Subject: Re: ForCES Framework Last Call for Comments (was: ForCES framework: summary of comments from Russ Housley and authors' respond)

From: "Yang, Lily L" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2004 22:08:48 -0800

That seems reasonable. Thanks.

-----Original Message-----
From: Forwarding and Control Element Separation
[mailto:[email-masked]] On Behalf Of Weiming Wang
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 9:31 AM
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: ForCES Framework Last Call for Comments (was: ForCES
framework: summary of comments from Russ Housley and authors' respond)

Hi Lily,

> - section 5.7:
> I think it should also be noted that the FE may not run SNMP.
> The assumption with agentX is that both FE and CE run SNMP.
>
> [Lily] That is not what I understand. According to RFC2741:
> "Within the SNMP framework, a managed node contains a processing
>    entity, called an agent, which has access to management
information.
>    Within the AgentX framework, an agent is further defined to consist
>    of:
>       -  a single processing entity called the master agent, which
sends
>          and receives SNMP protocol messages in an agent role (as
>          specified by the SNMP framework documents) but typically has
>          little or no direct access to management information.
>       -  zero or more processing entities called subagents, which are
>          "shielded" from the SNMP protocol messages processed by the
>          master agent, but which have access to management
information."
> Therefore, the FE does NOT run SNMP. That is the whole point. AgentX
is
> run between CE and FE so that CE can run SNMP to collect MIB info from
> FE.

Though ActiveX for FE SNMP supporting can be used,it does not
mean FEs without ActiveX supporting is precluded. And RFC3654 
architectural requirements 14) also states that:

14)......In certain conditions (e.g., CE/FE disconnection), it may be
useful to
   allow management tools (e.g., SNMP) to be used to diagnose and repair
   problems.  The following guidelines MUST be observed:

   1. The ability for a management tool (e.g., SNMP) to be used to read
      (but not change) the state of FE SHOULD NOT be precluded.
   ......

My understanding of the requirement is that FEs SHOULD support SNMP at
the level of fetch somthing.

Therefore, I suggest to change the use of ActiveX from "recommend" to
"may use".

Sincerely,
Weiming