Network Working Group
Request For Comments: 2742
Category: Standards Track
L. Heintz
Cisco Systems
S. Gudur
Independent Consultant
M. Ellison, Ed.
Ellison Software Consulting, Inc.
January 2000

Definitions of Managed Objects for Extensible SNMP Agents

Status of this Memo

This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

Copyright © The Internet Society (2000). All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

This memo defines a portion of the Management Information Base (MIB) for use with network management protocols in the Internet community. In particular, it describes objects managing SNMP agents that use the Agent Extensibility (AgentX) Protocol.

This memo specifies a MIB module in a manner that is both compliant to the SMIv2, and semantically identical to the peer SMIv1 definitions.

Table of Contents

   1. The SNMP Management Framework ...............................   2
   2. Introduction ................................................   3
   3. AgentX MIB Overview .........................................   3
   4. Managed Object Definitions for AgentX .......................   4
   5. Intellectual Property .......................................  15
   6. Acknowledgements ............................................  16
   7. Security Considerations .....................................  16
   8. References ..................................................  17
   9. Authors' and Editor's Addresses .............................  19
   10. Full Copyright Statement ...................................  20

1. The SNMP Management Framework

The SNMP Management Framework presently consists of five major components:

  • An overall architecture, described in RFC 2571 [1].
  • Mechanisms for describing and naming objects and events for the purpose of management. The first version of this Structure of Management Information (SMI) is called SMIv1 and described in STD 16, RFC 1155 [2], STD 16, RFC 1212 [3] and RFC 1215 [4]. The second version, called SMIv2, is described in STD 58, RFC 2578 [5], STD 58, RFC 2579 [6] and STD 58, RFC 2580 [7].
  • Message protocols for transferring management information. The first version of the SNMP message protocol is called SNMPv1 and described in STD 15, RFC 1157 [8]. A second version of the SNMP message protocol, which is not an Internet standards track protocol, is called SNMPv2c and described in RFC 1901 [9] and RFC 1906 [10]. The third version of the message protocol is called SNMPv3 and described in RFC 1906 [10], RFC 2572 [11] and RFC 2574 [12].
  • Protocol operations for accessing management information. The first set of protocol operations and associated PDU formats is described in STD 15, RFC 1157 [8]. A second set of protocol operations and associated PDU formats is described in RFC 1905 [13].
  • A set of fundamental applications described in RFC 2573 [14] and the view-based access control mechanism described in RFC 2575 [15].

A more detailed introduction to the current SNMP Management Framework can be found in RFC 2570 [16].

Managed objects are accessed via a virtual information store, termed the Management Information Base or MIB. Objects in the MIB are defined using the mechanisms defined in the SMI.

This memo specifies a MIB module that is compliant to the SMIv2. A MIB conforming to the SMIv1 can be produced through the appropriate translations. The resulting translated MIB must be semantically equivalent, except where objects or events are omitted because no translation is possible (use of Counter64). Some machine readable information in SMIv2 will be converted into textual descriptions in

SMIv1 during the translation process. However, this loss of machine readable information is not considered to change the semantics of the MIB.

2. Introduction

The SNMP Agent Extensibility Protocol (AgentX) is a protocol used to distribute the implementation of an SNMP agent amongst a single "master agent" and multiple "subagents". See [17] for details about the AgentX protocol.

The goals of the AgentX MIB are:

  • List the set of subagent connections that currently have logical sessions open with the master agent.
  • Identify each subagent connection transport address and type.
  • Identify each subagent session vendor, AgentX protocol version, and other characteristics.
  • Identify the set of MIB objects each session implements, the context in which the objects are registered, and the priority of the registration.
  • Determine protocol operational parameters such as the timeout interval for responses from a session and the priority at which a session registers a particular MIB region.
  • Allow (but do not require) managers to explicitly close subagent sessions with the master agent.

3. AgentX MIB Overview

This MIB is organized into four groups. The agentxGeneral group provides information describing the master agent's AgentX support, including the protocol version supported. The agentxConnection group provides information describing the current set of connections capable of carrying AgentX sessions. The agentxSession group provides information describing the current set of AgentX sessions. The agentxRegistration group provides information describing the current set of registrations.

