INTERNET-DRAFT C. Kalbfleisch
OnRamp Technologies, Inc.
C. Krupczak
Empire Technologies, Inc.
R. Presuhn
BMC Software, Inc.
J. Saperia
BGS Systems, Inc.
25 November 1996
Application Management MIB
<draft-ietf-applmib-mib-00.txt>
Status of this Memo
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Abstract
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 defines objects used for
the management of applications. This MIB complements the System
Application MIB, providing for the management of applications' common
aspects which could not typically be observed without the cooperation
of the software being managed.
1. Introduction
This draft seeks to further the work begun in the systems application
mib [11]. In its current form, it identifies far more issues and
capabilities than can reasonably be addressed in one MIB. It is
hoped that the first round of discussion of this document will trim
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this feature set to an essential core that will provide the most
"bang for the buck" in making applications manageable.
The development of [1], [2], [3], [4], [8] and [9] provides us with a
base of experience in making a variety of applications visible to
management; this specification abstracts out the common aspects of
applications management and provides a generic base usable for the
management of almost any application.
2. Overview
Key topics not handled in system application MIB [11] that must be
identified as either being inside or outside the scope of this work
include:
- Do we want to provide support for generic application
throughput measurements?
- Do we want to provide MIB definitions that allow management
to define what is to be considered a unit of work?
- Do we want to provide support for generic application
response time monitoring capabilities?
- Do we want to support the management of distributed appli-
cations as such? (The indexing structure and semantics of
the system application MIB [11] are not sufficient for this
task.)
- Do we want to address issues of backup and recovery?
- Do we want to address issues of software request, delivery,
installation, activation, patching, version update, rever-
sion, and removal?
- Do we want to address issues of software validation and
integrity checks?
- Do we want to address issues of software licensing?
- Do we want to address generic resource management issues,
such as:
- files in use?
- I/O statistics?
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- other resources?
- dependency information?
- Do we want to provide a generic error logging (stderr)
capability?
- What categories of application errors are of interest?
- Do we want to provide MIB definitions that allow man-
agement to define what is to be considerred an error?
- How manageable should the log itself be? (And perhaps
whether this should really be pursued in disman)
Note that these issues are addressed at least in part by other stan-
dards work, including [12] and [13].
Topics specifically within the scope of this specification:
Topics specifically out of scope:
3. Architecture
To emulate the object-oriented modeling techniques of subclassing and
multiple inheritance, the SNMP information model provides for the use
of tables with common indexes. The challenge for the developer of
management applications is to recognize those situations in which
various aspects of a single logical resource are represented in sev-
eral different tables, possibly defined in different MIBs.
Most of the management information defined here may pertain to any
number of applications in a managed system. The simplest way of sup-
porting this requirement within the SNMP information model is to use
tables. This means that the management information for a particular
resource may be found in one or more rows of one or more tables; the
fact that this information pertains to a single resource may be
deduced from the index values used, possibly with the support of map-
ping tables. This also means that a single table may contain manage-
ment information relevant to a number of applications. This has sig-
nificant implementation implications; see the implementation issues
section below for more information.
Relationships to other MIBs
This section will outline the relationships of the components of this
MIB (usually in the form of common indexing structures) to:
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- the systems applications MIB [11]
- the host resources MIB [1]
- the entity MIB [8]
- the network services monitoring MIB [2]
Relationship to NSM
The Network Services Monitoring MIB is defined as the base set of
attributes for managing network applications. This MIB extends that
set of attributes to include information normally obtainable only
from the managed resource itself, rather than the supporting system.
The nsmToSysApplElmtRunTable is defined to provide the relationship
between the NSM and sysApplMIB frameworks.
Relationship to sysAppl
The sysApplMIB defines attributes for management of applications
which can be realized without instrumenting an application. This
sepcification extends that framework to include additional attributes
which will typically require instrumentation within the managed
resource.
4. MIB Structure
The open files table
The open files table contains one entry for file in use by the man-
aged application. If multiple applications open the same file, it
will appear as many times in this table as there are applications
opening that file. Entries in this table are indexed by the applica-
tion run index and an arbitrary integer, chosen so that taken
together the application run index and this integer yield a unique
key for each open file. The following information is available in
this table:
- file name
- number of read requests
- number of bytes read
- timestamp of last read operation
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- number of write requests
- number of bytes written
- timestamp of last write operation
- number of seek operations
- file size
Special cases to consider: stdin, stdout, stderr, etc.
