The Dude by Mikrotik is an awesome program, not only for monitoring Mikrotik gear but also other SNMP and non-SNMP devices in a graphical format
NMS systems are great for indepth data and historical logging - but the graphical layout The Dude offers gives users a quick way to view the statuses of devices on your network.
In this article we will cover some of the tools you can create for use.
Note that the instructions here are for Windows computers - you can run The Dude in WINE or another emulator for Linux or Mac but for simplicity we will stick to Windows.
For starters we will create new Tools within the Tools menu from the left hand side tree of The Dude screen.
puTTy:
If you use SSH, telnet or Serial access - puTTy is a great tool that is lightweight but very functional.
Depending on how you download and/or install puTTY, you may need to modify the path name to fit.
Click on the Red + to create a new executable tool.
In the name section put: puTTY
in the Command section put:
"C:\Program Files\PuTTY\putty.exe" -ssh [Device.FirstAddress]
OR wherever the putty executable is (e.g. C:\Utils)
Go OK and that's it.
Winbox:
Winbox is the default access tool to Mikrotik's gear. Although some may find it clunky at first - there is method to the madness.
Download WinBox from Mikrotik's website and copy in this instance to C:\Utils (or where suits you the most).
As before, in the Name field put: WinBox
Command will be:
C:\Utils\winbox64.exe [Device.FirstAddress] [Device.UserName] "[Device.Password]"
If you have a Mikrotik device in your Dude map set up correctly, this will use the IP, username & password to open WinBox ready to go.
Conclusion:
Now that the both above are done, you will see 2 new entries at the bottom of Tools> in the right-click menu for your devices:
