Introducing Paessler Multi Server Simulator

 Originally published on May 25, 2009 by Dirk Paessler
Last updated on January 23, 2024 • 4 minute read

For testing purposes Multi Server Simulator simulates a virtual network of HTTP, FTP, SMTP, or DNS servers plus any number of SNMP-based switches - all on a standard Windows PC. It is an indispensable tool for the evaluation and testing of network management and network testing tools. 

This software was initially developed as an in-house testing tool for our own network monitoring programs but will also be a good tool for evaluation and testing of other network management tools. Although we are already running an extensive test lab with a lot of network hardware we needed a cost effective solution to perform large scale testing. With Server Simulator we were able to test the monitoring of several ten thousand switch ports with our products PRTG Network Monitor and PRTG Traffic Grapher.

For example if you want to test whether a SNMP management software is able to handle thousands of switch ports you can either monitor a few hardware switches multiple times (without knowing what side-effects that may have) or you can install Multi Server Simulator on one or more PCs and let it simulate many virtual switches with up to 1000 ports each. Or do you quickly need a network of 20 SMTP servers, 30 HTTP servers, 10 FTP servers and 5 DNS servers including necessary switches?

With Multi Server Simulator all you need is one standard Windows PC to simulate all this. And the setup will take just a few minutes. Today we are making a public preview version available in order to generate feedback from our users. Please visit the Multi Server Simulator webpage. See it in action! Install the simulator software, set up a few devices and then let the auto-discovery of PRTG scan your system!