Draft Entity MIB Extensions September 1997
<draft-bierman-entmib-compid-01.txt>
Entity MIB Extensions for Persistent Component Identification
18 September 1997
Andy Bierman
Cisco Systems Inc.
abierman@cisco.com
Keith McCloghrie
Cisco Systems Inc.
kzm@cisco.com
Status of this Memo
This document is an Internet-Draft. Internet-Drafts are working
documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and
its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working
documents as Internet-Drafts.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
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or to cite them other than as ``work in progress.''
To learn the current status of any Internet-Draft, please check the
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ftp.isi.edu (US West Coast), or munnari.oz.au (Pacific Rim).
1. Introduction
This memo defines an experimental portion of the Management Information
Base (MIB) for use with network management protocols in the Internet
community. In particular, it describes managed objects used for
managing physical topology identification and discovery.
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2. The SNMP Network Management Framework
The SNMP Network Management Framework presently consists of three major
components. They are:
o the SMI, described in RFC 1902 [1], - the mechanisms used for
describing and naming objects for the purpose of management.
o the MIB-II, STD 17, RFC 1213 [2], - the core set of managed objects
for the Internet suite of protocols.
o the protocol, RFC 1157 [6] and/or RFC 1905 [4], - the protocol for
accessing managed information.
Textual conventions are defined in RFC 1903 [3], and conformance
statements are defined in RFC 1904 [5].
The Framework permits new objects to be defined for the purpose of
experimentation and evaluation.
This memo specifies a MIB module that is compliant to the SNMPv2 SMI. A
semantically identical MIB conforming to the SNMPv1 SMI can be produced
through the appropriate translation.
2.1. Object Definitions
Managed objects are accessed via a virtual information store, termed the
Management Information Base or MIB. Objects in the MIB are defined
using the subset of Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) defined in the
SMI. In particular, each object type is named by an OBJECT IDENTIFIER,
an administratively assigned name. The object type together with an
object instance serves to uniquely identify a specific instantiation of
the object. For human convenience, we often use a textual string,
termed the descriptor, to refer to the object type.
3. Overview
There is a need for a standardized way of providing non-volatile,
administratively assigned identifiers for physical components
represented with the Entity MIB [7].
This document defines extensions to the Entity MIB to address this need.
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4. Entity MIB Extensions
4.1. MIB Structure
The Entity Extensions MIB contains a single group:
- Entity Physical Extensions Group
4.1.1. Entity Physical Extensions Group
This group contains a single table, called the entPhysicalXTable, which
augments the entPhysicalTable. Each entPhysicalXEntry provides a
writable string object, 'entPhysicalAlias', which can be used by an NMS
as a non-volatile 'alias' (or label) for the physical component.
The entPhysicalAlias object is different from the ifAlias version in
several ways:
- SnmpAdminString SYNTAX
The Interfaces MIB [8] version is defined as a DisplayString [3].
The Entity MIB [7] version is defined as an SnmpAdminString [9].
- SIZE (0..32)
The maximum length of the entPhysicalAlias string is half that of
the ifAlias object.
- MIN-ACCESS
Maintaining a non-volatile string for every physical component
represented in the entPhysicalTable can be costly and unnecessary.
An agent may choose to algorithmically generate entPhysicalAlias
strings for particular entries (based on the entPhysicalClass
value).
4.2. Definitions
ENTITY-EXTENSIONS-MIB DEFINITIONS ::= BEGIN
IMPORTS
MODULE-IDENTITY, OBJECT-TYPE
FROM SNMPv2-SMI
MODULE-COMPLIANCE, OBJECT-GROUP
FROM SNMPv2-CONF
SnmpAdminString
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FROM SNMP-FRAMEWORK-MIB
entPhysicalEntry, entityMIBObjects, entityCompliances,
entityGroups, entityPhysicalGroup
FROM ENTITY-MIB;
entityXMIB MODULE-IDENTITY
LAST-UPDATED "9709150000Z"
ORGANIZATION "IETF Entity MIB Working Group"
CONTACT-INFO
"Andy Bierman
Cisco Systems Inc.
170 West Tasman Drive
San Jose, CA 95134
408-527-3711
abierman@cisco.com
Keith McCloghrie
Cisco Systems Inc.
170 West Tasman Drive
San Jose, CA 95134
408-526-5260
kzm@cisco.com"
DESCRIPTION
"The extension MIB module for physical entity information."
::= { experimental xx }
-- ***********************************************************
--
-- E N T I T Y P H Y S I C A L E X T E N S I O N S
--
-- ***********************************************************
-- entPhysicalTable extensions
entityPhysicalX OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { entityMIBObjects 5 }
entPhysicalXTable OBJECT-TYPE
SYNTAX SEQUENCE OF EntPhysicalXEntry
MAX-ACCESS not-accessible
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION
"This table contains one row per physical element
represented in the entPhysicalTable."
