MIB Browser Version 15 User Guide

The iReasoning MIB browser is a powerful and easy-to-use tool powered by iReasoning SNMP API. MIB browser is an indispensable tool for engineers to manage SNMP enabled network devices and applications. The iReasoning MIB browser allows users to load standard, proprietary MIBs, and even some mal-formed MIBs. It also allows them to issue SNMP requests to retrieve SNMP agents' data, or make changes to agents. A built-in trap receiver can receive and process SNMP traps according to its rule engine.

Major features:

Intuitive GUI
Complete SNMPv1, v2c and v3 (USM and VACM) support
Complete SNMPv3 USM support, including HMAC-MD5, HMAC-SHA1, HMAC_SHA2, CBC-DES, 3-DES, CFB128-AES-128, CFB128-AES-192 and CFB128-AES-256 algorithms
Robust and powerful SMIv1/SMIv2 MIB parser
IPv6 support
Trap Receiver with rule engine to process traps and trigger actions if certain conditions are satisfied
Trap Sender
Log window to display application log and SNMP packets exchanged between browser and agents
Table view for MIB tables
SNMPv3 USM user management
Port view for network interface cards
Switch port mapper for mapping switch ports
Performance graph tool for monitoring of numerical OID values
Device snapshot
Cisco device snapshot
Ping and traceroute tools
Network discovery tool
SNMP Agents Comparison
Bookmarks
Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux and other UNIX platforms

Requirements

Windows, macOS, Linux and other UNIX platforms.

Download and Run MIB Browser

1. Download MIB browser installer or zip file. On Windows, run setup.exe to install MIB browser. On macOS, Linux and other UNIX platforms, unzip it to the desired directory.

2. Run MIB Browser:

On Windows, click on the MIB browser icon to start browser.
On Linux/UNIX, enter MIB browser home directory and run browser.sh to start browser.
On macOS (10.8 or later), download mibbrowser.pkg and run this command in terminal to install it to "/Applications" :

sudo installer -store -pkg mibbrowser.pkg -target /

If trap receiver is bound to a port under 1024, open a terminal and run

sudo "/Applications/MIB Browser.app/Contents/browser.sh"

to start MIB browser with root privilege.
On earlier versions of macOS, download and unzip mibbrowser.zip, and enter ireasoning/mibbrowser directory and run browser.sh to start MIB browser.

On Linux/UNIX, if you login as a non-root user and need to run trap receiver at port 162 (or any port under 1024), start MIB browser using the following command:

sudo browser.sh

Enterprise Edition

Trap receiver and watches functions run as a system service. Watches function supports action, which means you can configure actions (sending emails or traps) when a MIB object's value violates a pre-configured threshold.

On Windows platform, the service starts up automatically. On Linux/macOS, you need to configure system to execute $INSTALL_DIR/lib/runserver.sh on startup.

The Browser GUI

File menu

Load MIB

Launch a file dialog for picking one or multiple MIB files. You need to hold CTRL key if you want to select multiple files.

MIB Modules

List properties of all loaded MIB modules.

Server Address (Enterprise Edition Only)

By default, MIB browser connects to a local server to get trap and watches data. However, you can change the server address so that it can get the data from somewhere else.

Open Session

Open a previously saved session file.

Open Graph Data

Open a previously saved graph data file.

Save Session

Save current settings of open tabs to a session file, which can be opened later to restore tabs.

Exit

Exit browser.
Edit menu

Find in MIB Tree

Find a node in the MIB tree.

Find in Result Table

Find a string in the result table.
Polls menu
You can create polls to get multiple values from SNMP agents, and the values can be refreshed periodically.

Create Poll

After a poll is created, the poll will show up under this Polls menu. You can click a poll, then the results will be displayed as a tab in the result panel.
Poll Results

Operations menu

Get

Issue SNMP GET request against current agent.

Get Next

Issue SNMP GET-NEXT request against current agent.

Get Bulk

Issue SNMPv2c or SNMPv3 GET-BULK request against current agent. If the SNMP agent only supports SNMPv1, then this command will time out.

Set

Issue SNMP SET request against current agent.

