Subject: [MIB-DOCTORS] FW: RFC 4668..4673: general issue with refs to MIB-II

From: "Wijnen, Bert (Bert)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2006 22:34:28 +0100

FYI and possible comment

Bert

-----Original Message-----
From: Alfred =?hp-roman8?B?SM5uZXM=?= [mailto:[email-masked]]
Sent: Monday, November 06, 2006 11:15
To: [email-masked]; [email-masked];
[email-masked]; [email-masked]; [email-masked]
Subject: RFC 4668..4673: general issue with refs to MIB-II

Hello,
this message is addressed to the authors of the recently published
new RADIUS MIB module RFCs, RFC 4668...4673, and to Bert Wijnen,
in particular as the one representative of the IETF MIB doctors
mentioned in the Acknowledgements Section of all of these RFCs.

(Bert: If you like, please forward this message to the mib-doctors
mailing list.)

Reading the new RADIUS MIB documents has recalled me of a pending
problem, caused by the peculiarities of the IETF Standards process.

(Authors: Other issues and errata will be detailed in two companion
notes, covering RFC 4668..4671, and RFC 4672/4673, respectively.)

RFC 1213 -- MIB-II -- is still named Full Internet Standard (STD 17),
whereas the full content of that document has been repeatedly
obsoleted by other RFCs or is now considered Historic, as detailed
in various IETF documents.  In particlar, the (revised) 'system'
group of the original MIB-II is now covered by the SNMPv2-MIB
module, the first full version of which was published in RFC 1907,
and the current version of which can be found in (part 8 of) STD 62,
RFC 3418.

Current policy of the Network Management area in the IETF is to
promote the use of SNMPv3, as can be seen, in particular, from
the boilerplate (Introduction, and Security Considerations) text
required for Standards Track MIB modules, and RFC 3418 is one
component of the current management framework with SNMPv3.

IMHO, it it therefore inappropriate for new Standards Track MIB
modules to make detailed references to "MIB-II" (STD 17, RFC 1213).
The SNMPv2-MIB module and STD 62, RFC 3418 should be referred to
instead, when it comes to references to the 'system' group, and
other current RFCs (in ascending numerical order: RFC 2578, 2863,
4022, 4113, 4292, 4293) should be referred to when talking about
the other MIB groups once defined as part of MIB-II in RFC 1213.

I propose to add this issue to the MIB doctors' checklist.

Returning from the general view back to the specifics that have
triggered this note:

All six new RADIUS MIB RFCs define MIB objects holding
NAS-Identifiers, the DESCRIPTION clauses of which contain the
stereotype phrase:

    This is not necessarily the same as sysName in MIB II.

This sentence should better say:

    This is not necessarily the same as sysName in the SNMPv2-MIB
    module.

or perhaps, if you prefer backwards compatible wording:

    This is not necessarily the same as sysName in (MIB II or)
    the SNMPv2-MIB module.

The affected objects and the locations of their OBJECT-TYPE
declarations (with the referenced DESCRIPTION clauses) are:

- radiusAuthClientIdentifier
    in the RADIUS-AUTH-CLIENT-MIB, RFC 4668, page 6/7

- radiusAuthClientID          (deprecated object)
    in the RADIUS-AUTH-SERVER-MIB, RFC 4669, page 11
- radiusAuthClientExtID       (replacement / new object)
    in the RADIUS-AUTH-SERVER-MIB, RFC 4669, page 15

- radiusAccClientIdentifier
    in the RADIUS-ACC-CLIENT-MIB, RFC 4670, page 7

- radiusAccClientID           (deprecated object)
    in the RADIUS-ACC-SERVER-MIB, RFC 4671, page 11
- radiusAccClientExtID        (replacement / new object)
    in the RADIUS-ACC-SERVER-MIB, RFC 4671, page 14

- radiusDynAuthServerID
    in the RADIUS-DYNAUTH-CLIENT-MIB, RFC 4672, page 7

- radiusDynAuthServerIdentifier
    in the RADIUS-DYNAUTH-SERVER-MIB, RFC 4673, page 6

I leave it to your decision whether this issue should be
addressed by RFC Errata Notes.

Best regards,
  Alfred H=CEnes.

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From: "Randy Presuhn" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2006 20:53:54 -0800

Hi -

> Subject: RFC 4668..4673: general issue with refs to MIB-II
...
> I propose to add this issue to the MIB doctors' checklist.
...

This seems very sensible to me.

Randy