 9, which lags drastically.

4. At the high-end (5,000 to 20,000 agents), the Linux contenders
(Fedora 9 and openSuSE) are slightly (upto 10%+) better than Windows
2003, which performs better when accessing the first agents, but worse
when accessing higher agents.

new FAQ: Why is my throughput intermittently slow on a dual NIC Linux system?

2008-08-13T09:38:00.000-07:00

New FAQ entry for MIMIC SNMP Agent Simulator:

Q. Why is my throughput intermittently slow on a dual NIC Linux system?

A. If your Linux MIMIC system has multiple active network interfaces
connected to the same LAN, and you are experiencing drops in PDU throughput
while polling MIMIC agents in the SNMP simulation, it may be due to one network
interface running slower than the other. Linux will route traffic through
the NIC according to the arp tables regardless of the interface an agent
IP address is assigned to. The command "ethtool" run as root can be used
to discover the current speed and duplex settings of each NIC.


# ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
        Supported ports: [ TP ]
        Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
        Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
        Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
        Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
        Speed: 100Mb/s
        Duplex: Full
        Port: Twisted Pair
        PHYAD: 1
                Transceiver: internal
        Auto-negotiation: on
        Supports Wake-on: umbg
        Wake-on: g
        Current message level: 0x00000001 (1)
        Link detected: yes

Any protocol analyzer can be used to capture packets between the
walkhost and the agent to determine the MAC address of the NIC handling
the traffic.

Network World: Cisco simulator can help thwart exam cheating

2008-08-07T12:04:00.000-07:00

Gambit Communications says its MIMIC Virtual Lab software can help resolve the cheating on Cisco certification tests
By Jim Duffy , Network World , 07/30/2008

A Nashua, N.H., maker of Cisco network simulators says its software can help enterprises make sure they are hiring legitimate Cisco-certified engineers to run their networks.

Gambit Communications says its MIMIC Virtual Lab software, which has been on the market for about four years, can help resolve the recent spate of cheating on Cisco certification tests by enabling enterprises to run network operations candidates through sample scenarios before hiring them. This allows enterprises to screen candidates to ensure they are not hiring fraudulent network operators at handsome salaries.

Cisco recently moved to thwart cheating on certification tests by employing photo identification requirements and a data forensics program. According to Cisco, pilot programs using the new detection methods have already uncovered 1,400 suspected cheaters who hired proxies to take the exams for them.

But Gambit claims the photo and forensics programs only go so far: what about the many unqualified candidates already hired by enterprises prior to the new Cisco enforcement programs?

Sit 'em down and run them through a simulated lab environment, Gambit says.

Gambit's CCNA Virtual LAB software starts at $99 and can be downloaded to a laptop or PC. It creates a simulated environment with seven Cisco devices – Catalyst 2950, 3550 and 6500 switches and 2620, 3640 and 7206 series routers -- and users can type in IOS and SNMP commands to configure devices and protocols.

Test conductors and "students" can replace and establish LAN, WAN, ISDN and serial links, change IP addresses and create virtual LANs with the program, but cannot change the devices themselves. Also, the program is not certified by Cisco but is resold by a Cisco – certified training partner, Tech 2000. Cisco also uses the CCNA Virtual Lab's predecessor, the MIMIC Simulator Suite for IOS, Gambit says.

Gambit says it has 1,000 customers for CCNA Virtual Lab since it was introduced in 2002, including AT&T, IBM, the U.S. Army and several financial firms.

Gambit's MIMIC® Enables Xirrus for Superior Testing

2008-04-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

Scaleable and highly functional Wi-Fi management applications are vital in today’s growing mobile network environments. They provide essential functions to ensure that the wireless network’s health, performance and availability meet the rigorous demands of business.

Xirrus sells the enterprise-grade Wi-Fi Array that embeds multiple radios, a Wi-Fi controller, antennas, and threat sensors into a single device. The Xirrus Management System (XMS) centrally manages networks of Wi-Fi Arrays. The company chose Gambit Communications’ MIMIC Simulator to ensure that the XMS software not only scales and manages hundreds of devices with real-time performance, but also correctly tracks faulty conditions of the devices.

Xirrus

Xirrus is the leader in High Performance Wi-Fi™. It designs and manufactures the patented Wi-Fi Array. The Wi-Fi Array integrates 4, 8, or 16 radios and high-gain directional antennas into a single device along with an onboard Gigabit Switch, Wi-Fi Controller, Firewall, and dedicated Wi-Fi Threat Sensor, providing the performance and security to replace traditional workgroup switches with Wi-Fi technology.

Xirrus’ XMS network management system manages up to 500 Wi-Fi Arrays from a central location. It centralizes the monitoring, reporting, and configuration management for up to 500 Arrays from anywhere in the network. It is available on a stand-alone dedicated network appliance (XM-3300), or as a software-only application (XA-3300) that can be loaded on an existing server.
The XMS provides a flexible, scalable solution that can be leveraged as the organization’s Wi-Fi network grows. It carries out automatic discovery and configuration of Arrays, policy-based management and aggregates alerts and alarms for monitoring. It uses SNMPv1/v2c with support for multiple public and private MIBs.

The Challenge

The Xirrus Management System manages large networks with up to 500 Wi-Fi Arrays with thousands of Wi-Fi clients. Xirrus has 40 physical Arrays in their XMS lab which are used for testing. It was budget prohibitive to grow that to 500 Wi-Fi Arrays along with the required networking gear. It was a challenge to test the XMS software with that size of a network.

The QA Assurance team continuously needs to verify the XMS’ performance and scalability in large networks. The tests need to cover the product features and all possible operational conditions. An affordable solution was sought to make the test lab more scalable and flexible.

The Solution – MIMIC Simulator

Xirrus purchased the MIMIC Simulator Suite, Campus edition, which supports simulation of up to 500 agents simultaneously. Each of the agents can represent any type of SNMP-manageable device.

Xirrus recorded the management information from one of their Arrays with the MIMIC Recorder, creating a simulation which was then cloned to 400 unique simulated devices with a total of 6000 clients connected to those arrays. Along with the simulated Array devices, they simulated traffic load between devices and clients. They could run their XMS against the simulated lab and test different features, along with performance measurements and negative/positive conditions.

The Benefits

With the use of MIMIC, Xirrus reduced the lab budget requirement to one tenth of what was initially needed. Furthermore, MIMIC made it a lot easier to test their XMS software. They were able to perform many tests effortlessly with MIMIC, which are very hard to setup with the real devices. They could now do more complete testing, and confidently release their new software to their customers.

Additionally, with MIMIC they can now save those negative/positive scenarios, add more tests, and reuse them for regression tests during every test cycle.

The Technology – MIMIC Simulator

MIMIC Simulator can simulate 20,000 SNMP, Cisco IOS, IPMI, Telnet, TFTP and DHCP-based devices on one workstation.

MIMIC appears to management applications as if they are connected to a real network. It allows simulation of any type of SNMP-based devices (Routers, Switches, Arrays, Hubs), and combine them in the creation of many different scenarios.

MIMIC ships with 1800+ MIBs and many out-of-the-box network, device and scenario script libraries, which make it very easy to simulate a variety of networks from different manufacturers. It includes a MIB compiler, recorder, network discovery wizard and topology editor to further extend the simulation capability.

The simulator allows real-time changes of device parameters to add interfaces, change traffic patterns and error conditions.

Testimonial

Ali Fatollahi, Sr. QA Engineer, said, “We needed to test our XMS software and verify its performance and scalability in large networks. Selecting MIMIC made it easy and cost effective for us to do that. With MIMIC, it is as close as you can get virtually to have a physical local network with such a scale.

MIMIC technical support is competent and prompt. They were always there and helped so effectively that now we use MIMIC daily for our XMS development and testing.

MIMIC is a great product (ease of use and phenomenal tech support) and has saved us time and money. We strongly recommend it.”

--------------

© 2008 Gambit Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
MIMIC is a registered trademark of Gambit Communications, Inc.
All other trademarks or service marks are the property of their respective owners.

MIMIC FAQ: What is the fastest SNMP simulation I can run? Why is it not the default?

2008-02-28T08:39:00.000-08:00

Q. What is the fastest SNMP simulation I can run? Why is it not the default?

A. By default, MIMIC runs the most useful basic simulation clause for a wide variety of applications: a close snapshot of a device SNMP agent, with static objects taking on the values that were observed, and Counter objects taking on a rate that was interpolated from observed values, both entirely configurable at run-time. For details, see the QuickStart tutorial.

This default basic simulation is more expensive than faster, simpler simulations. The simplest simulation is to just return a constant value for all object instances. If the management application does not care about values retrieved, then you can use this simulation.

The sample simulation clauses that were compared in a performance experiment were (for more details, see the SIMULATE clause section in the Compiler Guide):

* INDEX
* SIMULATE{ 1 }
* SIMULATE{ constant(1) }
* SIMULATE{ uniform(1) }
* SIMULATE{ constant_per_tu(1, 60) }
* SIMULATE{ uniform_per_tu(1, 60) }
* SIMULATE{ constant(lookup("r")) }
* SIMULATE{ uniform(lookup("r")) }
* SIMULATE{ constant_per_tu(lookup("r"), lookup("tu")) }
* SIMULATE{ uniform_per_tu(lookup("r"), lookup("tu")) }
* SIMULATE{ uniform_per_tu ( (lookup ("r") == 0 ? 1 : lookup ("r")), lookup ("tu")) }

Here is a chart comparing the performance of different simulation clauses for objects. When requests are performed with only one variable per PDU, the difference in performance between the fastest and default simulations is approximately 50%. But, the more variables that are packed into a PDU, the larger the computation part becomes (compared to network overhead, etc), and for 100 variables per PDU, the difference between the fastest and default simulations is a factor of more than 5.

Network Computing Magazine: "Gambit to Scale India Operations "

2008-02-14T11:58:00.000-08:00

Gambit Communications, Inc., leader in SNMP simulation
software, will scale operations in India, according to this article.