The following window will show up:

Enter a new value in the "Value" field then click "Ok" button.

To set multiple variables, you can hold CTRL key and select multiple rows in the result pane, then choose SET operation.

Note:

1. For BITS data type, you need to use mathematical notation for a set of integers, that is, something like {1, 3, 8}.

2. The format for hexadecimal string is (0x[0-9A-Fa-f][0-9A-Fa-f] )+. For instance, 0x12 0xA1 0x30, or 0x12A130

Get Subtree

Issue SNMP GET-NEXT requests to get the whole subtree against current agent.

Walk

Do SNMP walk against current agent.

Table View

Show MIB table data.

Clicking on this menu item will bring up a new table view window. But first, OID field needs to be an OID of a table or entry nodes. For example, it can be ifTable, ifEntry etc.

You can press CTRL key and select multiple tabular variables of the same table, then click "Table View". In this way, table view only shows the tabular variables you selected rather than the whole table.

Buttons on the toolbar of table view window:

Rotate button	Rotate table 90 degrees.
Refresh button	Refresh table now.
Export	Export table data to a CSV file.
Poll button	Refresh table periodically.
SNMP SET	Perform SNMP SET for selected table cells.
Create Row	Dynamically create a row. The table must support dynamic row creation, that is, it has a RowStatus or EntryStatus column.
Delete Row	Dynamically delete the selected row. The table must support dynamic row creation, that is, it has a RowStatus or EntryStatus column.

Graph

Plot graph for selected OID. If there is already one graph tab, you will be asked to re-use this tab or open a new tab.

Clicking on this menu item will bring up performance graph window. But first, OID field needs to be a numerical OID value or a table column node whose instances are numerical values. For example, it can be sysUpTime, ifOutOctets, and ifOutOctets.1, etc.

Buttons on the toolbar:

Export to CSV file	Export chart data to a CSV file.
Import from CSV file	Import data from a CSV file.
Save as PNG	Save chart data to a PNG format file.
Print	Print out the chart.
Restart	Restart plotting chart.
Pause	Pause plotting chart.
Switch	Switch between current view and global view.
Display trace	Display trace lines.
Grid	Display grid lines.
Rate	Display delta instead of raw values.

The polling interval can be changed by clicking the "Set" button.

Tools menu

Trap Sender

Open trap sender window:

This window allows user to send out SNMPv1/v2c traps or informs.

Trap settings can be bookmarked, so that you do not have to enter them again next time.

For SNMPv1/v2 trap nodes in the MIB tree, you can right click on them and select "Send Trap" context menu to bring up this window, and the information from the trap node will be used to fill out the default values.

Watches

Displays a table of variables being watched.

(Professional Edition)

(Enterprise Edition)

(Enterprise Edition. Watch's historical data)

Add Watch

Add watch item.

(Professional Edition)

(Enterprise Edition)

In enterprise edition, you can configure actions for each watch. Current actions include sending out emails or traps when the watch is in alarm or rearm states.

Run Script

Run a script file.