The open connections table
This table extends the capabilities provided by the network services
monitoring MIB [2]. It includes:
-
-
The transaction statistics table
Entries in the transaction statistics table are indexed by the appli-
cation run index and an arbitrary integer, chosen so that taken
together the application run index and this integer yield a unique
key for each transaction stream. A transaction stream may be a file
or a connection; a column in this table contains the OBJECT IDENTI-
FIER of the instance in the open files table or open connections
table. The information recorded in the entries of this table
includes:
- Transactions received / read
- Transactions transmitted / written
- Transaction response time (definition gets tricky...)
The application component details table
This table provides time stamps, current size, ownership, and other
information as it extends the sysApplInstallElmt table.
5. Definitions
APPLICATION-MIB DEFINITIONS ::= BEGIN
*
* note: this MIB will not compile in its current form!
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*
IMPORTS
MODULE-IDENTITY, OBJECT-TYPE,
Unsigned32 FROM SNMPv2-SMI
MODULE-COMPLIANCE, OBJECT-GROUP FROM SNMPv2-CONF;
applicationMIB MODULE-IDENTITY
LAST-UPDATED "9611200000Z"
ORGANIZATION "Application MIB Working Group"
CONTACT-INFO
"Randy Presuhn
BMC Software, Inc.
1190 Saratoga Avenue, Suite 100
San Jose, CA 95129
USA
Telephone: +1 800 841-2031
Facsimile: +1 408 556-0735
Email: rpresuhn@bmc.com
"
DESCRIPTION
"
"
::= { bogus 1 }
UTF8String ::= TEXTUAL CONVENTION
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION
"A string of IS 10646 characters encoded
in the UTF-8 (see [10]) format.
"
SYNTAX OCTET STRING (SIZE (0 .. 1024))
--
-- nsmToSysApplElmtRunTable
--
-- The table that defines relationships between NSM's applTable
-- and sysApplMIB's sysApplRunElmtTable.
--
nsmToSysApplElmtRunTable OBJECT-TYPE
SYNTAX SEQUENCE OF NsmToSysApplElmtRunEntry
MAX-ACCESS not-accessible
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION
"The table that defines relationships between the
applTable of the Network Services Monitoring MIB [2]
and the sysApplElmtRunTable of the System Application
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MIB [11]."
::= { nsmToSysAppl 1 }
nsmToSysApplElmtRunEntry OBJECT-TYPE
SYNTAX NsmToSysApplElmtRunEntry
MAX-ACCESS not-accessible
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION
"An entry in the table that defines relationships between the
applTable of the Network Services Monitoring MIB [REF]
and the sysApplElmtRunTable of the System Application
MIB [REF]."
INDEX { nsmToSysApplElmtRunIndex }
::= { nsmToSysApplElmtRunTable 1 }
NsmToSysApplElmtRunEntry ::= SEQUENCE
{
nsmToSysApplElmtRunIndex Unsigned32,
nsmToSysApplElmtRunApplIndex Unsigned32,
nsmToSysApplElmtRunSysApplRunIndex Unsigned32,
nsmToSysApplElmtRunSysApplRunElmtIndex Unsigned32
}
nsmToSysApplElmtRunIndex OBJECT-TYPE
SYNTAX Unsigned32
MAX-ACCESS not-accessible
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION
"An arbitrary integer used for indexing purposes.
Each entry in this table represents a relationship
between an entry in applTable of NSM and sysApplRunElmtTable
of sysApplMIB."
::= { nsmToSysApplElmtRunEntry 1 }
nsmToSysApplElmtRunApplIndex OBJECT-TYPE
SYNTAX Unsigned32
MAX-ACCESS read-only
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION
"The index into the applTable of NSM. This is used to
identify an entry in applTable which relates to an
entry in sysApplRunElmtTable which is indexed by
nsmToSysApplElmtSysApplRunIndex and
nsmToSysApplElmtSysApplRunElmtIndex"
::= { nsmToSysApplElmtRunEntry 2 }
nsmToSysApplElmtRunSysApplRunIndex OBJECT-TYPE
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SYNTAX Unsigned32
MAX-ACCESS read-only
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION
"The application index into the sysApplRunTable of
sysApplMIB. This is also one of the primary indices
of the sysApplRunElmtTable. This is used in conjunction
with the value of nsmToSysApplElmtSysApplRunElmtIndex
to identify an entry in the sysApplRunElmtTable that
is related to an entry in the applTable."