Excerpt:

Gambit Communications, one of the providers in network and SNMP simulation tools that enhance the productivity of management software developers and enterprise users is scaling up India presence.

Silicon India: How to MIMIC your complex Network

2008-02-14T11:50:00.001-08:00

Gambit Communications, Inc., leader in SNMP simulation,
was named company of the month in the December issue of Silicon India
magazine.

Excerpt:

MIMIC Simulator, an innovation by Gambit Communications offers a virtual lab environment for enterprises and cuts down the time and money for testing.

Gambit Communications among SiliconIndia 100

2007-12-10T11:51:00.000-08:00

Gambit Communications makes it in to si100.

"si100 is an annual listing of the top 100 technology companies founded and managed by Indians in the U.S. The si100 not only represents the continuing rise and glory of Indian entrepreneurship in high-tech but also recognizes companies impacting the market place.

A distinguished panel comprising accomplished Indian CEO's & CIO's of public companies, VC's, analysts, founders of other VC funded companies including siliconindia editorial board decided on the top 100 companies listed..."

See this article.

MIMIC Simulator on Wikipedia

2007-11-01T08:28:00.000-07:00

Check out the Wikipedia entry about MIMIC Simulator:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIMIC_Simulator

MIMIC SNMP Agent Simulator is used in new HP course

2007-08-29T06:20:00.000-07:00

For details, go to

http://www.hp.com/education/courses/uc341s.html

MIMIC® helps testing of Wi-Fi NMS

2007-07-10T09:45:00.000-07:00

MIMIC® helps testing of Wi-Fi NMS

By Gabby Tal, Go Networks
Pankaj Shah, Gambit Communications®

Executive summary

The Wi-Fi management applications in today’s cellular network environments are critical to successful business operations, ranging from providing reliable customer support to ensuring that all devices function at peak efficiency. More than ever, organizations depend on network management solutions to make certain that their cellular network’s health, performance and availability meet the rigorous demands of the business.

GO Networks provides Carrier-Class Cellular Wi-Fi Solutions. GO MBW NMS manages Wi-Fi base stations and outdoor access points and connected end points. The company chose Gambit Communications’ MIMIC Simulator to ensure that the NMS software not only scales and manages hundreds of devices with real-time performance, but also correctly tracks faulty conditions of the devices proliferated all over the Metro area.

Background

Go Networks develops cellular Wi-Fi devices and management applications to enable next generation services for metro networking. GO’s Metro Broadband Wireless (MBW) system is an outdoor Wi-Fi solution that enables carriers to deploy metropolitan networks that deliver robust wireless connectivity to residential and urban areas, schools and corporate campuses, and public spaces.

Figure 1 Metro Broadband Wireless System

Go MBW Network Controller (NMS) is a multiplatform, carrier grade network management solution. It provides the operator with a rich comprehensive and intuitive solution to automatically discover, configure, and monitor the status and performance of the metro broadband wireless network. It scales up from small enterprise deployments up to large-scale Telco networks of 1,000 managed devices. It is based on Client/Server distributed architecture and uses standard SNMP to remotely manage the devices over wired and wireless backhaul links. GO NMS manages all MBW macro/pico cellular base stations and monitors associated WIFI clients and CPEs.

Figure 2 NMS managing a large metro broadband wireless network

The software provides high security management with custom user privileges groups’ support. Powerful performance management including real time and historical performance reports, remote bulk firmware upgrade with scheduling option, geographical map as well as two logical topology views, Inventory, fault management with active alarms and event views, customized alarm notifications (emails) and NBI interface via SNMP.

Problem statement

There are many concerns relating to the management of a cellular –mesh broadband Wi-Fi network. The monitored resources are not located at one place, but distributed all over the metro area with many different environments. Most of them are mounted on lampposts on the street. The real-time management of those devices is very difficult. The NMS has to manage the base stations along with keeping track of Wi-Fi Clients. Wi-Fi clients connect and disconnect at any time and have different traffic patterns and mesh topology changes. The management software needs to be able to gather data from multiple sources and help IT managers quickly isolate and resolve network disruptions, and plan for demand spikes likely to occur during peak workloads.

It is even harder for the testing group to generate all these possible conditions and make sure that the management application passes them without any issues. It is a difficult task to create real life situations like multiple data sources, various traffic patterns and network delays for each of the managed devices in the test lab. It costs a lot of time and money to setup and maintain such a lab but even after that the testing is never complete.

Here are some of the challenges that GO’s NMS testing group had to address. These concern testing of a high degree of dynamic behavior and complex scenarios:

• Mesh topology changes, e.g., Mesh node change to a different “father” as a result of radar detection on the mesh radio frequency at the 5.8 GHz band and as a result the path of its “children” devices route toward the backbone changes.
• WIFI clients associates, dissociates and being handed off by the access points (APs).
• WiFi clients violate service level agreement (SLA).
• The SNMP exchange is done over the air, which introduces delay, based on the number of hops the managed devices is distanced from the backbone.
• When a mesh node gets inaccessible all its sub tree child devices subsequently stop answering to SNMP queries.
• Device level behavior, such as when an access radio gets faulty the associated WIFI clients dissociate from it and associates to another radio having same SSID profile. Devices configuration is restored to its factory default and it loses its IP address.
• Simulation of air interference and consequent performance degradation.

Go Networks overcame these problems by turning to MIMIC Simulator, which made it easy to test their NMS.

Solution – MIMIC Simulator

Figure 3 MIMIC simulating the same large metro broadband wireless network as the real network

It was impossible to create the real world environment in a lab, so Go Networks chose MIMIC Simulator from Gambit Communications. They wanted to make sure that they had tested every possible condition, and that their product was robust before releasing it to customers.

The MIMIC Simulator network simulation software can simulate up to 20,000 devices in one workstation. Each device can have its own device type, IP address and run-time parameters. The devices can be configured independently or in a group. They can be simulated to be geographically local or remote. The configuration and run-time changes can be done interactively using the MIMIC GUI, or programmatically using scripts.

Go Networks simulated many types of micro/pico base station devices. They created many scripts to setup many different types of scenarios. They used the delay function to create delays caused by connections over varying wireless hops to the managed devices.

MIMIC is used 24/7 by the development and testing groups. The developers could create simulations of devices under development, which are not ready for testing. They could easily simulate their proprietary Wi-Fi MIB, which keeps all the statistics about the links and clients.

Testers could do large-scale simulation and test all the features in different network topologies. The engineers wrote many action scripts to create complex and dynamic topologies. Basically, their one device can support many end points like laptops, PDA or other Wi-Fi devices. So if one device goes down, many routes can fail. The MIMIC action and timer scripts simulate all these conditions by dynamically creating and removing the clients, creating a mesh topology, creating and changing the necessary routes, and generating thousands of events like linkUp and linkDown notifications.

Benefits

MIMIC saved both time and money, since the testers didn’t have to wait to test until deployment in the real world. This guaranteed high customer satisfaction with the released NMS software.

The flexibility of the MIMIC software allowed them to test all types of real and pathological conditions without the use of traffic generators, analyzers or any other tools. They could even create scenarios that are almost impossible to setup with the test lab.

Having multi-user access to the virtual lab meant they didn’t have to worry about sharing the devices like real test labs. Each engineer could configure their own lab at any time and in any way they wanted, without worrying about disrupting anybody else’s testing.

With a highly scalable scenario, they could generate the thousands of events, which can occur in normal working conditions and in disaster situations, like a power outage in a geographic region.

Go Networks’ sales representatives can now confidently tell the customers that their software is scalable and will work in a variety of bad conditions. Also, sales can use the same scenarios created by the testing group for customer demos and training.

The best part is that all the test conditions they created are stored so they can share it with different testers. They can also run those regression tests every time there is a new release, and incrementally keep adding more test scenarios.

Summary

The Wi-Fi environment is a very unpredictable one, compounded by the inaccessibility and remote location of the devices to be managed. To be effective, a network management application has to take into consideration the unique challenges of such dynamic and complex scenarios. GO Networks’ MBW NMS is specially suited for these requirements.

Gambit’s MIMIC allows Go Networks to exercise the NMS application thoroughly to make sure that all real-world environments and conditions are tested. MIMIC enhanced their ROI many folds by simulating a real world network in their lab, capable of duplicating the required conditions at a fraction of the cost and effort.

About Authors

Gabby Tal is a NMS Project Manager at Go Networks. For more information on Go Networks’ cellular Wi-Fi devices or management applications, please visit www.GoNetworks.com.

Pankaj Shah is the CEO and co-founder of Gambit Communications, Inc. In order to learn more about MIMIC Simulator and how to create a “virtual lab”, please visit www.gambitcomm.com.

Copyrights/Trademarks
© 2007 GO Networks, Inc. All Rights Reserved
© 2007 Gambit Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved

HP Dev Resource Central - Gambit gives non-stop systems a real test

2007-07-06T12:36:00.000-07:00

HP Dev Resource Central - Gambit gives non-stop systems a real test

Gambit’s MIMIC Simulator and MIMIC Virtual Lab Enterprise software tools provide
simulation software to enable companies to build their own "virtual labs" for testing
and/or developing software without purchasing hardware and maintaining labs.
Read how the Network Node Manager (NNM) Developer's Toolkit streamlined the
work of Gambit developers, enabling them to launch virtual labs from the HP NNM.

Gambit gives non-stop systems a real test

Test a new application for a non-stop environment, a network comprised of ten thousand
devices? It's essential, of course, but was not so easy until the Gambit Communications,
a Nashua, New Hampshire company, was formed in 1995 to research and develop simulation
software products. The MIMIC Simulator and MIMIC Virtual Lab Enterprise software tools
enable companies to build their own "virtual labs" for testing and/or developing software,
without purchasing hardware and maintaining labs. By simulating the SNMP agent in networking
devices the software simulates up to 10,000 devices in one workstation. MIMIC can be
launched from the HP OpenView management console to run the simulated and real network
side-by-side. More information about Gambit Communications, Inc. can be found on the
Web at
www.gambitcomm.com.

