Subject: RE: sysuptime and snmpv3 integrity checking

From: "Gillis, John" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2003 08:35:35 -0500

Hi Dave,

I believe the time window checking is used as an SNMP engine
synchronization mechanism for the USM model (to see how "timely" messages
are), and has no dependency on how long the overall agent has been running 
prior to the last reboot.

As you well know, carriers monitor sysUpTime for changes as one of 
their primary indications of equipment failure, so I can't imagine the SNMP
message
authentication/timing mechanism being tied to this ... the time window
appears
to use relative time rather than absolute time.

I've answered in such language for one simple reason: many SNMP agents
out there can be restarted without re-initializing the equipment, so the
time window 
checking module, IMHO, should not be tied to sysUpTime for this reason
alone.

-jg

-----Original Message-----
From: Harrington, David [mailto:[email-masked]]
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2003 7:32 AM
To: [email-masked] (E-mail)
Subject: sysuptime and snmpv3 integrity checking

Hi,

I'm just looking for a sanity check. Am I correct in my belief that:

The Time Window checking in RFC3414 is NOT affected by sysUptime rollover;
the time window checking does not use the value of sysUptime in its
calculations.

Thanks,
dbh

David Harrington
Director, Network Management Architecture
Office of the CTO
Enterasys Networks