Subject: [Ipoverib] Re: draft-ietf-ipoib-subnet-mgmt-agent-mib-02.txt

From: "Rosenstock, Hal" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2002 11:32:46 -0400

Hi,

I haven't had a chance to read the rest of this MIB as yet but we have a
question about the trap definiton.

It appears that the Notification definition (trap) in
draft-ietf-ipoib-subnet-mgmt-agent-mib-02.txt 
encapulates trap variables into an 256-byte Octet String rather than send
each as a separate varbind.
We were wondering why this was and whether this is optimal.

ibSmaNodeTrapBuffer  OBJECT-TYPE 
   SYNTAX       OCTET STRING (SIZE(256))  
   MAX-ACCESS   accessible-for-notify 
   STATUS       current 
   DESCRIPTION  
      "Special purpose string buffer for InfiniBand Trap Data.
       This buffer contains the Notice DataDetails field for this
       Trap SMP."
   REFERENCE
      "InfiniBand Architecture Release 1.0.a. Vol 1.
       Section 14.2.5.1; Tables 114--119 Notice Data Details
       For Traps nnn."
   ::= { ibSmaNodeInfo 13 } 
    
This is not particularly useful when trying to integrate the trap with an
Network
Management System (NMS) such as NetView. Experience integrating traps into
an NMS 
is that you build a trap display string using information which is extracted
from the 
trap varbinds.

As an example, consider the cpqups.mib defininitions file, cpqUps2LineFailed
trap. This definition shows there are three variables sent with the trap.

    cpqUps2LineFailed TRAP-TYPE
        ENTERPRISE compaq
        VARIABLES  { sysName, cpqHoTrapFlags, cpqUpsEstimatedBatteryLife }
        DESCRIPTION
            "AC Line power failure.

             The UPS reports that the AC line power has failed."

              --#TYPE "AC Line Failure"
              --#SUMMARY "UPS has about %d minutes of power left."
              --#ARGUMENTS {2}
              --#SEVERITY CRITICAL
              --#TIMEINDEX 99
              --#STATE   DEGRADED

        ::= 12006

The definition as found in NetView is:
     cpqUps2LineFailed {1.3.6.1.4.1.232} 6 12006 A 4 0 "LOGONLY" -
     UPS has about $3 minutes of power left.

When this trap is received, the NMS will build a message which contains the
value sent in the third varbind.

If we are encapsulating the variables into a single Octet String buffer,
there is no way to treat this in some general way in the NMS, except maybe
to dump the contents of the buffer which has limited value.

We will get to the rest of this MIB after reviewing the CA MIB.

Thanks.

-- Hal Rosenstock
   Paceline Systems
   [email-masked]

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