A combination that simulates a production network

Pankaj Shah was serious as he described how a customer's network went down after a newly
deployed network management application blew up. Then smiling, he added that with a few
mouse clicks they changed a few settings and re-ran the application. No problems here...
Shah's customer was delighted with this finding, based on software used in conjunction with
HP OpenView. Gambit has enabled the customer to create a working replica of the production
environment, promoting their ability to safely test new applications and equipment, train
staff on everyday procedures, even practice disaster scenarios and recovery procedures -
and do this with far fewer lab resources.

"Realistically, you simply cannot do this without simulation software", says Shah,
co-founder of Gambit Communications. "IT managers never have enough time. Worse, testing
large networks that are new or revamped and comprising several thousand elements means
you need all kinds of expensive equipment to accurately assess and test." Instead,
Gambit's MIMIC provides a copy of the live network seen at the management console. The
software makes it easy for network managers to disable parts of the network and routers
at key traffic points, simulate cable cuts, change traffic, and generate traffic storms
that will be seen by NOC staffers sitting at their HP OpenView console.

Gambit tools used by prominent corporations

Gambit's customers include prominent international giants Alcatel, Lucent Technologies,
Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, BankOne, MCI, BT, Boeing, VISA. and Hewlett-Packard -
where MIMIC is the linchpin of an educational course helping students gain real network
management proficiency with HP OpenView and NNM.

Linking MIMIC output to HP OpenView

"Sample code copied from the HP OpenView Network Node Manager (NNM) Developer's Toolkit
put our development of MIMIC steps ahead. For example," noted Shah, "we saw how HP NNM
expected to receive files and data, and made it easy to create new items for the MIMIC
GUI that worked from the first time without any trial-and-error involved."

The developers also leveraged the documentation (the HP OpenView Integration Guide for
Developers and the HP OpenView Network Node Manager - Creating and Using Registration
Files) to streamline their work. An especially significant chapter described methods
for creating and using registration files, and how the files are processed, which made
subsequent development of interface components easier.

The guides provided Gambit developers a thorough overview of various possible integration
scenarios. "We are easily able to consider scenarios for integration with HP OpenView
Operations and possibly using HP OV Interconnect to obtain data from HP NNM," said Shah,
"now that our integration of MIMIC with HP NNM is complete."

All brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

� Copyright 2003 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

MIMIC Flash presentation

2007-07-03T09:29:00.000-07:00

Check out

http://www.gambitcomm.com/presentation/mimic.html

for a Flash presentation about MIMIC Simulator and SNMP Simulation.

MIMIC Application Brief: WiMAX Testing

2007-06-27T11:51:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the latest MIMIC Application Brief. This month's "MIMIC
Brief" focuses on MIMIC's use as a tool for testing WiMAX devices.

Vendors of WiMAX management applications have to constantly test
their products for unplanned downtime due to equipment and power
failure, along with regular scalability and standard feature
testing. Gambit's MIMIC Simulator provides a virtual test
environment that reliably tests all these at one tenth of the cost!

Until now, the only way to test was to try applications against a
small non-production network or a test lab. Test labs are normally
much smaller than the actual production network, not to mention they
are very expensive to build and setup. Test labs need continuous
updating because of the evolving WiMAX standards along with devices
and technologies.

Network in a Box
-----------------
MIMIC Simulator enables network engineers and testers to create,
record and simulate large production environments. MIMIC can simulate
up to 10,000 local and remote WiMAX based network equipment, base
stations, repeaters, and other networking devices like routers and
switchers in one workstation. Each of these devices can be managed
independently or in a group. Pathological conditions can be easily
reproduced since MIMIC gives control over every single managed object
instance of every device. Instead of using traffic generators, call
generators, or any other physical world device, MIMIC supplies an
environment that can run in a hands-off manner.

Equipment failure like microwave transceivers going down, network
malfunction or bad traffic conditions can easily be created. In
addition to making the local/remote WiMAX network management more
reliable, MIMIC reduces equipment costs, removes lab-sharing
headaches and makes the lab even larger than the production network.

MIMIC can simulate remote WiMAX sites and problems related to those
like delays, packet drops and alerts. It can send a storm of alerts
at any frequency, for as long as needed. The engineer doesn't have
to wait for a specific situation to occur.

The good news is that the engineer can freely experiment with adds
and changes to the network to test features like inventory
management - without the worry of the impact to the production
network. Resetting the original simulated environment is easily
accomplished with MIMIC.

MIMIC makes regression testing a snap by helping to create and save
different network scenarios. These tests can be run as many times as
necessary with minimal setup. Every time a new feature or a bug needs
to be tested, a new scenario to the regression tests can be added.
All this can be done without running around the physical lab and
worrying if all the devices are configured properly. Imagine the time
this would save in the testing procedure! In addition, these test
scenarios can be shared between developers and testers, so that the
unit tests that developers perform can be transferred to regression
tests. Another benefit is that MIMIC can be used by the sales force
or training group in order to demonstrate and train on the
effectiveness of the management software under varying conditions.

MIMIC includes a library of scripts and pre-configured large-scale,
multi-vendor networks. MIMIC also includes a discovery wizard, which
can record and duplicate any local/remote production or test lab
network for WiMAX. Using the applications in their duplicated network
environment gives engineers a personalized, accurate appraisal of the
software. MIMIC also offers an assurance that the software will
perform to specifications. There's no more guessing whether an
application will scale to meet the customer's current and future
needs. Engineers know exactly what to expect from the application -
and what not to expect - which greatly improves customer satisfaction
after the purchase.

MIMIC brings remote site WiMAX environmental conditions and equipment
within the reach of network administrators, by simulating both current
and future production environments.

If you would like to share how you are benefiting from MIMIC or
if there is an aspect of MIMIC that you would like discussed, please
let us know.

Best regards,

Gambit Communications, Inc.
http://www.gambitcomm.com

Application Brief: Sales Demonstrations

2007-06-27T09:31:00.000-07:00

Application Brief: Sales Demonstrations
Avaya Cuts Demo Costs with MIMIC™ Simulation Tool
MIMIC allows sales force to present dynamic, live CajunView™ Suite demos from laptops

Let’s face it – sales demos of networking gear and network management software are tough to pull off. Networks are complicated, and most vendors cannot afford to set up a demo network in every sales office. A demo, however, is the only way to show the complexities of software and reassure customers that hardware is “real.” Too often, a sales rep’s only option is to fly their customers to the corporate demo facilities. While these facilities are very nice, the networks in them are extremely expensive to build and maintain, have to be shared among sales reps and others that need the facility, and force the customer to commit to spending exponentially more time than they wanted getting a demo. No one will ever know the number of sales that could have been made if demo networks were available locally.

Until now, having a local demo network was a fantasy for most sales reps, but with MIMIC’s SNMP agent simulation technology, virtual demo networks can be set up on a single workstation. With such a “light” demo solution, demos can even be shown to customers right in their offices.

In the past, software and hardware vendors that wanted to bring a network demo to a potential customer had to ship huge boxes of equipment at high cost to the demo site. After the trauma of shipping, there was no guarantee that the devices would work, so smart vendors also sent spares. Set up was required by a technician – taking them out of the field. The cost of all this was exorbitant, including shipping, devices and personnel time. Sometimes after all that, the customer was called away on an emergency.

Today, MIMIC can record a live network, then make the simulation of the network devices available during a demo. For device vendors, they need only show the client one real device, then use the simulation to demonstrate how that hardware scales and how its management application is used. For software vendors, the MIMIC simulated network allows potential customers to experience the capabilities of even the most sophisticated management applications, without the cost of purchasing and lugging around third-party networking gear.

In the past, many sales have been made at vendor showcases – special set-ups where customers were invited to view hardware and software solutions locally. Imagine the increased success of sales teams, each armed with its own personal demo system!

In addition to individual sales demos, MIMIC is perfect for trade shows. MIMIC’s ability to record network scenarios, then play them back at trade shows really supports sales reps in explaining the benefits of their products. With MIMIC, reps are no longer limited to demonstrating their products on the few pieces of equipment available at the show – they can easily demonstrate even the scalability of their products through MIMIC’s ‘network-in-a-box’ capability. A picture’s worth a thousand words… seeing is believing… and demos sell – especially when vendors can show the extreme uses of their products through MIMIC.

Avaya Cuts Demo Costs with MIMIC™ Simulation Tool
MIMIC allows sales force to present dynamic, live CajunView™ Suite demos from laptops

The options for demonstrating networking hardware and the sophisticated software necessary to manage it are limited. Should vendors rent a truck, load it up with equipment and cabling and take it to the customer site? Where would they set it up once they get it there? Should they try to demo the software on the customer’s network? Would the customer allow access to the network for that? What types of unforeseen obstacles – potentially ruining the demo – would be encountered when installing software on a network for the first time? Or should vendors incur the cost to rent a conference room near the customer and spend hours setting up a system, only to have the customer reschedule? Or should they fly entourages of potential clients to a corporate demo center, only to find that one additional person who is key to the decision cycle is not included in the party?

These options consume time and money – not to mention the peril to the potential sale – requiring extensive personnel effort and capital resources. Due to these factors, actual demos of sophisticated networking equipment and network management software are often limited to “serious” customers who warrant the expenditure.

To solve this sales conundrum, Avaya decided to provide laptop-based demos of the complex software and hardware to enable sales force efficiency. Avaya tapped MIMIC, an SNMP agent simulation tool by Gambit Communications, for use in their CajunView Suite laptop demo.

CajunView provides a suite of SNMP-based applications for managing complex enterprise networks more easily. With this product, enterprises using Avaya Cajun Campus products can configure, monitor and control these devices using a single, integrated suite of applications — everything from device configuration to advanced switch monitoring and VLAN management.

Avaya’s CajunView engineers were already using MIMIC to provide simulations of Cajun devices in the test and development cycle, and had seen how it could solve the sales demo situation. MIMIC provided the ability to demonstrate the CajunView’s unique switched management, without building costly demo facilities or traveling shows.