Three tables form the heart of this mib. These are the connection, session, and registration tables.

Entries in the registration table exist in a many-to-one relationship with entries in the session table. This relationship is expressed through the two common indices, agentxSessionIndex and agentxConnIndex. Entries in the registration table also exist in a many-to-one relationship with entries in the connection table. This relationship is expressed through the common index, agentxConnIndex.

Entries in the session table exist in a many-to-one relationship with entries in the connection table. This relationship is expressed through the common index, agentxConnIndex.

4. Managed Object Definitions for AgentX

AGENTX-MIB DEFINITIONS ::= BEGIN

IMPORTS
 MODULE-IDENTITY, OBJECT-TYPE, Unsigned32, mib-2
    FROM SNMPv2-SMI
 SnmpAdminString
    FROM SNMP-FRAMEWORK-MIB
 MODULE-COMPLIANCE, OBJECT-GROUP
    FROM SNMPv2-CONF
 TEXTUAL-CONVENTION, TimeStamp, TruthValue, TDomain
    FROM SNMPv2-TC;
agentxMIB MODULE-IDENTITY
 LAST-UPDATED "200001100000Z" -- Midnight 10 January 2000
 ORGANIZATION "AgentX Working Group"
 CONTACT-INFO "WG-email:   agentx@dorothy.bmc.com
               Subscribe:  agentx-request@dorothy.bmc.com
               WG-email Archive:  ftp://ftp.peer.com/pub/agentx/archives
               FTP repository:  ftp://ftp.peer.com/pub/agentx
               http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/agentx-charter.html

               Chair:      Bob Natale
                           ACE*COMM Corporation
               Email:      bnatale@acecomm.com

               WG editor:  Mark Ellison
                           Ellison Software Consulting, Inc.
               Email:      ellison@world.std.com

               Co-author:  Lauren Heintz
                           Cisco Systems,
               EMail:      lheintz@cisco.com

               Co-author:  Smitha Gudur
                           Independent Consultant
               Email:      sgudur@hotmail.com

              "
 DESCRIPTION    "This is the MIB module for the SNMP Agent Extensibility
     Protocol (AgentX).  This MIB module will be implemented by
     the master agent.
    "

  REVISION     "200001100000Z" -- Midnight 10 January 2000
 DESCRIPTION
    "Initial version published as RFC 2742."

  ::= { mib-2  74 }

 -- Textual Conventions

AgentxTAddress ::= TEXTUAL-CONVENTION

   STATUS       current
   DESCRIPTION
     "Denotes a transport service address.  This is identical to
      the TAddress textual convention (SNMPv2-SMI) except that
      zero-length values are permitted.
     "
   SYNTAX       OCTET STRING (SIZE (0..255))
 
 -- Administrative assignments
 
 agentxObjects OBJECT IDENTIFIER      ::= { agentxMIB 1 }
 agentxGeneral OBJECT IDENTIFIER      ::= { agentxObjects 1 }
 agentxConnection OBJECT IDENTIFIER   ::= { agentxObjects 2 }
 agentxSession OBJECT IDENTIFIER      ::= { agentxObjects 3 }
 agentxRegistration OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { agentxObjects 4 }

agentxDefaultTimeout OBJECT-TYPE

  SYNTAX      INTEGER (0..255)
  UNITS       "seconds"
  MAX-ACCESS  read-only
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "The default length of time, in seconds, that the master
      agent should allow to elapse after dispatching a message
      to a session before it regards the subagent as not
      responding.  This is a system-wide value that may
      override the timeout value associated with a particular
      session (agentxSessionTimeout) or a particular registered
      MIB region (agentxRegTimeout).  If the associated value of
      agentxSessionTimeout and agentxRegTimeout are zero, or
      impractical in accordance with implementation-specific
      procedure of the master agent, the value represented by
      this object will be the effective timeout value for the
  
      master agent to await a response to a dispatch from a
      given subagent.
     "
  DEFVAL      { 5 }
  ::= { agentxGeneral 1 }

agentxMasterAgentXVer OBJECT-TYPE

  SYNTAX      INTEGER (1..255)
  MAX-ACCESS  read-only
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "The AgentX protocol version supported by this master agent.
      The current protocol version is 1.  Note that the master agent
      must also allow interaction with earlier version subagents.
     "
  ::= { agentxGeneral 2 }
 
