Multiple Agents on a single workstation

I need to have two instances of net-snmp operating at the same time on a
single

workstation under both Windows and Linux.   Each instance would operate in
isolation 

from each other so that an SNMP manager would be able to manage each
application

in isolation -- each  of which will provide a subagent interface to the
net-snmp agent.  

 

To do so, at a minimum, I would expect each net-snmp agent to be operating
on a separate listening

port, although the two applications will likely share the same IP address on
the workstation.  Both instances 

will share a common MIB.

 

Since by default, net-snmp has a particular group of folders that it
searches

for configuration files, at a minimum I would think it necessary to specify

the "-c" argument to specify the configuration path for each separately
running

instance of the net-snmp agent (e.g. "snmpd -c FILES").

 

The actual port assigned to each running instance of the net-snmp agent will

be determined runtime by my application.  It would seem then that I would
need

to start up the agent programmatically after writing port information to 

the configuration file.  I would like my application to be future safe, and

therefore not sensitive to changes made to the configuration file format.

Is there some method that I can use to make modifications to the
configuration

file more future safe and less dependent upon a particular net-snmp version?

 

There following URL describes a process for establishing a unique
environment

for each running agent instance.

 

http://www.net-snmp.org/wiki/index.php/Multiple_Agents

 

Would this technique apply to the Windows implementation equally well, or

are their some nuances or complications?

 

Could the command line be used instead of the techniques described in the
referenced URL?  

 

What are the pros and cons of either approach?  

 

I intend to control the creation and termination of net-snmp in my
application,

so the command line arguments would be more favorable to me as I can

programmatically control the environment -- as opposed to having to 

preconfiguring the particular workstation environment variables.

 

When creating the unique configuration file contents, the approach described

in the URL seems to imply that only the UNIQUE content needs to be provided

in the agent specific configuration files.  Is this correct?  Does net-snmp

combine common configuration settings with the agent specific ones in some

particular order, or is the order based on the ordering  in SNMPCONFPATH?

 

Note that under Windows, I need to specify the TCP-IP port to be used to

communicate between net-snmp and the subagent.  I assume that this unique

content would need to be different for each net-snmp agent to subagent

interface?

 

What are the particular complications with multiple agents under SNMPv3?

 

Any lessons learned would be appreciated.

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