[SNMP4J] SNMP4J Questions

[Mathias Bogaert]

Hi,

I'm evaluating SNMP4J to migrate to from IReasoning SNMP. So far it 
looks really good, and I have a couple of questions:

- it would be easy if we could have a wrapped value in the Variable 
classes where supported; eg.

PDU response = snmp.sendPDU(requestPDU, target);
         if (response.getErrorStatus() != 0)
         for (int i = 0; response != null && i < response.size(); i++) {
             VariableBinding vb = response.get(i);
             if (vb.getOid().equals("1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.116.1.4.1.1.3")) {
                 sample.setTotalModems(((Integer32) 
vb.getVariable()).getWrappedValue());
             }
         }

Where getWrappedValue returns an Integer object (as opposed to int). 
Reason is that by default, primitive types have a 0 value, and when 
storing this in the database using Hibernate, one cannot distinguish 
between an actual value of 0 or null (e.g. network element was down). 
new Integer((((Integer32) vb.getVariable()).getValue())) looks so 
verbose :)

- what is the best practice when querying +10 000 cable modems every 15 
minutes? Should I create one Snmp instance for each poller thread that 
goes and polls 200 modems? Can I reuse the same requestPDU time after 
time, to avoid construction? Any other performance tips?

- in PDU response = snmp.sendPDU(requestPDU, target); when will 
response be null? Is there a difference between a null or IOException? 
How can I detect a 'timeout'?

Thanks,

Mathias Bogaert