 --      The AgentX Subagent Connection Group

agentxConnTableLastChange OBJECT-TYPE

  SYNTAX      TimeStamp
  MAX-ACCESS  read-only
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "The value of sysUpTime when the last row creation or deletion
      occurred in the agentxConnectionTable.
     "
  ::= { agentxConnection 1 }

agentxConnectionTable OBJECT-TYPE

   SYNTAX      SEQUENCE OF AgentxConnectionEntry
   MAX-ACCESS  not-accessible
   STATUS      current
   DESCRIPTION
     "The agentxConnectionTable tracks all current AgentX transport
      connections.  There may be zero, one, or more AgentX sessions
      carried on a given AgentX connection.
     "
   ::= { agentxConnection 2 }

agentxConnectionEntry OBJECT-TYPE

   SYNTAX      AgentxConnectionEntry
   MAX-ACCESS  not-accessible
   STATUS      current

DESCRIPTION

"An agentxConnectionEntry contains information describing a

single AgentX transport connection. A connection may be

      used to support zero or more AgentX sessions.  An entry is
      created when a new transport connection is established,
      and is destroyed when the transport connection is terminated.
     "
   INDEX { agentxConnIndex }
   ::= { agentxConnectionTable 1 }

AgentxConnectionEntry ::= SEQUENCE {

          agentxConnIndex            Unsigned32,
          agentxConnOpenTime         TimeStamp,
          agentxConnTransportDomain  TDomain,
          agentxConnTransportAddress AgentxTAddress }

agentxConnIndex OBJECT-TYPE

   SYNTAX       Unsigned32 (1..4294967295)
   MAX-ACCESS   not-accessible
   STATUS       current
   DESCRIPTION
     "agentxConnIndex contains the value that uniquely identifies
      an open transport connection used by this master agent
      to provide AgentX service.  Values of this index should
      not be re-used.  The value assigned to a given transport
      connection is constant for the lifetime of that connection.
     "
   ::= { agentxConnectionEntry 1 }

agentxConnOpenTime OBJECT-TYPE

   SYNTAX       TimeStamp
   MAX-ACCESS   read-only
   STATUS       current
   DESCRIPTION
     "The value of sysUpTime when this connection was established
      and, therefore, its value when this entry was added to the table.
     "
   ::= { agentxConnectionEntry 2 }

agentxConnTransportDomain OBJECT-TYPE

   SYNTAX       TDomain
   MAX-ACCESS   read-only
   STATUS       current
   DESCRIPTION
     "The transport protocol in use for this connection to the
      subagent.
     "
   ::= { agentxConnectionEntry 3 }

agentxConnTransportAddress OBJECT-TYPE

   SYNTAX       AgentxTAddress
   MAX-ACCESS   read-only
   STATUS       current
   DESCRIPTION
     "The transport address of the remote (subagent) end of this
      connection to the master agent.  This object may be zero-length
      for unix-domain sockets (and possibly other types of transport
      addresses) since the subagent need not bind a filename to its
      local socket.
     "
   ::= { agentxConnectionEntry 4 }

-- The AgentX Subagent Session Group

agentxSessionTableLastChange OBJECT-TYPE

  SYNTAX      TimeStamp
  MAX-ACCESS  read-only
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "The value of sysUpTime when the last row creation or deletion
      occurred in the agentxSessionTable.
     "
  ::= { agentxSession 1 }

agentxSessionTable OBJECT-TYPE

  SYNTAX      SEQUENCE OF AgentxSessionEntry
  MAX-ACCESS  not-accessible
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "A table of AgentX subagent sessions currently in effect.
     "
  ::= { agentxSession 2 }

agentxSessionEntry OBJECT-TYPE

  SYNTAX      AgentxSessionEntry
  MAX-ACCESS  not-accessible
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "Information about a single open session between the AgentX
      master agent and a subagent is contained in this entry.  An
      entry is created when a new session is successfully established
      and is destroyed either when the subagent transport connection
      has terminated or when the subagent session is closed.
     "
  INDEX       { agentxConnIndex, agentxSessionIndex }
  ::= { agentxSessionTable 1 }