Script File Format
1. Each command takes one line.
2. Comment line starts with '#'.
3. Supported SNMP operations are GET, GET_NEXT and SET.
  Format for GET and GET_NEXT is
  Operation host/host:port OID/name [OID/name]...
  Format for SET is
  Operation host/host:port OID/name dataType value [OID/name dataType value]...
  where dataType is one of {i, u, t, a, o, s, c, g}.
  i: integer, u: unsigned integer, t: timeticks, a: ip address, o: oid, s: string, c: counter, g: gauge, , x: hex data (in "0x1b 0xac ..." format)
  SNMP properties such as version, community name, SNMPv3 parameters of host are already declared in the advanced properties of each agent in the main UI.
  Examples:
  - get snmp.ireasoning.com sysUpTime
    Issue SNMP GET request against host snmp.ireasoning.com (port 161) querying sysUpTime (OID .1.3.6.1.2.1.1.3.0).
  - get snmp.ireasoning.com sysUpTime sysLocation
    Issue SNMP GET request against host snmp.ireasoning.com (port 161) querying sysUpTime (OID .1.3.6.1.2.1.1.3.0) and sysLocation.
  - getnext snmp.ireasoning.com:1611 .1.3.6.1.2.1.1.3.0
    Issue SNMP GET_NEXT request against host snmp.ireasoning.com (port 1611) querying sysUpTime (OID .1.3.6.1.2.1.1.3.0).
  - set snmp.ireasoning.com sysContact s joe@somewhere.com
    Issue SNMP SET request to set sysContact to "joe@somewhere.com".
  - set snmp.ireasoning.com sysContact s joe@somewhere.com sysName s Linux
    Issue SNMP SET request to set sysContact to "joe@somewhere.com" and sysName to "Linux".
4. Supported actions are {sound, email}.
  '$' means the result of previous query.
  Allowed operators are {>, <, =, !=, err}. 'err' means the error status of previous query is not zero.
  Email action only works after SMTP settings have been successfully configured through "Tools/Options/SMTP".
  Examples:
  - get snmp.ireasoning.com .1.3.6.1.2.1.11500.12.11.0
    if $ != 0 sound
    if $ err sound
    Issue SNMP GET to query the OID, and if the result is not equal to 0, then play sound. If the query returns non-zero error status, then play sound.
  - get snmp.ireasoning.com .1.3.6.1.2.1.11500.12.11.0
    if $ > 0 email joe@somewhere.com
    Issue SNMP GET to query the OID, and if the result is greater than 0, then send email to joe@somewhere.com.
5. Pause execution
  Format is
  sleep N
  where N is number of seconds.
  Example:
  sleep 5
  Sleep for 5 seconds.
6. Save to a file. If the file already exists, it will save to a different file name by increasing file extension number. For example, if result.txt already exists, it will save to result.txt.1, and if result.txt.1 already exists, it will save to result.txt.2.
  Example:
  save ~/Downloads/result.txt
  Save the results to result.txt.
Sample script file
save ~/Downloads/result.txt
get snmp.ireasoning.com sysUpTime
if $ < 1000000 email joe@somewhere.com
sleep 5
set snmp.ireasoning.com sysContact s joe@somewhere.com
if $ err sound

Port View

It shows input/output bandwidth utilization and error percentage of all ports of a node. The tooltips of pie charts show port properties. You can uncheck the checkbox near port's name to ignore its values.

The color of pie charts indicates severity levels, and it can be customized on the settings page.

Switch Port Mapper

It shows mapping of the devices connected to a managed switch, and similar to the port view, bandwidth utilization of ports is displayed.

Configure Settings

Routers : IP and community of layer 3 routers, which will be used to retrieve MAC to IP mapping data.

Chart Polling Interval : Data polling interval for plotting charts.

Device Snapshot

Show a snapshot view of available device data, including system info, interfaces, disks, processes, installed software, etc.

Cisco Device Snapshot

Show a snapshot view of Cisco devices.

If you have more OIDs to monitor, you can use the settings screen to add additional OIDs. The values of them will be shown in the "Basic Information" panel.

The utilization charts can have two types: meter or pie charts.

Log Window

Open application log window that displays application's log information. To clear the content, right click on this pane and select "Clear text" menu item.

Ping

Open ping tool window:

Enter an IP address and press "Ping" button. The results will be displayed in the text area.

Trace Route

Open traceroute tool window:

Enter an IP address and press "Trace Route" button. The results will be displayed in the text area.

Network Discovery

Open LAN discovery tool window:

Enter a subnet IP address such as 192.168.1.0 and then press "Start" button. It can discover all hosts in the subnet. And if SNMP agent is running on a host, its system table will be queried as well.

Manage SNMPv3 USM Users

The initial window displays a list of existing SNMPv3 users. You then can edit user's properties or delete it.

