Creating a New Network

Overview
Creating a Network with Same Device Type
Creating a Network with Multiple Device Types
Specifying Unique OID Values

Overview

The Network Designer allows you to create a network in two ways. You can create a network by adding multiple devices of the same type or create a network by adding multiple devices of different types.

Creating a Network with Same Device Type

The Network Designer provides an option to create a network with multiple devices of same type. The devices will be added by incrementing the IP address. Thus, large networks can be created easily and in a very short time. The Network Design Wizard can be used to add multiple devices of the same type.

Select Network -> New option from the menu bar or New Network icon from the toolbar. The Create a New Network dialog appears.
Click on the first icon to create multiple devices of the same type.
Specify the network name and click OK button. The network name must not contain hypen or blank space.
The new network will be created in <Simulator_Home>/networks/<network name> directory.
The Network Design wizard appears as shown in the screen-shot given below. You have to specify the network device details in this wizard as explained below:

Device Type: Browse to select the device type from the displayed tree. The devices in the network will be created with the specified device type.
Unique Name: This field is not editable. The device name will be displayed as its unique name. The files and folders which contain the device configuration will be generated with this unique name. The unique name will be updated as the sysName in the system group of RFC1213-MIB for SNMP devices.
Increment IP Address: Select this option to create the devices by incrementing the specified IP address. The port number will be the same for all the devices. For example, if you want to create 500 devices by incrementing the IP address 190.191.1.1, the simulator will create the 500 devices with ip address ranging from 190.191.1.1 to 190.191.1.254 and 190.191.2.1 to 190.191.2.246
IP Address : If the option to increment ipaddress is selected, specify the starting IP address of the network. If you have already created a network, for example, with ipaddress 200.201.202.1 to 200.201.202.10, the next ipaddress (i.e) 200.201.202.11 will be displayed, while creating a new network. The IP address assigned to the devices will be updated in ipAddrTable of RFC1213-MIB for SNMP devices.
IP Address list from file: Select this option to create the devices with the ipaddress specified in a text file. The text file will contain the ipaddress in the following format:

200.202.202.1

200.202.202.2

200.201.202.3

200.201.202.4

....

Select a file : If the ipaddress is to be read from a text file, browse and select the file. For example: ipaddress.txt The IP address assigned to the devices will be updated in ipAddrTable of RFC1213-MIB for SNMP devices.
Total Devices: Specify the total number of devices to be created by incrementing the IP address or port number.
SNMP Port : If the device supports SNMP, the default SNMP port 8001 is displayed. Specify the SNMP port at which the device will get started.
TFTP Port: If the device supports TFTP, the default TFTP port 6969 is displayed. Specify the TFTP port at which the device will get started.
TL1 Port : If the device supports TL1, the default TL1port 8004 is displayed. Specify the TL1 port at which the device will get started.
CLI Port : If the device supports CL1, the default CL1 port 2323 is displayed. Specify the CLI port at which the device will get started.
Telnet Port : If the device supports Telnet, the default Telnet port 2424 is displayed. Specify the Telnet port at which the device will get started.

Specify the unique OID values to be configured in the network devices.
Click Create to create the specified number of devices in the network. The Creating Devices dialog will pop up with the following message : "Creating devices for the network :: <Network name>". You will find the new network added to the network area. Now, the menu option, View -> Tree View -> Show Template Tree, is enabled. Selecting this option displays the Template Tree on the left-side. For more information refer the next topic, Template Devices and Bulk Configurations.

The Network Design wizard can also be invoked by selecting Tools -> Network Design Wizard, to add multiple devices of same type to an existing network.

Creating a Network with Multiple Device Types

You can add multiple devices of different types using the Random Device Addition wizard. The devices will be added by incrementing the specified IP address. Thus, large networks with different device types can be created easily and in a very short time.

To add multiple devices of different types,

Select Network -> New option from the menu bar or New Network icon from the toolbar. The Create a New Network dialog appears.
Click on the second image to create a random network using the wizard.
Specify the network name and click OK button. The network name must not contain hypen or blank space.
The new network will be created in <Simulator_Home>/networks/<network name> directory.
The "Random Device Creation" wizard appears, wherein you have to specify the details about the devices to be created, as shown in the screen-shot below. You can also load an existing configuration in this wizard, using the Load option.