::= { entityPhysicalX 1 }
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entPhysicalXEntry OBJECT-TYPE
SYNTAX EntPhysicalXEntry
MAX-ACCESS not-accessible
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION
"Information about a particular physical entity."
AUGMENTS { entPhysicalEntry }
::= { entPhysicalXTable 1 }
EntPhysicalXEntry ::= SEQUENCE {
entPhysicalAlias SnmpAdminString
}
entPhysicalAlias OBJECT-TYPE
SYNTAX SnmpAdminString (SIZE (0..32))
MAX-ACCESS read-write
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION
"This object is an 'alias' name for the physical entity as
specified by a network manager, and provides a non-volatile
'handle' for the physical entity.
On the first instantiation of an physical entity, the value
of entPhysicalAlias associated with that entity is set to
the zero-length string. An agent may instead choose to set
the value to a locally unique default value instead of a
zero-length string.
If write access is implemented for an instance of
entPhysicalAlias, and a value is written into the instance,
the agent must retain the supplied value in the
entPhysicalAlias instance associated with the same physical
entity for as long as that entity remains instantiated,
including across all re-initializations/reboots of the
network management system, including those which result in a
change of the physical entity's entPhysicalIndex value."
::= { entPhysicalXEntry 1 }
-- conformance information
-- compliance statements
entityXCompliance MODULE-COMPLIANCE
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION
"The compliance statement for SNMP entities which implement
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the entPhysicalXTable Entity MIB extension."
MODULE -- this module
MANDATORY-GROUPS {
entityPhysicalGroup,
entityPhysicalXGroup
}
OBJECT entPhysicalAlias
MIN-ACCESS read-only
DESCRIPTION
"Write access is required if the associated
entPhysicalClass value is equal to 'chassis(3)'.
Otherwise, write access is not required."
::= { entityCompliances 2 }
-- MIB groupings
entityPhysicalXGroup OBJECT-GROUP
OBJECTS {
entPhysicalAlias
}
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION
"The collection of objects which are used to represent
extended physical component information for which a single
agent provides management information."
::= { entityGroups 5 }
END
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5. References
[1] SNMPv2 Working Group, Case, J., McCloghrie, K., Rose, M., and
S. Waldbusser, "Structure of Management Information for version 2
of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMPv2)", RFC 1902,
January 1996.
[2] McCloghrie, K., and M. Rose, Editors, "Management Information Base
for Network Management of TCP/IP-based internets: MIB-II", STD 17,
RFC 1213, Hughes LAN Systems, Performance Systems International,
March 1991.
[3] SNMPv2 Working Group, Case, J., McCloghrie, K., Rose, M., and
S. Waldbusser, "Textual Conventions for version 2 of the Simple
Network Management Protocol (SNMPv2)", RFC 1903, January 1996.
[4] SNMPv2 Working Group, Case, J., McCloghrie, K., Rose, M., and
S. Waldbusser, "Protocol Operations for version 2 of the Simple
Network Management Protocol (SNMPv2)", RFC 1905, January 1996.
[5] SNMPv2 Working Group, Case, J., McCloghrie, K., Rose, M., and
S. Waldbusser, "Conformance Statements for version 2 of the Simple
Network Management Protocol (SNMPv2)", RFC 1904, January 1996.
[6] Case, J., M. Fedor, M. Schoffstall, J. Davin, "Simple Network
Management Protocol", RFC 1157, SNMP Research, Performance Systems
International, MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, May 1990.
[7] McCloghrie, K., Bierman, A., "Entity MIB using SMIv2", RFC 2037,
Cisco Systems, October 1996.
[8] McCloghrie, K., and Kastenholtz, F., "Interfaces Group Evolution",
RFC 1573, Hughes LAN Systems, FTP Software, January 1994.
[9] Harrington D., Wijnen, A., "An Architecture for Describing SNMP
Management Frameworks", draft-ietf-snmpv3-next-gen-arch-04.txt,
Cabletron Systems, IBM T.J. Watson Research, August 1997.
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6. Security Considerations
No additional security concerns are introduced due to implementation of
this MIB module. Refer to RFC 2037 [7] for information on any security
issues related to the Entity MIB.
7. Author's Address
Andy Bierman
Cisco Systems, Inc.
170 West Tasman Drive
San Jose, CA 95134
Phone: 408-527-3711
Email: abierman@cisco.com
Keith McCloghrie
Cisco Systems, Inc.
170 West Tasman Drive
San Jose, CA 95134
Phone: 408-526-5260
Email: kzm@cisco.com
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Table of Contents
1 Introduction .................................................... 1
2 The SNMP Network Management Framework ........................... 2
2.1 Object Definitions ............................................ 2
3 Overview ........................................................ 2
4 Entity MIB Extensions ........................................... 3
4.1 MIB Structure ................................................. 3
4.1.1 Entity Physical Extensions Group ............................ 3
4.2 Definitions ................................................... 3
5 References ...................................................... 7
6 Security Considerations ......................................... 8
7 Author's Address ................................................ 8
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