How to test/evaluate network management tools?

Hi,

I want to test and evaluate the solarwinds suite and especially NPM.

The problem is that I have to evaluate it for a large and complex network but I don't know what is the best and most comfortable way to set up an appropriate test environment!

It is hard to set up a real/physical test environment which should be large and complex because I would need a lot of resources for that! Do you know if there is a more comfortable way to set up or maybe simulate a large and complex network without having to use real machines?

Thanks!