Today, the sales force – which is charged with selling both CajunView and the Cajun switch line – can demo CajunView’s switched monitoring features right from their laptops. This demo mobility increases the number of potential customers that can see CajunView during the decision process, and may eventually lead to shorter sales cycles.

“With MIMIC simulating the hardware, the sales force can show CajunView exactly as they would on a live network,” said Bob Shaw, Marketing Engineer of Avaya. “Customers can see how CajunView handles alarms, how easily devices are diagnosed and configured, and how the different switched network segments are monitored simultaneously. And MIMIC is totally transparent to the sales force, so there’s no additional training time involved.”

Based on the SMON standard, which extends the RMON management standard to switched networks, Avaya’s SMON Master portion of CajunView provides simultaneous management of all switched segments in a network. Many offerings in the marketplace only allow the monitoring of one segment at a time, which makes CajunView an indispensable real-time management tool. MIMIC’s switch simulations allow this multi-segment management capability to be accurately and effectively demonstrated to customers. With MIMIC’s simulations, there is no difference between running a demo with a real device or a simulated device.

MIMIC’s demo scenarios are often more useful than with real networks, because many scenarios are difficult or impossible to create with real networks. For example, on a real network it is hard to create broadcast storms that suddenly grow disproportionately large, or malfunctioning NICs generating large CRC errors, or an Uplink that is causing an overload/congestion situation. MIMIC easily simulates and reproduces these scenarios. Avaya’s sales force can take advantage of this capability to show how SMON Master detects and resolves all these typical problem scenarios.

For the Avaya sales team, MIMIC has eliminated the expense of maintaining additional demo hardware and live demo facilities, as well as the time-consuming coordination of either setting up demos at customer sites or coordinating customer visits to demo centers. Eliminating the shipping of hardware for demos alone represents significant savings.

In addition, the sales team never needs to worry about whether demo equipment and facilities will be available – the demo capability on their laptop exactly duplicates CajunView’s functionality in a live network. From facility costs to equipment capital budgets to shipping costs and personnel administration time, using MIMIC’s simulation capabilities to automate the CajunView demo will create savings throughout Avaya’s sales and marketing organizations.

--

Founded in 1995, Gambit Communications is a leader in network and SNMP simulation tools that enhance the productivity of network management developers and enterprise users while lowering their costs.

Application Brief: Management Service Providers

2007-06-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

Application Brief: Management Service Providers
MIMIC Helps InteQ Manage

The basic tenant of network and systems management outsourcing is simple: turn over network and systems management to an organization that specializes in network management and focuses on nothing else. This provides personnel who are uniquely qualified to monitor and manage networks and have the know-how to meet the expectations of a service-level agreement. Customers that decide to outsource network and systems management want their environment to be monitored constantly and professionally. In addition, they do not want the hassle of daily operations and maintaining management personnel.

Theoretically, if an MSP or outsourcer adds clients to their roster, their economies of scale will allow a profit to be made in the venture. As clients are added, however, the complexity of the network and systems management knowledge necessary also increases along with the amount of customization necessary. Given this, how can MSPs and outsourcers effectively deal with the proliferation of networking devices? How can they keep employees’ training up-to-date? How can they provide the internal tools that help meet service level agreement clauses on network availability?

MIMIC™ SNMP Agent Simulator

MIMIC’s simulation capabilities for SNMP-based device recording and simulation provide one solution for dealing with theroliferation of network devices. Using MIMIC’s ability to capture information on real networked devices (including servers), users then have access to that information in a multi-functional virtual lab. Engineers can determine the impact of additional hardware by creating “what if” scenarios using the simulations. Programmers have access to the real hardware information needed for developing custom applications. Support personnel can also use the simulations for troubleshooting remote problems, by recording the remote network and working on the problem at their local lab. This results in a reduction of travel time and the associated expenses. In addition, simulations can be used to train network operators, administrators, and technicians in a “safe” environment that cannot be harmed by a learner’s mistakes or experimentation.

In addition, MIMIC allows MSPs and outsourcers to run disaster simulations without involving the actual, physical network. These disaster simulations provide an important way of assuring customers that their service-level agreements will be met, even in the event of a natural disaster, site outage or line cut. All these functions not only save time and money, but also make it possible to do many tasks that are not feasible within the physical lab environment.

Overall, by using MIMIC, MSPs can support their customers with a higher level of efficiency and quality and get a much greater ROI with the virtual lab.

Customer Profile: InteQ

“MIMIC was the only way to test this level of scalability for our services without bringing in dozens and dozens of servers and network devices.” Jay Martin, Director of Network Infrastructure Engineering, InteQ

MIMIC Helps InteQ Manage

InteQ’s InfraWatch™ is a management service that provides proactive monitoring, notification and Web-based reporting on the health of complex IT and Internet infrastructures. Charged with servicing enterprises whose infrastructures are comprised of all types of networking gear, servers, databases and applications from vendors around the world, how does InteQ assure customer satisfaction given this heterogeneous mix? By simulating its management services before implementing them.

When you’re the first Management Service Provider (MSP) on the market, you have to stay way ahead of the competition in terms of service offerings. In the MSP space, the more customers you take on, the more scalable and diverse your service has to be. You are expected to manage any brand of server or networking device, as well as the mission-critical applications that fuel daily business operations. So, how do you cope with the needs associated with managing large enterprise networks? One solution for InteQ is the MIMICTM Simulator and its SNMP agent simulation capabilities. By using the MIMIC Simulator before monitoring services are used in production, InteQ assures excellence in management and, therefore, customer satisfaction.

When InteQ decided to use a simulation tool, the engineers conducted an exhaustive search and test of all available alternatives. At the end of this rigorous exercise, they determined that the MIMIC Simulator was the best solution for many reasons, including:
MIMIC was the only simulation tool that had the scalability InteQ required for simulating tens of 1000s of nodes from multiple enterprise customer environments.
MIMIC’s extensive library supports virtually any SNMP-manageable object. The library is updated frequently, and there is a mechanism to easily add devices that are not in the library.
Only MIMIC has the capability to manipulate parameters and simulate different network conditions.
MIMIC runs on many platforms, including Linux and Solaris, which is very important to InteQ.

“In addition to these technical reasons,” said Jay Martin, Director of Network Infrastructure Engineering at InteQ, “the Gambit Communications personnel consistently exhibit a can do attitude given our unique business model. Everyone from the sales team to the technical staff was able to understand our requirements and package a solution that has really worked quite well for us. They really took the time to understand our needs and go the extra mile.”

InteQ is planning to implement use of MIMIC in both its R&D and operations areas. In R&D, MIMIC is used in the development of future enhancements to InteQ’s subscription-based services. These services include InfraWatch™, InfraStream™ for data correlation and analysis, as well as a reporting portal called InfraPortal™. MIMIC’s simulation capabilities are used to assure the scalability and reliability of enhancements to these services before they are put into production, managing customers’ IT environments.
“Our business model is based on a one-to-many model, which means that we must be able to provide 24x7 visibility to hundreds of customers and thousands of objects from a few Monitoring Points-Of-Presence™ (M-POPs™),” continued Martin. “MIMIC was the only way to test this level of scalability for our services without bringing in dozens and dozens of servers and network devices.” With MIMIC, InteQ can set up virtual customer labs that simulate real IT environments. By using virtual customer labs for test and development, InteQ will avoid the capital cost of setting up a massive physical lab, as well as the administration headaches associated with managing such labs. MIMIC allows InteQ’s engineers to get right to work on designing and testing new enhancements instead of designing and building physical test labs that are expensive, resource intensive and become obsolete quickly.

“With MIMIC, InteQ’s engineers are able to perform real-world simulations to test the performance, reliability, and look and feel of management services before they’re put into production,” said Stephen Elliot, E-Services Manager at InteQ. In addition, MIMIC easily allows InteQ’s engineers to develop custom management for their clients. When customers request the management of new devices, InteQ will be able to remove the guesswork from this process and meet the client’s needs right from the start. MIMIC allows InteQ to generate a list of events that the new device can generate, then review that list with the client to prioritize importance and set thresholds that meet the client’s individual needs. For many service providers, this process is fraught with guesswork after management begins, ending with frustration on the client side as the process draws out and useless events are generated.

In addition to R&D, InteQ’s operations personnel benefit from MIMIC’s simulation capabilities. InteQ has a 24x7 NOC that responds to infrastructure issues at clients’ sites. MIMIC can be used to train operations personnel when new applications and enhancements are made, before they’ are put into production. Training in a simulated environment allows operators the freedom to experiment with and learn new features, knowing that they cannot endanger the virtual customer network on which they are learning. In this way, operators can experience new alarms and events and be prepared for dealing with them when they appear while managing client networks.

With the help of MIMIC’s simulation capabilities, InteQ plans to continue to lead the MSP marketplace in introducing new and innovative management services. “Our company background in IT service management consulting and management services gives us the knowledge base to innovate and attract mid-sized and large enterprises to our service offerings,” summed up Elliot. “MIMIC allows us to quickly implement those innovations and meet the growing customer demand for IT management services.”

InfraWatch, InfraStream, Monitoring Points-of-Presence and M-POPs are trademarks of InteQ Corporation.

For more info, see www.gambitcomm.com.

Application Brief: Quality Assurance

2007-06-25T08:11:00.000-07:00

Application Brief - Quality Assurance
MIMIC Powers APC's Quest for Scalability

Software testing is a thankless job. It is always at the tail end of the development cycle, and the pressure to hurry and release the product is phenomenal. Of course, there are many types of testing all through the development cycle. Types of testing that require a lab with working networks include unit/module testing to spec, integration testing, acceptance testing, regression testing and documentation testing. And in larger organizations, each type of testing requires its own testing labs. The personnel that use these labs have the responsibility for assuring that software works in a variety of network environments, with multi-vendor hardware.

Testing is often looked down upon by "real engineers" who develop the product. Because of this, testing labs are sometimes not as well endowed with devices on which to test the network management applications. And because development comes before testing in each phase, development labs usually get first crack at any new equipment. Too often, testers are pitted against developers for the limited resources for building lab networks. But let one software problem slip out and the testing department is squarely placed with the blame, no matter who made the decision to ship.