AgentxSessionEntry ::= SEQUENCE {

  agentxSessionIndex         Unsigned32,
 
  agentxSessionObjectID      OBJECT IDENTIFIER,
  agentxSessionDescr         SnmpAdminString,
  agentxSessionAdminStatus   INTEGER,
  agentxSessionOpenTime      TimeStamp,
  agentxSessionAgentXVer     INTEGER,
  agentxSessionTimeout       INTEGER
 }

agentxSessionIndex OBJECT-TYPE

  SYNTAX      Unsigned32 (0..4294967295)
  MAX-ACCESS  not-accessible
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "A unique index for the subagent session.  It is the same as
      h.sessionID defined in the agentx header.  Note that if
      a subagent's session with the master agent is closed for
      any reason its index should not be re-used.
      A value of zero(0) is specifically allowed in order
      to be compatible with the definition of h.sessionId.
     "
  ::= { agentxSessionEntry 1 }

agentxSessionObjectID OBJECT-TYPE

  SYNTAX      OBJECT IDENTIFIER
  MAX-ACCESS  read-only
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "This is taken from the o.id field of the agentx-Open-PDU.
      This attribute will report a value of '0.0' for subagents
      not supporting the notion of an AgentX session object
      identifier.
     "
  ::= { agentxSessionEntry 2 }

agentxSessionDescr OBJECT-TYPE

  SYNTAX      SnmpAdminString
  MAX-ACCESS  read-only
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "A textual description of the session.  This is analogous to
      sysDescr defined in the SNMPv2-MIB in RFC 1907 [19] and is
      taken from the o.descr field of the agentx-Open-PDU.
      This attribute will report a zero-length string value for
      subagents not supporting the notion of a session description.
     "
  ::= { agentxSessionEntry 3 }
 
 agentxSessionAdminStatus OBJECT-TYPE
  SYNTAX      INTEGER {
                 up(1),
                 down(2)
              }
  MAX-ACCESS  read-write
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "The administrative (desired) status of the session.  Setting
      the value to 'down(2)' closes the subagent session (with c.reason
      set to 'reasonByManager').
     "
  ::= { agentxSessionEntry 4 }

agentxSessionOpenTime OBJECT-TYPE

  SYNTAX      TimeStamp
  MAX-ACCESS  read-only
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "The value of sysUpTime when this session was opened and,
      therefore, its value when this entry was added to the table.
     "
  ::= { agentxSessionEntry 5 }

agentxSessionAgentXVer OBJECT-TYPE

  SYNTAX      INTEGER (1..255)
  MAX-ACCESS  read-only
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "The version of the AgentX protocol supported by the
      session.  This must be less than or equal to the value of
      agentxMasterAgentXVer.
     "
  ::= { agentxSessionEntry 6 }

agentxSessionTimeout OBJECT-TYPE

  SYNTAX     INTEGER (0..255)
  UNITS      "seconds"
  MAX-ACCESS read-only
  STATUS     current
  DESCRIPTION
     "The length of time, in seconds, that a master agent should
      allow to elapse after dispatching a message to this session
      before it regards the subagent as not responding.  This value
      is taken from the o.timeout field of the agentx-Open-PDU.
      This is a session-specific value that may be overridden by
      values associated with the specific registered MIB regions
      (see agentxRegTimeout). A value of zero(0) indicates that
      the master agent's default timeout value should be used
  
      (see agentxDefaultTimeout).
     "
  ::= { agentxSessionEntry 7 }
 
 -- The AgentX Registration Group

agentxRegistrationTableLastChange OBJECT-TYPE

  SYNTAX      TimeStamp
  MAX-ACCESS  read-only
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "The value of sysUpTime when the last row creation or deletion
      occurred in the agentxRegistrationTable.
     "
  ::= { agentxRegistration 1 }

agentxRegistrationTable OBJECT-TYPE

  SYNTAX      SEQUENCE OF AgentxRegistrationEntry
  MAX-ACCESS  not-accessible
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "A table of registered regions.
     "
  ::= { agentxRegistration 2 }

agentxRegistrationEntry OBJECT-TYPE

  SYNTAX      AgentxRegistrationEntry
  MAX-ACCESS  not-accessible
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "Contains information for a single registered region.  An
      entry is created when a session  successfully registers a
      region and is destroyed for any of three reasons: this region
      is unregistered by the session, the session is closed,
      or the subagent connection is closed.
     "
  INDEX       { agentxConnIndex, agentxSessionIndex, agentxRegIndex }
  ::= { agentxRegistrationTable 1 }