Compare Devices

Compare the SNMP values of two devices:

If the values of them are different, the font color is changed to blue:

Options

Open options window for customizing MIB browser:

General tab

SNMP Retries	Number of retries for SNMP queries.
SNMP Timeout	Timeout value for SNMP queries, in seconds.
Lenient Parsing	If checked, MIB parser will ignores some syntax errors in MIB files.
Logging Level	Logging level of the logger. If it is "DEBUG", the SNMP PDU will be printed in the Log window, but it may degrade the performance of the MIB browser.
Trap Port	The port number of trap receiver.
Max Token Number	The maximum number of tokens allowed in the description field of trap receiver. For instance, if the value is 6, then the message ".iso.org.dod.internet.mgmt.mib-2.interfaces.ifTable.ifEntry.ifAdminStatus.3" will be truncated to "mgmt.mib-2.interfaces.ifTable.ifEntry.ifAdminStatus.3".
Single Tree Root	If checked, MIB tree will have a single root node, that is, the .iso node. Otherwise, each MIB module has its own root node. MIB browser needs to be restarted for this option to take effect.
Agent's Character Encoding	For an SNMP agent on a non western language OS, it may return values in a different character encoding. You can change the charset in order to correctly display values returned from the agent.
Max Graph Data Count	Maximum number of data in memory of a graph.
Non Repeaters	Non repeaters value for SNMP GET-BULK requests.
Max Repetitions	Max repetitions value for SNMP GET-BULK requests.
Minimize to system tray	If checked, the MIB browser will be minimized to the system tray when you close it.

Single tree root

Each Module has its own root node

Default Values tab

This tab allows the user to set default properties for new SNMP agents.

Agent tab

This table stores the properties of visited SNMP agents. You can add or delete agents from this table.

For SNMPv1/v2c agents, values of User, Authentication Protocol, Authentication Password, Privacy Protocol and Privacy Password, are ignored. For SNMPv3 agents, values of Read Community and Write Community are ignored.

MIB Files tab

This table stores file names of loaded MIBs. You can add or delete MIBs from this table.

Bookmarks menu

This menu contains all your stored bookmarks. Bookmarks are links to OIDs and their associated operations that you use frequently. By adding an OID to your bookmarks, you can use it by simply clicking its name, instead of having to type it again.
Expressions menu

This menu contains predefined and custom expressions. An expression can use values of multiple instances of MIB object to calculate the value of a metric such as network throughput.
An expression can have one or multiple variables. Each variable has a name and an OID. If a variable's OID ends with ".", then it means all instances of the OID will be queried, similar to Get-Subtree operation.
Some type of variables need to use delta values instead of raw values. If using delta values, MIB browser will perform two queries with the default interval of 10 seconds, then the difference of two values will be used.

Toolbar

Address field

Enter the IP address and port number of SNMP agent, in the format of "ipAddress@port" or "ipAddress:port" (IPv4 only). The "@port" or ":port" are not necessary if the port number is 161.
Address Group is a group of IP addresses, including their port numbers. It starts with "g " in the address field. Address group makes it much easier to perform SNMP operations against multiple agents. An example:

192.168.1.1, 192.168.1.2:1611, 192.168.2.1

Other properties of an SNMP agent, such as community, SNMPv3 parameters, cannot be specified in the group address dialog. To change these properties, you can enter the IP address into the address field, and press "Advanced" button to change other properties. Then the IP address in the group will automatically reflect the changes.
Advanced button

Customize the properties of current SNMP agent, such as community names, SNMPv3 USM parameters, etc.

For an SNMPv3 agent, its engineID, authKey and privKey properties will be updated after first successful query.
OID field

Object identifier to be used for SNMP queries. This field is updated when the user selects a node in MIB tree or a row in the result table. You can also type new value directly in this field.
Operations

Select one of the SNMP operations from the list. Operation will be performed immediately when it is selected.
Go button

Press this button to perform the selected operation.

MIB Tree Pane

It is divided into two panes: Tree pane on the top and properties pane on the bottom.

Tree Pane

Display MIB trees. Right click on a node, a popup menu shows up. Depending on the node properties, if right clicking on a root node of a MIB module, popup menu includes three menu items: Find, Expand and Unload MIB. On other nodes, their respective popup menus have only two menu items: Find and Expand.