Click Add to select the device type and the number of devices in each type.
Specify the unique OID values to be configured in the network devices.
Specify the following options:
SNMP Port : If the device supports SNMP, specify the SNMP port at which the device will get started.
TFTP Port: If the device supports TFTP, specify the TFTP port at which the device will get started.
TL1 Port : If the device supports TL1, specify the TL1 port at which the device will get started.
CLI Port : If the device supports CL1, specify the CLI port at which the device will get started.
Telnet Port: If the device supports Telnet, specify the Telnet port at which the device will get started.
Starting IP Address : Specify the Starting IP Address. The devices will be added by incrementing the specified IP address. If you have already created a network, for example, with ipaddress 200.201.202.1 to 200.201.202.10, the next ipaddress (i.e) 200.201.202.11 will be displayed, while creating a new network. The IP address assigned to the devices will be updated in ipAddrTable of RFC1213-MIB for SNMP devices.
Total devices : Specify the total number of devices to be created in the above order of the device type and the number of devices of each type.

You can save the above details in a file and reload it later. To save the above configuration, select Save option. Specify the Filename, to save the configuration. The configuration will be saved in the specified filename in XML format, in <SimulatorHome>/randomnets directory.
Click OK to create the specified number of devices in the network. You will find the new devices added to the Network area. Now, the menu option, View -> Tree View -> Show Template Tree, is enabled. Selecting this option displays the Template Tree on the left-side. For more information refer the next topic, Template Devices and Bulk Configurations.

To load an existing random device configuration,

Select the Load option.
The list of existing random device configuration files will be displayed.
Select the configuration to be loaded, and click OK. The configuration will be loaded in the Random Device Creation wizard.

The random device addition wizard can also be invoked by selecting Tools -> Random Device Addition, to add multiple devices of different types to an existing network.

Note:

When the network is created,

The Unique Name of the device will be updated as the sysName in the system group of RFC1213-MIB for SNMP devices.
The specified IP address will be updated in ipAddrTable of RFC1213-MIB for SNMP devices.
A unique mac address will be assigned to each device and updated in ifTable -> ifPhysAddress.
The configured unique values will be assigned to the selected OIDs for all the devices in the network. For more information, refer Configuring Unique Values.
The menu option, View -> Tree View -> Show Template Tree, is enabled. Selecting this option displays the Template Tree on the left-side. For more information refer, Template Devices.
You can also drag and drop devices to a network created with the Network Design Wizard.
The Network Simulator dynamically configures IP addresses when starting each agent instance in the network. Refer to the topic Configuring IP Addresses for more information.
No two devices in the same network will have the same IP address and port number combination. The SNMP, TL1, TFTP and CLI port numbers should not clash.

Configuring Unique Values

While creating a new network, the network simulator provides the option to configure unique OID values for the simulated devices. To specify unique OID values,

Select the option "Specify unique OIDs" in the Network Design Wizard or the Random Device Addition Wizard. The unique OID dialog is displayed. This dialog displays the MIB tree on the left-side with the sysName selected as the unique OID. By default, the sysName OID will be assigned with the unique name macro. (i.e) the unique name of the device will be updated as the sysName in the system group of RFC1213-MIB for SNMP devices.

Select the required OID and click Add to configure the unique value. The "Enter the values" dialog will be displayed as shown in the screen-shot given below:

For table OIDs, select the instance which has to be assigned with unique values.
The following types of unique value simulation is supported;

Increment Values: If increment values is selected, the initial value to be incremented must be specified. This initial value will be incremented for the selected OID, for all the devices in the network.
Macro: The macros supported are IPaddress and Unique name.

If the ipaddress macro is selected, the ipaddress of the simulated devices will be assigned to the selected OID.
If the unique name macro is selected, the unique name of the simulated devices will be assigned to the selected OID.

Random: If Random is selected, the random values must be specified. The devices in the network will be assigned with random values for the selected OID.
Constant: If Constant is selected, the constant value must be specified. The devices in the network will be assigned with this constant value for the selected OID, for all the devices in the network.