Subject: Re: draft to RFC ?

From: Ken Chapman <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 15:24:07 -0400

I have an issue that is more an SNMP SMI than an ATM issue.

I noticed that RFC 1695 has a DEFVAL for most of the OBJECT-TYPEs
that are of SYNTAX RowStatus.  (And this persists into atm1ng-04.)
This, IMHO, is broken.  It is defeating much of the semantics of RowStatus.
For example, if an NMS sends a set to an agent with just one
varbind to any one of the columns in a atmTrafficDescrParamTable for
a row that does not exist, then the row will be created and activated, 
and no atmTrafficDescrRowStatus is needed (since it has a DEFVAL of active).

I would like to know if that was the intent. 

Do others think this is "broken"?

If it is broken then it should be fixed *before going to RFC*.
There are several options; here are a couple:
    1) remove the DEFVALs.
    2) deprecate the RowStatus variables, add new variables using
       a new textual convention that defines the intended behavior.

If the WG votes that the behavoir is ok, then the behavior should be 
correctly documenting *before going to RFC*.

In either case, I don't think the draft should go out the way it is.
	Ken
================================================
Ken Chapman                 Argon Networks, Inc.
tel: 978-486-0665 x146      25 Porter Road
fax: 978-486-9379           Littleton, MA  01460
mailto:[email-masked]   http://www.Argon.com
================================================

---

From: Rob Frye <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 17:47:17 -0400

>Do others think this is "broken"?

This is permitted in RFC 1903 and an example given in 
Sec 7.10 of RFC 1902.  Care must be taken to ensure that
if "active" or "createAndGo" are the DEFVAL values chosen,
then the DEFVALs of other column variables must
"make protocol sense".  If a row could be created
and active by leaving out certain columns, then the
DEFVAL for a RowStatus variable should *not* be "active"
or "createAndGo".

-- Rob.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rob Frye ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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