How can companies assure the quality of their network management software products without spending all their profits on third-party devices? By investing in MIMIC, an SNMP simulator that allows them to build virtual networks ? even providing each tester with a virtual lab to work in. These "private labs" allow testers to concentrate on predicting what problems are going to occur, without interference from others that would normally share a physical lab. With MIMIC in the testing lab, management can be assured that the turf wars are eliminated and the testers are productive. MIMIC can even be used to record actual network configurations and bring them right into the lab, as part of the test plan. MIMIC allows testers to perform complete testing in all types of scenarios, providing more thorough testing. MIMIC's scalable scenarios allow testing of even extreme scenarios that would be virtually impossible in a physical lab. In addition, MIMIC makes regression tests a snap - MIMIC can record test scenarios, and then reply them. Scenarios can be run forward, backward, fast forward and fast backward at will - like a VCR! Imagine the time this would save in the testing procedure!

With MIMIC, testing proceeds faster, companies can have higher confidence in the level of software testing, and software products can be released to customers more quickly. And winning the time to market battle with the competition is more important than the internal developer vs. tester battle!

Customer Profile - APC
When APC needed assurance of software scalability, they turned to MIMIC ...

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"Without MIMIC, it would have been extremely difficult and costly to make the level of scalability claims that we do." C.J. Meiser, Senior Product Manager, APC
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MIMIC Powers APC's Quest for Scalability

When American Power Conversion (APC) needed assurance of software scalability, they turned to Gambit's MIMIC SNMP Agent Simulator Tool. APC, who develops the world's most advanced power management software for it's complete line of power protection equipment, was tasked by their customers to provide an application with inventory and status insight into enterprise-wide installations of APC's UPS systems. As the developers began working on this unique application, they realized that the testing required to validate the customers? scalability needs would be a challenge - a unique test bed for scalability would need to be built. In order to assure that the new PowerChute Inventory Manager could find the 1000s of APC devices typically installed across a customer's enterprise, engineers would need to spend massive amounts of time and capital to build a hardware lab just for testing the scalability of the new software. The undertaking was, frankly, cost prohibitive.

In searching for scalability testing alternatives, APC decided to use an SNMP Agent Simulator - a tool that could simulate their devices and allow the use of those virtual devices in virtual test beds. For numerous reasons, APC chose Gambit's MIMIC for the job.

"We looked at other simulators, but MIMIC was easier to use. It also supports Linux, which we use in our development environment. Basically, our biggest requirement was scalability, and MIMIC was the only product on the market that fit the bill," said Brad Hammond, Software Program Manager, APC.

APC's developers used MIMIC to "record" the device MIBs for the APC product set, including the APC SNMP Software Agent and the Web/SNMP Management Card - a card that makes managing APC UPSs a snap. The web card provides APC?s customers the ability to manage, configure and control their power protection devices via SNMP, Telnet or even HTTP. MIMIC was then used to simulate the devices and Web Cards. Simulation scenarios were created with 1000's of devices - just like a customer's enterprise - and the claim of managing 10,000 devices was substantiated.

In the later development phases - integration, alpha test, and beta test - MIMIC was used by the development team (both by developers and QA engineers) to assure that the scalability of the new product held true through each phase. In many companies, scalability testing is often put off until the end of development cycles, if it is done at all. Many companies test scalability when their products are installed in a customer's network - not a particularly good time to uncover issues! With MIMIC, APC's engineers had the assurance early in the development cycle that their PowerChute Inventory Manager software would meet their customers' scalability requirements.

APC attributes huge cost savings to MIMIC. The entire cost of building a physical scalability lab was avoided - including the capital expense and administration costs. In addition, APC did not have to assign development resources to creating scalability tests. As a result, APC's developers were able to focus on the PowerChute Inventory Manager?s functionality, and insure it worked to specification and was of the highest quality.

Caption for the image: PowerChute managing 10,000 APC devices simulated by MIMIC.

--

Founded in 1995, Gambit Communications is a leader in network and SNMP simulation tools that enhance the productivity of network management developers and enterprise users while lowering their costs.

76 Northeastern Blvd., Suite #30B Nashua, NH 03062
(603) 889 5100
Fax 603-889-5005
www.gambitcomm.com

Network Simulators for Solving Budget Problems

2007-06-22T07:34:00.000-07:00

Network Simulators for Solving Budget Problems
By Pankaj Shah

Until recently, the only way for IT professionals to evaluate enterprise management
applications – either element managers, frameworks like HP OpenView NNM, or value-
added applications – was to use it with their production network, or have an extensive
multi-vendor hardware test lab. Using the mission-critical production network for testing
is very risky, whereas a test lab can become very costly and can be time and space
consuming. The equipment needs setup, maintenance and regular updating of devices
and software releases. Current IT budget cuts require an alternative to the physical lab.

A typical scenario of a management application managing multiple devices over a LAN/WAN.

An Enterprise Management Solution — “Virtual Lab”

The use of a simulated “virtual” lab can eliminate the need for or expand the scope of an
existing physical lab. Enterprises can enhance the lab environment by simulating scores
of manageable devices, such as routers, hubs, switches, probes, workstations, cable
modems and printers.

MIMIC Virtual Lab simulating thousands of devices from leading network management companies
over a LAN/WAN.

A virtual lab combines many simulated devices and connections. In the real world, each
manageable device contains an embedded software agent that accepts management
commands through a standardized protocol. Device simulation in the context of a
simulator means creating a software agent that is manageable in the same way as the
real physical device would be, typically through multiple management protocols. A good
management simulator needs to support protocols like SNMP, Telnet, DHCP and TFTP.
Additionally, Cisco devices use IOS and many devices also use TL1 for management.

SNMP protocol simulation makes it possible to manage the device by getting and
changing the information in the management information bases (MIBs). These MIBs can
be public or private. Manipulating the MIBs helps in simulating any number and any type
of resource within the device.

Telnet is a common way to manage high-end routers. The users can login to the device
and configure it using a command line interface. For example, to manage a Cisco
router, the user can give different IOS commands over a Telnet connection. The
devices in the virtual lab can also be accessed using Telnet and IOS just like real
devices.

With DHCP simulation, the devices can obtain their IP address dynamically from the
DHCP server just like a real device. Devices can download their configuration
information dynamically with TFTP simulation.

The virtual lab combines simulated devices with an interconnection exactly like a
physical lab. You can then change the interconnections and topology. All these
topologies and devices can be saved and replayed as needed. The management
applications can interact with the simulations within the virtual lab just as they would
with real-world devices.

Possible Ways to Create Simulations:

Record – The easiest way to create a simulation is by mimicking an existing device in
your lab. The simulation recording proceeds just like many management discovery
tools, sending out pings to find managed devices. For SNMP discovery, the recordings
are the values in the MIB, including system name, type, number of interfaces, types of
interfaces, different activities on each interface, etc.

Simulate – The information recorded by the recording tool can be used by the simulator
as a starting point. The simulation can interpolate the values to create run-time values.
The virtual device gets created in the same state as it was recorded, for example
preserving the network connections by using the recorded routing tables or IP
configuration tables.

Customize – Once the simulation is created, it is easy to modify the simulated network
parameters like IP addresses, interfaces, packet rates, etc. by modifying the MIB
variables. For example, you can first create a device with 100 Ethernet and 50 ATM
interfaces, and later on add or remove interfaces.

These tasks can be done graphically, or programmatically using built-in functions and
by writing scripts using Java, C++, Tcl or Perl. You can also associate side effects to
certain events. For example, if an interface of a router goes down, you can disconnect
devices reached through that interface. You can also add delays to simulate long
distance connections or drop packets to simulate faulty links.

If the simulator allows importing ready-made networks and devices, then you can short
cut the initial steps of recording and customizing.

Operate – Once a device simulation is created and configured, you can start, stop,
pause, and halt it – individually or in a group. Each device has its own IP address in any
desired subnet. For example, you can create a topology with 192.3.100.*, 160.2.5.* and
193.9.200.* subnets.

It is easy to introduce dynamic changes into the simulation, such as enabling/disabling
interfaces, increasing or decreasing packet rates, and changing the traffic pattern by
simply changing MIB variables. An MIB browser/editor is useful in looking at the MIB
and making changes. With a simulator you get the flexibility to concentrate on the MIBs
of relevance in solving your specific problem.

A particular device can be simulated in any number of scenarios, just as in the real
world. For example, you can simulate a lightly loaded or overburdened router by
reducing or increasing input/output packet and error rates. You can make it a very faulty
device by having it generate a trap storm.

Command line interfaces are more proprietary even than enterprise-specific MIBs. A
Telnet recorder can generate an initial simulation from recording the command line
conversation, but this will need more customization before being useful. The reason is
that the semantic dependencies between different managed resources and
management interfaces cannot be deduced purely by recording. The goal of the
simulation is to have the management interfaces interact seamlessly. For example,
changing some parameters via Telnet should impact the correct MIB objects, and vice
versa.

A virtual lab overcomes the budget and resource constraints by allowing users to set up
extensive labs with software. Enterprises can provide each IT professional, developer,
tester, trainer and salesperson a private, virtual lab. The alleviation of the overhead and
administrative headaches of physical equipment and an increase in efficiency are the
end result. Therefore, the virtual lab’s applications within an enterprise are virtually
unlimited. Some of the most common applications include evaluation before
deployment, disaster simulation, operator training and infrastructure planning.

Generally, in companies with a physical lab, there are multiple teams with different
needs sharing the same lab. With a virtual lab, every member of the organization can
have his or her own network on his or her own machine all the time. This results in
significantly greater efficiencies within an enterprise.

On the other hand, just like a flight simulator cannot be used to fly passengers, a virtual
lab cannot be deployed in the production network. Also, any simulation is going to have
short-comings versus the real-thing: in this context this means that IOS commands may
be missing, or commands may behave and look slightly different. Creating a virtual
environment, with a physical lab or with a simulation is subject to a set of requirements.
The goal of any simulation is to come as close as possible to achieving those
requirements with minimal effort, whether it be for development, testing or training.

