SNMP Agent Extensibility (agentx)
(concluded WG)

In addition to the charter maintained by the IETF Secretariat, there is additional information about this working group on the Web at: More information on Agentx

Description of Working Group

The goal of this working group is to define standards-track technology
for SNMP Agent extensibility. The resulting technology specification
will allow independently developed sub-agents to communicate with a
master-agent running on an Internet device.

The technology specification will consist of:

o (mandatory) a platform-independent protocol which supports
intra-agent communication within a device or local area network;

o (optional) a MIB module, which, when implemented by a master-agent,
allows an SNMP-based management application to monitor and control
the intra-agent communication service; and,

o (optional) a programmatic interface to the services offered by
that protocol.

The working group is explicitly directed to develop a solution which is
adequate to achieve transparency with respect to whether a SNMP request
is processed by a master-agent and/or one or more sub-agents;
simultaneously, the working group is further directed to use good
engineering judgement is developing an approach with the smallest
reasonable "footprint" to achieve intra-agent communication. As a
consequence, if the working group may choose to avoid complete
transparency, if, at its discretion, this proves too costly. In this
case, the working group should document its decision for this
engineering trade-off.

Although the working group will solicit existing specifications and
experience in this area, it will produce a vendor-neutral technology
specification.

Goals and Milestones