Subject: Questions on RFC 4293 Management Information Base for the Internet Protocol (IP)

From: Tina TSOU <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 11:11:42 +0800

Hi all,
In RFC 4293,
- ipAddressTable is described as writable, this table uses address
as index, but the critical information for configuring address, the
address prefix ipAddressPrefix node is read-only. It seems
contradict to me.
This table uses address as index, but the public network and VPN
may have exactly the same IP address. This table does not
explicitly say whether it only supports public network. If
supporting VPN at the same time, there might occur the following
case: only on address is displayed among the same IP addresses.

ipAddressTable OBJECT-TYPE
   SYNTAX     SEQUENCE OF IpAddressEntry
   MAX-ACCESS not-accessible
   STATUS     current
   DESCRIPTION
          "This table contains addressing information relevant to the
           entity's interfaces.
           This table does not contain multicast address information.
           Tables for such information should be contained in multicast
           specific MIBs, such as RFC 3019.
           While this table is writable, the user will note that
           several objects, such as ipAddressOrigin, are not.  The
           intention in allowing a user to write to this table is to
           allow them to add or remove any entry that isn't
           permanent.  The user should be allowed to modify objects
           and entries when that would not cause inconsistencies
           within the table.  Allowing write access to objects, such
           as ipAddressOrigin, could allow a user to insert an entry
           and then label it incorrectly.
ipAddressPrefix OBJECT-TYPE
   SYNTAX     RowPointer
   MAX-ACCESS read-only
   STATUS     current
   DESCRIPTION
          "A pointer to the row in the prefix table to which this
           address belongs.  May be { 0 0 } if there is no such row."
   DEFVAL { zeroDotZero }
   ::= { ipAddressEntry 5 }

B. R.
Tina
http://tinatsou.weebly.com/contact.html

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From: Tina TSOU <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:17:29 +0800

No answer from anywhere, even the State of Confusion...

B. R.
Tina

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Tina TSOU 
  To: [email-masked] ; [email-masked] ; Bob Hinden ; Dan Romascanu ; [email-masked] ; [email-masked] ; [email-masked] ; [email-masked] ; [email-masked] ; [email-masked] 
  Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2010 11:11 AM
  Subject: Questions on RFC 4293 Management Information Base for the Internet Protocol (IP)

  Hi all,
  In RFC 4293,

  B. R.
  Tina

---

From: Bill Fenner <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2010 07:53:03 -0400

[sorry if you get duplicates, replying from an address that actually
*works* this time]

> address prefix ipAddressPrefix node is read-only. It seems

Worse, the whole ipAddressPrefixTable is read-only, so you can't
insert a new row to try to point to.  This seems like we didn't pay
enough attention to making these configurable via SNMP.

> explicitly say whether it only supports public network.

As with most MIBs, if you have multiple contexts on the device, you
need multiple instances of the MIB, usually using SNMPv3 contexts and
the entLogicalTable to associate SNMPv2 communities if needed.

 Bill

---

From: Bill Fenner <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2010 07:51:00 -0400

Bill

---

From: Fred Baker <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2010 08:15:21 -0700

"we didn't pay enough attention" is a very kind way to put it. The entire SNMP exercise was about monitoring; those like me who tried to make things writable pushed rocks uphill politically. That, and the experience of trying to make event triggered management rather than poll-driven management, is the major reason that I, personally, don't want to have anything to do with network management in the IETF.

On Apr 21, 2010, at 4:53 AM, Bill Fenner wrote:

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