AgentxRegistrationEntry ::= SEQUENCE {

  agentxRegIndex           Unsigned32,
  agentxRegContext         OCTET STRING,
  agentxRegStart           OBJECT IDENTIFIER,
  agentxRegRangeSubId      Unsigned32,
  agentxRegUpperBound      Unsigned32,
  agentxRegPriority        Unsigned32,
  agentxRegTimeout         INTEGER,
  agentxRegInstance        TruthValue }

agentxRegIndex OBJECT-TYPE

  SYNTAX      Unsigned32 (1..4294967295)
  MAX-ACCESS  not-accessible
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "agentxRegIndex uniquely identifies a registration entry.
      This value is constant for the lifetime of an entry.
     "
  ::= { agentxRegistrationEntry 1 }

agentxRegContext OBJECT-TYPE

  SYNTAX      OCTET STRING
  MAX-ACCESS  read-only
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "The context in which the session supports the objects in this
      region.  A zero-length context indicates the default context.
     "
  ::= { agentxRegistrationEntry 2 }

agentxRegStart OBJECT-TYPE

  SYNTAX      OBJECT IDENTIFIER
  MAX-ACCESS  read-only
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "The starting OBJECT IDENTIFIER of this registration entry.  The
      session identified by agentxSessionIndex implements objects
      starting at this value (inclusive).  Note that this value could
      identify an object type, an object instance, or a partial object
      instance.
     "
  ::= { agentxRegistrationEntry 3 }

agentxRegRangeSubId OBJECT-TYPE

  SYNTAX      Unsigned32
  MAX-ACCESS  read-only
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "agentxRegRangeSubId is used to specify the range.  This is
      taken from r.region_subid in the registration PDU.  If the value
      of this object is zero, no range is specified.  If it is non-zero,
      it identifies the `nth' sub-identifier in r.region for which
      this entry's agentxRegUpperBound value is substituted in the
      OID for purposes of defining the region's upper bound.
     "
  ::= { agentxRegistrationEntry 4 }
 
 agentxRegUpperBound OBJECT-TYPE
  SYNTAX      Unsigned32
  MAX-ACCESS  read-only
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
    "agentxRegUpperBound represents the upper-bound sub-identifier in
     a registration.  This is taken from the r.upper_bound in the
     registration PDU.  If agentxRegRangeSubid (r.region_subid) is
     zero, this value is also zero and is not used to define an upper
     bound for this registration.
    "
  ::= { agentxRegistrationEntry 5 }

agentxRegPriority OBJECT-TYPE

  SYNTAX      Unsigned32
  MAX-ACCESS  read-only
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "The registration priority.  Lower values have higher priority.
      This value is taken from r.priority in the register PDU.
      Sessions should use the value of 127 for r.priority if a
      default value is desired.
     "
  ::= { agentxRegistrationEntry 6 }

agentxRegTimeout OBJECT-TYPE

  SYNTAX      INTEGER (0..255)
  UNITS       "seconds"
  MAX-ACCESS  read-only
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "The timeout value, in seconds, for responses to
      requests associated with this registered MIB region.
      A value of zero(0) indicates the default value (indicated
      by by agentxSessionTimeout or agentxDefaultTimeout) is to
      be used.  This value is taken from the r.timeout field of
      the agentx-Register-PDU.
     "
  ::= { agentxRegistrationEntry 7 }

agentxRegInstance OBJECT-TYPE

  SYNTAX      TruthValue
  MAX-ACCESS  read-only
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "The value of agentxRegInstance is `true' for
      registrations for which the INSTANCE_REGISTRATION
      was set, and is `false' for all other registrations.
     "
  
