Re: [Opensnmp-users] Opensnmp-usersOpenSnmp v NetSnmp

[Wes H. <har...@us...>]

>>>>> "BS" == Brendan Simon <Br...@Br...> writes:

BS> I have a product that uses NetSNMP-5.1.  I am looking at developing a 
BS> next generation product and am wondering if OpenSNMP may be a better 
BS> option than NetSNMP-5.3.  Any comments or views ???

Well, we actually haven't done a comparison between the two as far as
performance, etc.

OpenSNMP was designed from the ground up using a threaded C++
architecture that is completely modular and compliant with the SNMPv3
standards architecture.  Net-SNMP's SNMPv3 code, on the other hand,
was an add-on and isn't thread safe (that being said, it's very
heavily used).  (net-snmp supports an asynchronous call back mechanism,
though, that sort of provides some of what you'd get with threads).

OpenSNMP isn't heavily used, but we do use it ourselves in the
net-policy project (also a sourceforge project) for the management end
and it functions very well there.

We haven't done any speed comparisons between the two, though (but if
someone did, we'd love to see the results).

BS> Is there a feature/status comparison matrix for OpenSNMP versus
BS> NetSNMP (various versions).  If not, a wiki page and table would
BS> be nice ;-)

Nope, there isn't and yes it'd be nice!

BS> In general I see the move to C++ as a good thing, from a software 
BS> engineering viewpoint, if used appropriately :)

C++ has its ups and dows, just like C!  I think it worked really well
for the OpenSNMP project, but we did a lot of advanced design that
made it work well.

BS> I think there are Perl interfaces, but are there interfaces to other 
BS> languages, eg. python ??  What about using SWIG ???

Only net-snmp has interfaces to perl and python (the python interface
is very new and only in Net-SNMP 5.4).

BS> Is the this project still active?

Yes, but not really really active.  We use it internally for some of
our projects and there are some other people that have used the stack,
but it doesn't hold the popularity that Net-SNMP has had.

BS> I note that OpenSNMP has been used for client side managment apps with 
BS> some success :)

Yep.  Like Net-Policy.

BS> Is the OpenSNMP agent working?

It is "sort of" functional.  It does work, but really needs a lot more
work for it to be robust.

BS> If so, would it be considered robust and reliable for a network product???

I don't think so for the agent.  The management side code, however,
I'd say yes.

BS> Is the long term goal for OpenSNMP to replace NetSNMP ???

Nope.  They're independent projects.
-- 
Wes Hardaker
Sparta, Inc.