The implementation of a virtual lab within an enterprise — large or small — represents a
significant value proposition. The bottom line for an enterprise is simple: simulation tools
save both time and money by preventing network downtime.

Make vs. Buy

Make

While creating a physical lab, you need to consider the following:
1. Capital Expenses – for network infrastructure, devices, firewall, cabling and other
test instruments like protocol analyzer, traffic generator, etc.
2. Lab space and fixture expense
3. Engineering labor cost – for setup and maintenance
4. Risks – of equipment, connector or cable failure, natural disasters, equipment
misuse and network downtime
5. Sharing – how many people or group will share the lab
6. Updates – for new devices, software versions, etc.

Or Buy

You can buy a simulator product, which will not have any major lab capital expense or
maintenance headaches. It is easy to share it or just keep it private, but the most
important benefit is if you make a mistake you can restart. If you need to run the same
tests frequently (regression tests), you don’t need to worry about setting up the devices
and connections. You can just save different network configurations and load them as
needed.

Of course, once you have a physical lab, you can then use it for multiple purposes. For
example, you can use the router to do the routing of your actual traffic, or use a PC for
your accounting application. If you are going to use devices purely for the testing,
evaluation or training purposes, then the virtual lab will be a solid alternative.

Pankaj Shah is founder and CEO of Gambit Communications Inc.), a leading provider of
network and SNMP simulation tools like MIMIC SNMP Simulator. He can be reached at
(603) 881-3500 or by e-mail at pankaj@gambitcomm.com. For additional information, visit
www.SNMPSimulation.com.

TechRepublic: Create a virtual router lab using Gambit's MIMIC

2007-06-21T14:11:00.000-07:00

Check out this post at TechRepublic:

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-6350_11-5435104.html

Practice That Profits

2007-06-21T13:58:00.000-07:00

Practice That Profits

Simulation-based exercises in HP’s Education Services’ curriculum helps enterprise
customers ensure hands-on proficiency of network administrators in ways that matter
by Tracy Avent and Paul Pappas

Within HP Education Services, IT service management for the enterprise gets a lot of attention, and deservedly so. The costs of inefficient processes or, worse, downtime and system unavailability are widely known to be staggering. With IT organizations so motivated, it is only natural that HP service management courses emphasize service delivery. But it also follows that IT organizations complete their learning practice, develop their management processes, and fully hone their skills.

The value of thorough training is clearly evident when students are back at their console and look at trouble tickets. If they’ve practiced handling real problems and gain proficiency at responding, then service level management for the enterprise gets a real boost in ways that were not otherwise possible. The difficulty faced by HP Education Services, however, is providing students with real life infrastructures and situations. Imagine the expense and complications of setting up practice networks to any realistic degree in order to test students with a wide variety of element configurations and other conditions that degrade service levels.

For this reason, simulations enabled by MIMIC Simulator technology from Gambit Communications have a key place in some of the curricula of HP’s Educational Services. The simulation exercises featured in several courses give students hands-on work that reinforces theoretical knowledge with experience and accelerates their proficiency.

HP Education Services uses MIMIC in a number of lab exercises, either
demonstrating HP NNM’s extended topology features, or enabling students to
practice and actually query emulated devices as though these existed on the
network.

The Case for Classroom Simulations

"In IT management, the key to the change process is efficiency,” observes Reid Shay, consultant and author of the book, Impacting Business, a Simple Model of IT Management. "Learning from past experience and repeating what works make IT departments more efficient. If experience can be gained through simulation, without actually deploying hardware and software, so much the better. This is particularly valuable in preventing over-provisioning."

Take a close look at the role of simulations in training to enhance the every-day management of enterprise networks. A good case in point is HP Education Service’s course for HP OpenView Network Node Manager (NNM), a Level III course, which is designed to build network administrators’ mastery over the enterprise topology. It employs network simulations to illustrate the latest and most advanced features of NNM, including its Layer 2 Management and Event Correlation Services, and also discusses emerging technologies such as Active Problem Analyzer.

In this particular course the instructors use MIMIC in a number of lab exercises, either demonstrating the extended topology features, or enabling students to practice and actually query emulated devices as though these existed on the network. HP NNM’s extended topology feature set primarily focuses on vendor-specific connective device feature recognition and monitoring.

Table 1. Enterprise-level justification for expert network device simulation:
• Reduces hardware costs by a factor of 10 to 1,000
• Provides total cost savings of 92% over a physical lab, based on 100 devices
• Saves the time and costs of engineering labor
• Creates large-scale, multi-vendor labs that would otherwise not be possible
• Produces realistic disaster scenarios and develop successful responses
• Reproduces scenarios for regression testing, demos, and training
• Diminishes sales and marketing expenses to produce powerful product demos
• Determines an NMS application’s optimum performance before deploying
• Trains each new engineer on the appropriate NMS applications in private, virtual labs
Source: Gambit Communications, Inc.

Whether used to create a replica network environment for classroom training (or to have a realistic environment in the lab for testing product developments), the purchase cost for network devices is so expensive, and subsequent maintenance such a major undertaking, that it is normally not feasible to offer high-end courses without some strategy for emulations, simulations, or group-shared equipment.

HP Training an Exercise in Realism

In the NNM III course, HP Educational Services deploys MIMIC on the lab network to simulate vendor devices, allowing interaction with NNM Extended Topology discovery, mapping and event stream features. Students in the classroom labs know the bridges and router devices they are working with are simulated rather than actually present. The “live” MIMIC devices respond to ICMP and SNMP queries and send traps as though running on the network.

Students frequently ask questions about the MIMIC simulator, seeing its potential for their own staff training environments ⎯ and even installing it at their companies in order to improve their internal test bed processes. This understanding is important because most companies consider their production environments untouchable, i.e., they cannot afford to risk down time because of the likely financial impact.

Contrast the above “live” use of MIMIC in the Level III class with its use in the Level I class to provide static or offline training. In the Level I class students use a variety of Web-based Extended Topology mapping features and interact with icons derived from an up-loaded MIMIC-derived simulation database. Extended Topology is a major NNM new feature set, and MIMIC indirectly provides a means for HP Education to help students grow familiar with some of the NNM Extended Topology concepts.

The Fort Collins HP OpenView Business Unit’s lab used MIMIC to build a very portable and effective interactive demonstration of basic Extended Topology features. This demonstration figures prominently in some of the NNM I course labs, as though ET has already been configured. Instructors cover ET configuration topics in more detail in the level III course, where the live MIMIC server must be present. The different uses of MIMIC amount to a reasonably efficient and economical use of the classroom setup and equipment logistics resources.

For the NNM courses, a mix of beta site live data, test bed and HP lab equipment are used. The MIMIC solution includes ready-to-use simulations for many vendor devices. When developing the class, HP Education Services used MIMIC’s “record” capability to create additional device simulations so that customers could see these operate as well. Recording is the simplest way to create simulations, by representing “private enterprise” MIBs for an existing device on the network.

MIMIC Device Library: Instructors preparing classes for HP customers can select ready-
simulated devices from different manufacturers.

Once students realize what the simulation technology is accomplishing for their lab work, they are quite enthusiastic and confident about the skills they are developing. When students work through certain steps of the lab exercises, HP instructors can change simulations to represent some common problems with the device configuration by having the devices respond with improper information. It gives them the highly interactive means to do some troubleshooting of Extended Topology features, while also enabling instructors to focus their classes on how the features work when they are configured correctly rather than when they are misconfigured.

One can readily see how students can practice working, using simulations of standard MIB structures and even proprietary MIB structures and generation of traps. Prior to using MIMIC, the instruction on Extended Topology was limited to only demos and theoretical discussion.

Practice That Makes Perfect Everyday

Using MIMIC it is possible to simulate a variety of scenarios that students might shortly face back at their workplace. For example, an instructor can dynamically simulate for students a router, lightly loaded at first, becoming overloaded by changing the input/output packet error rates. In the NNM III course the instructor can misconfigure the device agent so students can experience some basic troubleshooting principles and see the effects of certain trap types. This can be accomplished either interactively or through pre-defined scripts.

HP’s NNM developer team uses MIMIC to build test beds and develop product
software in order to emulate certain kinds of connective devices and technology
because investments in the actual hardware equipping the classroom network
would be prohibitive.

The Level III training is equipped to teach and help students practice everything they’ll need to do to manage the enterprise network including:

• Activate and verify automatic zone configuration
• Configure protocols for extended topology discovery
• Update SNMP configuration
• Enable/start/manage/stop NNM extended topology discovery processes
• Check discovery status

As students work through their lab exercises they will see the MIMIC Virtual Lab GUI
showing a network of routers and switches, similar to this view.

Long-playing Record of Success

HP Education Services is also experimenting with much more sophisticated emulations that can be used for further enhancement of course lab opportunities. Already underway is a proof-of-concept for making training on NNM III and other HP management tools interactive over the Web, as a virtual classroom, including access to web-enabled lab equipment.

Perhaps it is not surprising that HP’s use of MIMIC extends back for several years. Several HP business units have been using MIMIC to test product technologies since shortly after MIMIC was first released. HP’s NNM developer team uses MIMIC to build test beds and develop product software (in order to emulate certain kinds of connective devices and technology because investments in the actual hardware for their development/test network would be prohibitive.)

This prior experience led to using MIMIC in the Level I and III NNM training. Typically, HP Education Services works closely with HP product business units because when the product comes rolling out, appropriate educational course materials are needed almost immediately. The group, in fact, worked in parallel with the HP NNM product development team and was using MIMIC early on to develop course materials, as well as to simplify product feature demos in the field. It was clear even then that MIMIC could be used to focus and enhance some of the customers’ educational experiences, adding levels of realism for training that was not previously possible.

About the Authors

Tracy Avent is an Education Consultant with Hewlett-Packard for 15 years, and providing specialized instruction for managing the HP OpenView solutions for 10 years.

Paul Pappas is VP of Business Development for Gambit Communications Inc., a leading provider of network and SNMP simulation tools including MIMIC SNMP Simulator. Paul can be reached at (603) 889-5100 or by email at paul@gambitcomm.com. For additional information visit
www.gambitcomm.com.

2007-06-21T13:23:00.000-07:00

Disaster Preparedness and Training

Gambit’s MIMIC Simulator Helps Keep SITA Flying High: Simulation-based exercises prepare network staff for smooth handling of outages and disasters to assure business delivery.

by Bill Cicci and Pankaj Shah

When you're the largest provider of products and services that help air transport companies with everything from reservations to baggage tracking to in-flight communications, high availability of your production network is critical to support your operations. Having an available network impacts your business' ability to generate revenue. SITA realizes that disasters strike when you least expect them. This poses a particular challenge in the IT world. The inability of a company’s network to recover from a disaster quickly can have a significant impact on the bottom line.

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“Network availability is vital for Enterprises business. This implies a need for thorough evaluation and testing of network applications and training of the staff. MIMIC Simulator represents a paradigm shift from using the traditional lab by providing a practical and cost-effective way to prepare for disasters.” David Seifert, Manager, SITA
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Few companies properly plan for this, because it is difficult to envision and reproduce all the possible scenarios that can cause outages. When companies create a network availability and recovery plan, several objectives must be considered. They need to ensure that the IT staff:

1) is familiar with the network topology and configurations;

2) can use the network management applications effectively;

3) knows all the outage scenarios that could occur;

4) is trained with the appropriate responses; and,

5) tests and verifies all recovery procedures for effectiveness.

Having incorporated these objectives, how is it possible to evaluate the plan’s effectiveness? Traditionally two options have existed: practicing on the production network or in a physical test lab. Both options have downsides that cannot be ignored.

Practicing on the production network exposes the company to a potentially enormous risk. A training mishap could damage the network and create a real disaster. Therefore, this is not a viable option.

In comparison, a physical lab seems to be a better option, since the production network cannot be harmed. However, the physical lab is typically a scaled-down version of the production network and cannot produce the true scope of a disaster’s effects on the entire network. In a physical lab it is also difficult to create conditions similar to those that occur during a disaster.

Do what Airline Pilots do

Much like airline pilots use flight simulators to train for routine and disaster situations, MIMIC Simulator provides the same benefit to IT personnel. The well-being of a company’s entire infrastructure relies entirely on the IT staff. Like pilots, there is no room for panic when a disaster occurs. Having been trained using a “virtual lab”, they have the knowledge to handle any situation with confidence.

MIMIC’s recording of the network also serves as a record of all the installed managed devices. The IT staff simply makes scheduled recordings of the network, so that changes are easily tracked. This allows a company to recreate the network if physical damage occurs. Using a simulator with a topology tool, companies can also create a topology of their network and reproduce the network’s physical connections as they existed before the disaster.

SITA’s Simulation Lab is made up of actual physical infrastructure and other devices within budgetary limits. MIMIC is used to “fill in the gaps” to better emulate a fully populated environment without incurring substantial additional costs. With MIMIC providing the virtual devices simulation and testing results are less apt to be skewed.

MIMIC Virtual Lab is a powerful and effective tool for practicing disaster preparedness. It also produces a significant return on investment in the following ways. First, companies can simulate many more devices compare to a physical lab. Secondly, and most importantly, a well trained and well prepared IT staff can recover from any disaster in a timely manner. This limits network downtime and in turn limits revenue loss. Thirdly, it avoids the headaches of setting up, maintaining and sharing a physical lab.

Everyone hopes that a disaster never occurs in his or her company, but if it does, better policies will be in place to cope with it.

Other Applications of a Virtual Lab

By implementing a virtual lab using MIMIC, IT professionals can easily create environments and conditions that would otherwise be impossible. MIMIC significantly decreases the total cost of ownership of a lab, since it eliminates the need to buy costly devices. The virtual lab’s applications within an enterprise are virtually unlimited. Therefore, enterprises will enjoy a more productive IT staff and a more effective and reliable implementation of NMS applications and policy scripts.

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“For enterprise users seeking economies in the evaluation, introduction and enhancement of new SNMP management products - MIMIC should be particularly worthwhile. “ Dennis Drogseth, Enterprise Management Associates
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Evaluation before deployment: Evaluating network management applications – from layered applications to value-added applications – poses a challenge for most enterprises. MIMIC’s recording and simulation capability changes all that. It can record the enterprise’s network, then use that recording as input for a simulation of the network. Management applications can then be run against this “virtual network” – a network that is identical to the enterprise’s production network. The IT staff is then free to evaluate all NMS applications in the same environment. They can run tests such as disabling devices and/or interfaces, generating a trap storm to see how the management application reacts. They are also free to experiment with additions and changes to the network to test future scenarios without worrying about the impact to the production network.

Using the applications in their duplicated network environment can give enterprises an accurate appraisal of the management software. The IT staffs then has the assurance that the software will perform to specifications. There is no longer any guess work involved trying to determine whether or not an application will scale to meet their current and future needs.

SITA will also use MIMIC to help in the evaluation of new SNMP applications and "plug-ins" to HPOV.

Operator training: Providing operator training for new management applications poses a challenge forchallenge for all companies. Everyone understands the benefits of operator training in allowing employees to perform their jobs with greater success. When new management software or networking devices are introduced, the operator-training problem is compounded. Company personnel need to get up to speed quickly in order to perform their jobs with the new product.

The virtual lab networks can become as extensive and complex, as the trainer would like, which allows them to teach fully the capabilities of the element manager or network management application. Students get the opportunity to practice “real world” scenarios – both positive and negative – which would be impossible with a physical network. By using a virtual lab the operators can receive higher quality training. The training lab is not limited to a network made up of only a few devices. It can be as complex as the production network. In addition to classroom training, a virtual lab lends itself to automated training so students can learn independently of structured classes. The students then have flexibility in their schedules.

Overall, with its ability to hold down hardware expenses, to enable training to be scheduled before devices are even on the shelves, and to reduce training lab administration, a virtual lab provides the solution for today’s operator training program.

SITA would like to see MIMIC used in their Training Department for training Site Administrators and NOC personnel when it comes to the use of HPOV and the SITA specific "enhancements".

Infrastructure planning: For IT professionals, infrastructure planning represents a very difficult task. It is practically impossible to determine in a reliable manner a management software’s capacity for future growth. Many IT professionals must rely on the claims of management application about their products. Alternatively, administrators can add a series of devices to their network in order to ensure that their NMS application can adequately manage a larger number of heterogeneous devices. In many cases doing so is not practical due to financial and resource constraints. However, the implementation of a virtual lab provides IT professionals with an environment where they can truly evaluate their management applications’ ability to manage the network infrastructure as it expands.

In addition, tests can be performed in order to see if this configuration would cause stress in other areas of the network or on certain other devices or applications. Once testing has been performed within the virtual lab environment, IT professionals can confidently report to management whether or not the current network will be viable well into the future. If not, he or she will be able to suggest the specific measures that should be taken in order to address the issue.

About the Authors

Bill Cicci is a Network Solutions Engineer at SITA. He works on engineering of Systems and Network Management solutions. SITA is the world's leading provider of global Information Technology and Telecommunications (IT&T) solutions to the air transport and related industries.

Pankaj Shah is the CEO and co-founder of Gambit Communications, Inc. In order to learn more about MIMIC Simulator and how to create a “virtual lab”, Pankaj can be reached at (603) 889-5100 or by email at pankaj@gambitcomm.com. For additional information visit
www.gambitcomm.com.

What is MIMIC Virtual Lab CCNA

2007-06-20T07:42:00.000-07:00

MIMIC Virtual Lab creates a real world lab environment with a network of Cisco Routers and Switches. It gives hands-on learning experience without buying expensive equipment.

MIMIC Virtual Lab CCNA comes in two versions: MIMIC Virtual Lab CCNA and
MIMIC Virtual Lab CCNA Plus.
The features below apply to both the versions.

MIMIC Virtual Lab is for beginners interested in familiarizing themselves with the complex environment and for intermediate or expert users looking to sharpen their skills and move to a higher level. It provides a safe environment to practice. You don't have to worry about bringing down the equipment/network and affecting other users.

MIMIC gives Network Engineers the ability to practice for CCNA and other certifications instead of just reading instructions. It enables Training organizations to supply a Virtual lab to students with the classroom training or e-learning courses. Students can interact with Routers and Switches, just like with real devices.

The Lab

Interact with the routers and switches, just like real devices:

Network of 7 devices

Cisco Routers (2620, 3640 and 7206)

Four Cisco Switches (2950, 3550 (2) and 6500)

A large set of IOS Commands for Router and Switch operations

LAN, WAN, ISDN and Serial links

Ability to Reconfigure the lab

Users can Telnet in to any of these devices as if they are connecting to real devices. You can open as many Telnet connections as the device supports. Users can also connect to it using a Console connection. It fully supports Cisco IOS® software.

Lab Exercises and Tutorials
The lab includes many Exercises and Tutorials. This shows some samples:

Tutorial: Basic IOS command line interface

Tutorial: Configure OSPF routing protocol

Tutorial: Configure a default route

Tutorial: Configure a serial line

Tutorial: Configure Standard Access List on Firewall Routers

Tutorial: Configure Extended Access List on Firewall Routers

Tutorial: Configure RIP routing protocol

Tutorial: Configure BGP routing protocol

Tutorial: Configure EIGRP routing protocol

Tutorial: Configure eBGP mode BGP routing

Tutorial: Configure OSPF multiple-area routing

Tutorial: Configure Frame Relay

Tutorial: Configure NAT

Tutorial: Configure VLAN

Quiz: Neighbor device information

and many more ...