  ::= { agentxRegistrationEntry 8 }
 
 -- Conformance Statements for AgentX
 
 agentxConformance     OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { agentxMIB 2 }
 agentxMIBGroups       OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { agentxConformance 1 }
 agentxMIBCompliances  OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { agentxConformance 2 }
 
 -- Compliance Statements for AgentX

agentxMIBCompliance MODULE-COMPLIANCE

  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "The compliance statement for SNMP entities that implement the
      AgentX protocol.  Note that a compliant agent can implement all
      objects in this MIB module as read-only.
     "
  MODULE -- this module
     MANDATORY-GROUPS  { agentxMIBGroup }
  
     OBJECT agentxSessionAdminStatus
        MIN-ACCESS read-only
        DESCRIPTION
           "Write access is not required.
           "
  ::= { agentxMIBCompliances 1 }

agentxMIBGroup OBJECT-GROUP

OBJECTS {

     agentxDefaultTimeout,
     agentxMasterAgentXVer,
     agentxConnTableLastChange,
     agentxConnOpenTime,
     agentxConnTransportDomain,
     agentxConnTransportAddress,
     agentxSessionTableLastChange,
     agentxSessionTimeout,
     agentxSessionObjectID,
     agentxSessionDescr,
     agentxSessionAdminStatus,
     agentxSessionOpenTime,
     agentxSessionAgentXVer,
     agentxRegistrationTableLastChange,
     agentxRegContext,
     agentxRegStart,
     agentxRegRangeSubId,
     agentxRegUpperBound,
     agentxRegPriority,
     agentxRegTimeout,
     agentxRegInstance
    }
  STATUS      current
  DESCRIPTION
     "All accessible objects in the AgentX MIB.
     "
  ::= { agentxMIBGroups 1 }
 
 END

5. Intellectual Property

The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any intellectual property or other rights that might be claimed to pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in this document or the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be available; neither does it represent that it has made any effort to identify any such rights. Information on the IETF's procedures with respect to rights in standards-track and standards-related documentation can be found in BCP-11. Copies of claims of rights made available for publication and any assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of such proprietary rights by implementors or users of this specification can be obtained from the IETF Secretariat.

The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary rights which may cover technology that may be required to practice this standard. Please address the information to the IETF Executive Director.

6. Acknowledgements

This document is the result of the efforts of the IETF AgentX Working Group (WG).

This MIB is an evolution of the Subagent MIB by Bert Wijnen (wijnen@vnet.ibm.com) which in turn was derived from the SMUX-MIB by Marshall Rose [18].

Thanks are in order to the following AgentX WG members:

Mike Daniele (Compaq Computer Corporation)
Dale Francisco (Cisco Systems)
Bob Natale (ACE*COMM Corporation)
Randy Presuhn (BMC Software, Inc.)
Shawn Routhier (Epilogue)
Mike Thatcher (Independent Consultant)

Special acknowledgement is made to:

       Maria Greene (Xedia)

Special acknowledgement is also made to the following individuals for participating in the 1998 AgentX testing summit (bakeoff) held in Sunnyvale, California:

Jeff Case (SNMP Research, Inc.)
Mike Daniele (Compaq Computer Corporation)
Mark Ellison (Ellison Software Consulting, Inc.) Lauren Heintz (BMC Software, Inc.)
Verne Hyde (Independent Consultant)
Bob Natale (ACE*COMM Corporation)
Shawn Routhier (Epilogue)
Mike Thatcher (Independent Consultant)
Bert Wijnen (IBM T. J. Watson Research Center)

7. Security Considerations

There is a single management object defined in this MIB that has a MAX-ACCESS clause of read-write. This object may be considered sensitive or vulnerable in some network environments. The support for SET operations in a non-secure environment without proper protection can have a negative effect on network operations.

There is a single managed object in this MIB that may contain sensitive information. This object is agentxSessionAdminStatus. Setting agentxSessionAdminStatus to an inappropriate value can effectively prevent access to management information, or provide access to inappropriate information.

It is thus important to control even GET access to these objects and possibly to even encrypt the values of these objects when sending them over the network via SNMP. Not all versions of SNMP provide features for such a secure environment.