::= { nsmToSysApplElmtRunEntry 3 }
nsmToSysApplElmtRunSysApplRunElmtIndex OBJECT-TYPE
SYNTAX Unsigned32
MAX-ACCESS read-only
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION
"The element index into the sysApplRunElmntTable of
sysApplMIB. This is used in conjunction with the
value of nsmToSysApplElmtSysApplRunIndex to identify
an entry in the sysApplRunElmtTable that is related
to an entry in the applTable."
::= { nsmToSysApplElmtRunEntry 4 }
END
6. Implementation Issues
Unlike the system application MIB [11], in many environments support
for much of this MIB requires instrumentation built into the managed
resource. Some tables may be implemented by a single monitor pro-
cess; for others, the implementation may be distributed within the
managed system with the resources being managed.
As a practical matter, this means that the management infrastructure
of the managed system must support different subagents taking respon-
sibility for different rows of a single table. This can be supported
by Agentx [14] as well as other subagent protocols [15].
7. Security Considerations
By making potentially sensitive information externally accessible,
the capabilities supported by the MIB have the potential of becoming
security problems.
The capabilities supported by this MIB include several that may be of
value to a security administrator. These include the ability to
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monitor the level of usage of a given application, to verify
licenses, and to check the integrity of application components.
8. Acknowledgements
This document was produced by the Application MIB working group.
The author gratefully acknowledges the comments and contributions of
the following individuals:
Carl Kalbfleisch
John Saperia
Cheryl Krupczak
9. Editors' Addresses
Carl Kalbfleisch
OnRamp Technologies, Inc.
1950 Stemmons Frwy
2026 INFOMART
Dallas, TX 75207
USA
Phone: +1 214 672-7246
Fax: +1 214 672-7275
E-Mail: cwk@onramp.net
Cheryl Krupczak
Empire Technologies, Inc.
541 Tenth Street, NW Suite 169
Atlanta, GA 30318
Phone: +1 770 384-0184
E-Mail: cheryl@empiretech.com
Randy Presuhn
BMC Software, Inc.
PEER Networks Division
1190 Saratoga Avenue
San Jose, CA 95129
USA
Phone: +1 408 556-0720
Fax: +1 408 556-0735
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E-Mail: rpresuhn@bmc.com
10. References
[1] Grillo, P., and S. Waldbusser, "Host Resources MIB", RFC 1514,
September 1993.
[2] Freed, N., and S. Kille, "Network Services Monitoring MIB", RFC
1565, January 1994.
[3] Freed, N., and S. Kille, "Mail Monitoring MIB", RFC 1566, January
1994.
[4] Brower, D., Purvy, R., Daniel, A., Sinykin, M., and J. Smith,
"Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) Management
Information Base (MIB) using SMIv2", RFC 1697, August 1994.
[5] 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.
[6] 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.
[7] 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.
[8] McCloghrie, K. and A. Bierman, "Entity MIB", RFC 2037, October
1996.
[9] C. Kalbfleisch, "Applicability of Standards Track MIBs to
Management of World Wide Web Servers", RFC 2039, November 1996.
[10] Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of Unicode and ISO
10646", RFC 2044, October 1996.
[11] Krupczak, C., Saperia, J., and R. Sturm, "Definitions of Managed
Objects for Applications", <draft-ietf-applmib-sysapplmib-05.txt>,
November 1996.
[12] ITU-T Recommendation X.744 | ISO/IEC IS 10164-18:1996, Information
Technology - Open Systems Interconnection - Systems Management:
Software Management Function, 1996.
[13] IEEE P1387.2, POSIX System Administration - Part 2: Software
Administration. (Draft)
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[14] Francisco, D., Daniele, M., and B. Wijnen, "Agent Extensibility
(AgentX) Protocol", <draft-ietf-agentx-pro-01.txt>, November, 1995.
[15] Rose, M. "SNMP MUX Protocol and MIB", RFC 1227, May 1991.
11. List of Things Left To Be Done
- Split wish list of features into things in-scope and out-
of-scope
- Put in real MIB definitions, verify compilability.
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