	Table node
	Table entry node
	Read-write node
	Read-create node
	Index node
	Leaf node, usually read-only

Table: Icon descriptions

Double click on a scalar node, its value will be queried against the agent specified on the toolbar. If double click on a tabular node (such as ifSpeed), then its subtree values will be queried against the agent.

Node Properties Pane

Display properties of selected node. Tooltips of second column show more information.

Result Pane

Display the result of SNMP queries in a table. If a octet string is displayed in hex format, double click on it to toggle the display mode.

Buttons on the right toolbar:

Stop button	Stop pending SNMP queries.
Clear Table button	Clear the result table.
Raw Data button	Launch a new dialog window showing the raw results of SNMP queries.
Find button	Find strings in the result pane.
Save button	Save values in result pane to an XML file.
Open button	Load values from an XML file to the result pane.

Trap Receiver

Main Window

Trap receiver can be opened from MIB browser window or started independently.

Trap receiver window is divided into two panels. The upper panel displays summaries of traps. The lower panel displays details of selected trap.

Menu Items of Trap Receiver

Trap Filter button

Apply filter to all received traps. A trap can be blocked based on its IP address and OID.

Start Trap Receiver button

Start the trap receiver. It'll be grayed out if trap receiver is running. Trap receiver is not started automatically when the window is opened.

Stop button

Stop the trap receiver.

Add Trap Rule

Add a new rule for processing traps. If a row of trap table is selected, then the dialog will populate the fields with some data from the row.

All rules will be applied for an incoming trap, except that a rule specifies that the trap should be ignored. Rules are ordered by their names. So you can modify rule's name to change its execution order. For example, rule A and B have the same conditions, but A sets severity to low and B sets severity to medium. Because B is applied after A, the final severity will be set to medium.

Screenshot of adding trap rule:

Rule Conditions:

snmpTrapOID is

The snmpTrapOID in SNMPv2 traps, or "entepriseOID + '.0.' + specific" for SNMPv1 traps.
Wildcard "*" and "?" are supported. "*" matches any digits and dot. "?" matches zero or one digit. For example, ".1.3.6.4.155.12.*" matches any OIDs starting with ".1.3.6.4.155.12", and ".1.3.6.4.155.12.?" matches OIDs between ".1.3.6.4.155.12.0" and ".1.3.6.4.155.12.9" but does not match ".1.3.6.4.155.12.11".

Allowed trap source IPs

The trap originator's IPs, separated by comma. Wildcard "*" and "?" are supported for an IP address. "*" matches any digits and dot. "?" matches zero or one digit. For example, "1,2.3.*" matches any IPs between "1.2.3.0" and "1.2.3.255", and "1.2.3.?" matches any IPs between ".1.2.3.0" and "1.2.3.9".

Raw values of variable bindingds contains

You can enter multiple keywords here, separated by pipe or comma. If one of the keywords are found, then the condition is considered met.

The value here is the raw value, that is, the value received from the agent in its original format and it is not translated to more readable string.

Rule Actions:

Play sound	Play sound when conditions are met.
Run command	Executes a system command when conditions are met. A common problem is not having the executable on the PATH. It's better to use absolute path of the excutable. Tokens can be used in command.
Send email	Send out email when conditions are met.
Issue SNMP request	Issue an SNMP GET or SET request against an agent when conditions are met.
Send SNMP trap	Send out SNMPv1/v2c/v3 traps when conditions are met.

Manage Rules

Manage rules, including editing and deleting rules.

Clear Table button

Clear the content of the trap table.

Export Table to CSV

Export table data to a CSV file.

Options

Trap receiver's settings.

Options

General Tab

Trap Port	The port number of trap receiver.
Forward Trap To	Forward traps to another trap receiver in SNMPv1 PDUs.
Save trap data to database	If enabled, received traps will be saved to the bundled database. Then they can be loaded again.
Show trap message window	If enabled, a trap message window will show up around system tray when a new trap is received.
Play sound	Play sound when a trap is received.
Execute command	Execute a command when a trap is received.

Tokens used in execute command
$ip	IP address of trap originator
$severity	Severity as configured in the trap rule
$description	Description as configured in the trap rule
$oid	Trap OID
$ts	Timestamp value
$sp	Value of SNMPv1 trap's specific field
$vb.all	All variable bindings
$vb.n	The nth variable binding. For example, $vb.1 is the first variable binding, $vb.2 is the second one.

