Building Network Management Tools with Tcl/Tk

Use Tlc/Tk to build the custom network management tools you need

Often, there's no substitute for a custom network management tool — but you can't afford to spend months building one. There's a quick, easy solution: Tcl/Tk scripts. Learn to leverage Tcl/Tk's power and efficiency — from experts who've built successful network management products for Cisco, Digital and 3Com.

Discover why Tcl/Tk tools are perfect for troubleshooting device monitoring, inventory, configuration, and many other network management applications. Then build five real-world applications to use right away, learning concepts and routines you'll reuse constantly:

• Response time monitoring
• Network discovery
• IP path tracing/diagnostics
• Web-based status monitoring
• RMONv2 configuration

Learn proven techniques for Web-enabling your network management applications — and for building tools that are extensible and easy to modify. Varefully annotated code and extensive screen captures show exactly what to expect. An accompanying Web site includes downloadable source code, new tips and insights, and much more.

With Building Network Management Tools with Tcl/Tk you can deploy the tools you really need — when you need them.

1. Introduction
• System Overview ofd Tcl
• Benefits of Tcl
• Limitations of Tcl
• History of Tcl Use with SNMP
• Availability of Tcl with SNMP
2. Overview
• Overview
• StatusMgr
• Response Time Monitoring Tool
• IP Path Tracing Tool
• RMONv2 Configuration Manager
• In Summary
3. Tcl Basics
• Tcl Command Syntax
• Variables
• Arrays
• Expressions
• Command Substitution
• Quoting Rules
• Procedures and Scoping
• Building and Manipulating Lists
• Delta and Rate Examples
• String Manipulations
• Control Flow
• More on Tcl Procedures
• In Summary
4. More Tcl
• More Tcl Commands
• Built In Tcl Variables
• File I/O with Tcl
• Reading/Writing a File
• Example: Building HTML Files
• Event-Driven Programming with Tcl
• Pattern-Matching Techniques
5. SNMP Tcl Extensions
• TckleMan
• TickleMan — Managing Sessions
• TickleMan — Building Varbind Lists
• TickleMan — Performing SNMPv1 Operations
• TickleMan — Nonblocking SNMP Operations
• TickleMan — SNMP Set Operations
• TickleMan — Table Operations
• TickleMan — Trap handling
• TickleMan — Perfroming ICMP Echo Requests
• TickleMan — MIB Tree Operations
• TickleMan — Concenience Commands
• Scotty
• Scotty — Managing Sessions
• Scotty — Building Varbind Lists
• Scotty — Performing SNMPv1 Operations
• Scotty — Nonblocking SNMP Operations
• Scotty — SNMP Walk Command
• Scotty — Generating Traps
• Scotty — Name-to-IP Address Translation
• Scotty — Performing ICMP Echo Requests
• Scotty — MIB Command
• In Summary
6. Building a Polling Loop
• Maintaining SNMP Access Information
• Designing a Polling Loop
• Using the Polling Loop
• In Summary
7. Tk Basics
• Tk Fundamentals
• Command Syntax for Creating and Manipulating Widgets
• Basic Tk Widgets
• Example: Building a Main Application Window
• In Summary
8. More Tk
• A Simple Table Widget
• Building a Simple Table Widget
• Adding a Scrollbar to the Simple Table Widget
• A Second Look at Canvases
• Itcl Mega-Widgets
• Itcl Introduction
• Example: Main Application Window Using Mega-Widget
• In Summary
9. Socket Programming
• Overview of Socket Communications
• Adding a Web Interface
• In Summary
10. A Response Time Monitoring Tool
• Concepts Demonstrated
• Network Delay Code
• Extending the Network Delay Tool
• In Summary
11. A Network Discovery Tool
• Concepts Demonstrated
• General Overview of Code
• Detail Code
• In Summary
12. Status Monitoring Tool
• General Overview of Code
• In Summary
13. An IP Path Tracing Tool
• Concepts Demonstrated
• IP Path Tracing Code
• Part 1 — Tracing an IP Path
• Part 2 — Building the User Interface
• Part 3 — Integrating with the Polling Loop
• Miscellaneous Routines
• Ideas on Extending the IP Path Tracking Tool
• In Summary
14. RMONv2 Configuration
• Concepts Demonstrated
• RMONv2 Configuration Scripts
• RMONv2 Control Tables
• Protocol Distribution Group
• Address Map Group
• RMONv2 Host Groups
• RMONv2 Matrix Groups
• Using the RMONv2 Configuration Tools
• In Summary
15. More Information
• Tcl Plug-in
• Other Books
• Web Sites and Newsgroups
• Other Packages
• Java and Tcl

• Appendix A

These morons had the chance to release a book that could have changed the SNMP and network management environment forever. Instead, they decided to release the book with all examples built using the proprietary Tickleman extensions. Telling me as a reader that it is very easy to port to Scotty, just shows how harebrained they are. If I'm reading and deploying examples to understand and tweak for my own use, I don't want to understand the difference between two toolkits (especially, as if it is so easy, why didn't they use Scotty?).

Again, this could have been a great book, but I'm mostly regretting spending money on it as I never intend to finish it.

My recommendation is to burn it at the first chance and make rude noises to the authors that seem dislocated from reality (no wonder network people get anti-social stigma, when they have people like these among them).