Lab 09-06 · The Dude¶

In an airport control tower, nobody phones each plane to ask where it is. The controllers look at one screen: a map with every plane as a dot, green when all is fine, and an alarm the moment one goes quiet.

The labs of this module gave you the instruments one by one: ping, Netwatch, graphs, SNMP. The Dude puts them all on one control-tower screen: it finds the devices of your network by itself, draws them on a map, checks them every few seconds and turns them red, with a sound, when something breaks.

The control tower¶

The Dude is a free MikroTik application that discovers network devices, draws them on a map, monitors their services (ping, DNS, TCP ports, SNMP values) and raises alerts when they fail.

The analogy for this lab: The Dude is the control tower. It has two parts, like a real tower:

flowchart LR
    subgraph SRV["<b>Dude server</b> · RouterOS + dude package"]
        RADAR["probes every device<br>ping, DNS, TCP, SNMP"]
        DB["database<br>data-directory"]
        RADAR --> DB
    end
    CLIENT["<b>Dude client</b><br>Windows<br>the controller's screen"]
    DEV["routers, switches,<br>servers, printers"]
    CLIENT -->|"TCP 8291<br>(the WinBox port)"| SRV
    RADAR -->|"probes"| DEV

The server keeps watching when you close the client. The client is only the window.

The scenario¶

flowchart LR
    TR["<b>Trainer's CHR</b><br>Dude server<br>10.0.0.1"]
    PCT["<b>Your PC</b><br>Dude client (Windows)"]
    subgraph CLASS["Class network 10.0.0.0/24"]
        R1["<b>your hAP</b><br>10.0.0.x"]
        R2["<b>neighbour's hAP</b><br>10.0.0.y"]
    end
    PCT -->|"TCP 8291"| TR
    TR -->|"ping, SNMP"| R1
    TR -->|"ping, SNMP"| R2

The files in this folder:

Start the lab¶

Download the lab files and unzip them: 09-06-the-dude.zip. Open a terminal inside the 09-06-the-dude folder.

In class you need: a Windows PC (or Linux with Wine), the trainer's server address, and a RouterOS user for the Dude server. The trainer prepares the server (Steps 1–2); you do Steps 3–6. If you want to try the server part yourself, use your own hAP ax² with a USB stick.

Step 1 · Install the dude package on the server¶

Download the Extra packages archive for the server's architecture and RouterOS version 7.23.8 from mikrotik.com/download, and take the dude-...npk file out of it.

WinBox: Files, drag and drop the .npk file into the window. Then System → Reboot.

/file print where name~"dude"
/system reboot

After the reboot:

/system package print

Expected: two packages, dude 7.23.8 and routeros 7.23.8.

Done when /system package print lists dude.

Step 2 · Switch the server on¶

WinBox: Dude menu (it appears after the package is installed), Settings: Enabled ticked, Data Directory dude.

/dude set enabled=yes data-directory=dude
/dude print

Expected:

         enabled: yes
  data-directory: dude
          status: running

The server creates the folder dude with its database (dude.db) and its default files (device icons, MIB files for SNMP).

Done when /dude print says status: running.

Step 3 · Install the client and connect¶

Download the Dude client for the same version as the server (dude-install-7.23.8.exe) from mikrotik.com/download and install it on Windows.

Open it and connect: Server = the Dude server's address (in class 10.0.0.1), Port 8291, user and password of a RouterOS user on that server. Since The Dude 6.37 (2016) the client talks to the server through the router's WinBox service, on the WinBox port 8291. Old guides mention ports 2210 and 2211: those were the ports of Dude versions before 6.37.

Done when the client shows an empty map called Local.

Step 4 · Let the Dude discover the network¶

The first time, the client offers a Discover wizard. Enter the network to scan (in class 10.0.0.0/24) and start. The Dude pings every address, and for each one that answers tries to recognise it (is it a MikroTik? does it answer SNMP? DNS? HTTP?) and adds it to the map with links between them.

Expected: the trainer's router, your hAP and your classmates' hAPs appear as icons, connected by lines.

Done when your own router appears on the map.

Step 5 · Read the colours¶

Each device on the map has services (probes): ping, and others it detected, such as dns, http, snmp. The colour of the device tells you their state:

Unplug your hAP's WAN cable for half a minute (ask the trainer first) and watch it turn red on everybody's map, with an alert sound. Plug it back in: it turns green again.

Done when you have seen a device go red and back to green.

Step 6 · Optional: let the Dude read your router with SNMP¶

With SNMP (Lab 09-05) the Dude can show much more than "alive": traffic of each port, CPU, uptime. On your hAP, apply final/r1-monitored.rsc: a read-only community dude allowed only from the Dude server, and an input firewall rule that lets SNMP from 10.0.0.1 in before the default "drop all not coming from LAN" rule.

/snmp community add name=dude addresses=10.0.0.1/32 read-access=yes write-access=no comment="The Dude server, read-only"
/snmp community set [find name=public] disabled=yes
/snmp set enabled=yes
/ip firewall filter add chain=input protocol=udp dst-port=161 src-address=10.0.0.1 action=accept comment="SNMP from the Dude server" place-before=[find comment="defconf: drop all not coming from LAN"]

In the Dude client, open your device's settings and set the SNMP profile to v2 with community dude.

Done when the Dude shows your router's interfaces and their traffic.

If something goes wrong¶

Clean up¶

On the server, if it was only for the lab: /dude set enabled=no, and remove the package with /system package uninstall dude followed by /system reboot. On your hAP, remove the dude community and the firewall rule of Step 6.

Key takeaways¶

• The Dude is MikroTik's free monitoring tool: discovery, network map, service probes and alerts.
• It has a server (RouterOS package dude) and a client (Windows, or Wine on Linux/macOS) that connects on TCP 8291, the WinBox port.
• Extra packages must match the RouterOS version and the CPU architecture exactly, and are installed by uploading the .npk and rebooting.
• /dude set enabled=yes data-directory=... starts the server; on small routers keep the database on external storage.
• With SNMP the Dude can show traffic and resources, not only "alive or dead".

Quick check¶

Last lab of the course: when something goes really wrong, how to give MikroTik support (or your future colleagues) what they need: logs, supout.rif and good documentation.