Device Operations

Logging in/out

Get into and out of different modes - User, Privileged, Configuration, Interface

Set passwords, IP addresses, clock rates, hostname, bandwidth

Assign routing protocols - RIP, IGRP, EIGRP, BGP, OSPF, IS-IS

Ping other devices in the lab

Save/load configurations

Boot using flash or TFTP protocol

Configuration of ISDN, CDP, PPP, Frame Relay ACL and NAT protocols

and many other functions required for certifications

Lab Operations

Start/Stop devices, individually or in a group

Reconfigure the lab by adding and removing connections between the devices

Save/Load a configuration of the network

View configuration information of a device or the entire network

Troubleshoot

View the topology with connections and addresses

Open Telnet sessions

Context sensitive help

MIMIC Virtual Lab CCNA Plus
This is a networked version of MIMIC Virtual Lab CCNA. It includes all of the above features and more:

Fully connected to the network

Support for SNMP

Support for SYSLOG

Telnet in to any device from any remote machine.

Discover and configure the lab/devices using Cisco Network Management applications such as CiscoWorks, CiscoWorks 2000, CiscoView and CEMF (CDM, GSR Manager), just like real devices. All the changes done using IOS are visible via management applications and vice versa.

Features of MIMIC SNMP Agent Simulator

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MIMIC Features

1. Multiple Agents in One Box

Simulate up to 20,000 SNMP agent instances on one computer.

Each agent instance has its own IP (or IPv6) addresses on any subnet.

Each SNMPv1 agent has independent read and write SNMP community strings.

Each SNMPv3 agent has independent USM and VACM parameters.

Each agent instance has its own notion of uptime, eg. one can be running for 100 days, while another has just started.

2. Customized SNMP Simulation

Select any subset of supported MIBs for each agent instance.

Use any of the 2000+ pre-compiled MIBs for devices from the leading networking companies.

Run any mix of the supplied actual device simulations from the device library, among them are Cisco, Lucent, Nortel, Marconi, Alcatel, 3Com and many more.

Build your own SNMP simulation.

3. Agent Instance Configuration

Configure each agent instance individually or collectively.

Control each MIB object instance of each agent instance independently or as relationships.

4. Extensible Environment

Add any MIB to the SNMP simulation by compiling it with the MIMIC Compiler

Create basic simulations of actual devices with the MIMIC Recorder

Extend the simulation with standard scripting languages.

Customize the simulations with a powerful simulation language.

5. Real-time Modifiable Simulations

Use the MIB browser to manipulate each MIB object simulation independently at run-time.

Configure the simulation via batch scripts for automated regression testing or hands-off product demonstration.

Pause simulations to investigate a particular problem, and resume at any point in time.

6. Configurable Trap Generation

Configure arrival rate, cutoff time, variable values, etc. on a per trap basis in real-time and generate trap storms.

Take snapshots with the Trap Wizard to replicate exact trap sequences.

7. Recording Environment

Take snapshots of real world scenarios and simulate them almost immediately.

Discover large networks with Discovery Wizard.

Create dynamic simulations over time with Snapshot Wizard.

What is MIMIC Simulator

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MIMIC Simulator offers a unique and an inexpensive way to create a real world lab environment. It provides an interactive hands-on lab for quality assurance, development, marketing, sales, evaluation, deployment and training of enterprise management applications. It creates a customizable virtual environment populated with devices like routers, hubs, switches, probes, cable modems and workstations.

The most common uses of this versatile suite are:

Development and Testing: Management application developers can implement their products quickly and test reliably.

Evaluation: Enterprises can evaluate the suitability of applications with anticipated failure and growth scenarios, or qualify purchases before deployment.

Trade Shows: Marketing can setup powerful "live" demonstrations at trade shows.

Sales Demos: Sales can tailor presentations to the individual customer's environment.

Training Environments: Realistic training scenarios can explore all possible cases. Training environment can be portable rather than based on the classroom.

MIMIC^® SNMP Agent Simulator

MIMIC SNMP Agent Simulator creates a network of up to 20,000 SNMP-manageable devices per 64-bit Intel-based PC (Itanium), AMD-based PC (AMD64) or Sun Sparc, or 10,000 per 32-bit Intel-based PC (x86), AMD-based PC (E86) or Sun Sparc. With support for any SNMP-based device you can run a large variety of device configurations with your SNMP management application.

MIMIC simulated devices respond to SNMPv1, SNMPv2C and SNMPv3 queries on any of its configured IP (or IPv6) addresses. It appears to the SNMP Network Management Application as if it is talking to actual devices. Each device has its own IP addresses, independent read and write SNMPv1 community strings or SNMPv3 USM and VACM parameters, and notion of uptime. Devices can be configured at run-time, both on an individual and collective basis.

MIMIC ships with a large number of pre-compiled MIBs, networks and devices from the leading networking companies. The MIMIC Compiler can compile any SMI-compliant MIB to extend your set of devices.

A suite of predefined scenarios is provided to investigate all the possibilities you can face in your mission-critical environment. For example, realistic behavior can be modeled for a range of traffic conditions over a shorter period of time. Or, a constant simulation can be used for automated regression testing.

The MIMIC Recorder can be used to import data from real-world devices to easily create realistic, starting simulations. A simulation language can be used to create custom simulations.

Gambit Communications Blog

Social Security Administration is looking for an NMS system

New Year offer: practice 1 week for your CCNA for $9

http://www.selftestsoftware.com/gen.aspx?pn=p00555&pf=pageWe have a limited New Year promotion: rent your own MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud CCNA practice lab for less than half the regular price: $9 for one week. Valid until Monday January 9, 2012 only on our Facebook wall

Gambit Communications Receives International Green Apple Award - Winner - Fourth Year in a Row

Are you ready for the CCNA exam?

Anatomy of a virtual network management training appliance

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 11.30 interoperability testing

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 11.30 performance for 50,000 agents

MIMIC Simulator rent-to-own program

Practice for your CCNA and win cash

Get ready for your CCNA: A new contest with $70 grand prize

Double the CCNA practice time on MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud

For a short time, we have increased demo pod time from 30 minutes to 1 hour.Practice for your CCNA for free!

http://www.gambitcomm.com/live/

Scale with MIMIC Simulator and get 30,000 additional devices

Tested MIMIC 11.20 on VectorLinux 7.0 RC1

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 11.20 runs on Fedora 15 LXDE spin

Gambit Facebook followers weekly drawing for 1-week CCNA pod ($20 value)

Get ready for your CCNA: A new contest with $70 grand prize

Changing statistics values in MIMIC SNMP Simulator

Study for the Cisco CCNA certification and win cash

MIMIC SNMP Simulator at Tokyo Interop

MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud integrates Twitter-based real-time chat

MIMIC Simulator helps Fed Tech to provide Network Management Solutions to Federal Customers

MIMIC SNMP Simulator now supports SNMPv4...

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 11.00 now supported on Oracle Solaris 11

Cheating on certification exams is nothing new

Internet runs out of addresses

Cash for academic achievement: contest on MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud

MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud now supports SSH access

MIMIC 11.00 released - new NetFlow Simulator, 50,000 agents

Kaplan IT / Transcender recommends MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud

iCCNAlab 5.50 for Apple iPhone / iPod / iPad

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.30 runs on Fedora 14 LXDE spin

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.30 runs on Puppy Linux 5.1.1

MIMIC 10.30 Performance Test Report: Linux vs. Windows

Options for CCNA study

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.30 runs on Slackware 13.1

MIMIC 10.30 Performance Test Report: Windows 64-bit bakeoff

MIMIC 10.30 Performance Test Report: Windows 32-bit bakeoff

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.30 runs on Fedora 13 LXDE spin

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.30 runs out-of-the-box on Knoppix 6.2

New MIMIC Application Brief: Port Scanner and Sweeper Testing

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.30 runs on antiX-M8.5

MIMIC SNMP Simulator runs on MEPIS Linux 8.5

MIMIC 10.30 Performance Test Report: High-scalability (64-bit) Linux bakeoff

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.30 Performance Report: Linux Bakeoff

Mibtree Provides Training for Multiple Network Management Applications using MIMIC Simulator Suite

MIMIC SNMP Simulator on Debian GNU/Linux 5.04

10 new H3C devices for MIMIC SNMP Simulator

18 new Huawei devices for MIMIC SNMP Simulator

Preventing network outages

Lessons learned from Toyota

HP Procurve network in MIMIC SNMP Simulator

MIMIC SNMP Simulator on Mandriva Linux 2010

MIMIC SNMP Simulator on Fedora 12 LXDE Spin

The iPhone bandwidth dilemma

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.20 runs on VectorLinux

Gambit Releases New Version 10.20 of MIMIC SNMP Simulator

MIMIC SNMP Simulator runs on Ubuntu 9.10

Gambit News: IndUS Business Journal "Going Green"

MIMIC SNMP Simulator 10.10 on Crunchbang Linux

MIMIC Simulator 10.10 runs on PuppyLinux 4.1.2

Watch4net uses MIMIC Simulator

MIMIC simulates servers

MIMIC SNMP Simulator now runs on Windows 7

MIMIC JUNOS Simulator

MIMIC Simulator for WiMax and LTE

Software tests network software

Kaplan IT CCNA Simulator

MIMIC Virtual Lab Helps Students At Franklin University

New simulations in the Cisco device library ..

Gambit Communications receives International Green Apple Award - GOLD Winner

What is the fastest API to control MIMIC?

MIMIC SNMP Simulator helps testing of Business Service Management Products

MIMIC Simulator supports Python API

Gambit's MIMIC® Virtual Lab Simplifies CCNA® home study course

MIMIC Performance Report: Fedora vs. Solaris Intel on dual-CPU Sunfire V20z

Gambit Releases Virtual Lab for Cisco ICND2

http://www.selftestsoftware.com/gen.aspx?pn=p00555&pf=page

We have a limited New Year promotion: rent your own MIMIC Virtual Lab Cloud CCNA practice lab for less than half the regular price: $9 for one week. Valid until Monday January 9, 2012 only on our Facebook wall

For a short time, we have increased demo pod time from 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Practice for your CCNA for free!