SMTP Tab

This tab specifies whether to enable forwarding SNMP traps via email. If it is enabled, at lease the primary SMTP server should be configured. If the secondary SMTP server is also configured, it will be used for sending emails when the primary SMTP server fails.

Email Template Tab (only available in enterprise edition)

If the email template is enabled, all emails sent out from the trap module will use the template.

Tokens used in template
$ip	IP address of trap originator
$oid	Trap OID
$ts	Timestamp value
$sp	Value of SNMPv1 trap's specific field
$trap	The whole trap message in HTML format, as displayed in the lower panel of trap receiver.
$vb.all	All variable bindings
$vb.n	The nth variable binding. For example, $vb.1 is the first variable binding, $vb.2 is the second one.

SNMPv3 Trap Receiver Tab

This table stores the properties of SNMPv3 trap senders. You can add or delete items from this table.

Command Line Options

Command line tools are located at $INSTALL_DIR\bin directory.

MIB browser can be launched from the command line with the following options:

browser.bat -h (or -help, -?)	Print usage
-h <h>	Specify the host name or IP address of SNMP agent.
-p <p>	Specify the port number of the SNMP agent. Default value is 161.
-v <1\|2\|3>	Specify the SNMP version number. Possible values are 1, 2, and 3.
-c <c>	Specify the SNMP community name. Default value is public.
-o <o>	Specify OID.
-a <a>	Specify the SNMP action. Possible values are (get\|getnext\|getsubtree\|walk\|gettable).
-f <filename>	Output CSV file name. Used with gettable action.
-s <filename>	Open a saved session on startup.
-w	Open watch tab on startup.

Command Line Graph Tool

graph.bat script is used to record an SNMP agent's values to a file, which can be opened by the MIB browser using the "File/Open Graph Data" menu.

Running graph.bat without any arguments will print usage and examples.
Command Line SNMP Tools

snmpget.bat script is used to issue SNMP GET request.

snmpgetnext.bat script is used to issue SNMP GET-NEXT request.

snmpset.bat script is used to issue SNMP SET request.

trap.bat script is used to send out SNMP traps.

Keyboard Shortcuts

CTRL-L	Load MIB file
CTRL-F	Find a MIB node.
CTRL-G	Perform SNMP GET operation.
CTRL-N	Perform SNMP GET-NEXT operation.
CTRL-E	Perform Get-Subtree operation.
CTRL-S	Perform SNMP SET operation.
CTRL-W	Perform walk operation.
CTRL-P	Stop current operation.
Enter	If Operations or Go button have focus, pressing "Enter" key will repeat last operation.
CTRL-T	Table view
CTRL-R	Plot graph.
CTRL-D	Add to watches
CTRL-O	Open watches panel
CTRL-I	Open trap receiver panel

About different editions

The free personal edition is intended exclusively for private use on a single workstation. You may copy the complete program package and pass it on to others for private use only. The free personal edition may not be used for commercial or professional purposes.

The professional edition has many more features and can be used for commercial or professional purposes.

The enterprise edition has more powerful trap receiver and monitoring features.

Features Table

Feature	Personal Edition	Professional Edition	Enterprise Edition
Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux and other UNIX platforms
Supports basic SNMP operations
Table view for MIB tables
SNMPv3 USM user management
Trap Receiver
Trap Sender
Supports IPv6
Supports SNMPv1/v2c
Supports loading any standard or private MIB
Maximum number of MIBs loaded	10	No restrictions	No restrictions
Free
Supports SNMPv3
SNMP Expression
Watches
Address Group
Network discovery
ICMP Ping tool
ICMP Traceroute tool
Performance graph
Port view
Switch port mapper
Device snapshot
Cisco device snapshot
Compares devices
Forwards traps via email
Periodically refreshes MIB table
Dynamic table row creation and deletion
Rule engine for processing traps
Run as service (Trap Receiver & Watches)
Watch actions
Email template