SNMPv1 by itself is not a secure environment. Even if the network itself is secure (for example by using IPSec), even then, there is no control as to who on the secure network is allowed to access and GET/SET (read/change/create/delete) the objects in this MIB.

It is recommended that the implementers consider the security features as provided by the SNMPv3 framework. Specifically, the use of the User-based Security Model RFC 2574 [12] and the View-based Access Control Model RFC 2575 [15] is recommended.

It is then a customer/user responsibility to ensure that the SNMP entity giving access to an instance of this MIB, is properly configured to give access to the objects only to those principals (users) that have legitimate rights to indeed GET or SET (change/delete) them.

8. References

   [1]  Harrington, D., Presuhn, R. and B. Wijnen, "An Architecture for
        Describing SNMP Management Frameworks", RFC 2571, April 1999.
   
   [2]  Rose, M. and K. McCloghrie, "Structure and Identification of
        Management Information for TCP/IP-based Internets", STD 16, RFC
        1155, May 1990.
   
   [3]  Rose, M. and K. McCloghrie, "Concise MIB Definitions", STD 16,
        RFC 1212, March 1991.
   
   [4]  Rose, M., "A Convention for Defining Traps for use with the
        SNMP", RFC 1215, March 1991.
   
   [5]  McCloghrie, K., Perkins, D., Schoenwaelder, J., Case, J., Rose,
        M. and S. Waldbusser, "Structure of Management Information
        Version 2 (SMIv2)", STD 58, RFC 2578, April 1999.
   
   [6]  McCloghrie, K., Perkins, D., Schoenwaelder, J., Case,  J.,
        Rose, M. and S. Waldbusser, "Textual Conventions for SMIv2", STD
        58, RFC 2579, April 1999.
   
   [7]  McCloghrie, K., Perkins, D., Schoenwaelder, J., Case, J., Rose,
        M. and S. Waldbusser, "Conformance Statements for SMIv2", STD
        58, RFC 2580, April 1999.
   
   [8]  Case, J., Fedor, M., Schoffstall, M. and J. Davin, "Simple
        Network Management Protocol", STD 15, RFC 1157, May 1990.
   
   [9]  Case, J., McCloghrie, K., Rose, M. and S. Waldbusser,
        "Introduction to Community-based SNMPv2", RFC 1901, January
        1996.
   
   [10] Case, J., McCloghrie, K., Rose, M.  and S.  Waldbusser,
        "Transport Mappings for Version 2 of the Simple Network
        Management Protocol (SNMPv2)", RFC 1906, January 1996.
   
   [11] Case, J., Harrington D., Presuhn R. and B. Wijnen, "Message
        Processing and Dispatching for the Simple Network Management
        Protocol (SNMP)", RFC 2572, April 1999.
   
   [12] Blumenthal, U. and B. Wijnen, "User-based Security Model (USM)
        for version 3 of the Simple Network Management Protocol
        (SNMPv3)", RFC 2574, April 1999.
   
   [13] Case, J., McCloghrie, K., Rose, M. and S. Waldbusser, "Protocol
        Operations for Version 2 of the Simple Network Management
        Protocol (SNMPv2)", RFC 1905, January 1996.
   
   [14] Levi, D., Meyer, P. and B. Stewart, "SNMP Applications", RFC
        2573, April 1999.
   
   [15] Wijnen, B., Presuhn, R. and K. McCloghrie, "View-based Access
        Control Model (VACM) for the Simple Network Management Protocol
        (SNMP)", RFC 2575, April 1999.
   
   [16] Case, J., Mundy, R., Partain, D. and B. Stewart, "Introduction
        to Version 3 of the Internet-standard Network Management
        Framework", RFC 2570, April 1999.
   
   [17] Daniele, M., Wijnen, B., Ellison, M. and D. Francisco, "Agent
        Extensibility (AgentX) Protocol, Version 1", RFC 2741, January
        2000.

[18] Rose, M., "SNMP MUX Protocol and MIB", RFC 1227, May 1991.

   [19] Case, J., McCloghrie, K., Rose, M. and S. Waldbusser,
        "Management Information Base for Version 2 of the Simple Network
        Management Protocol (SNMPv2)", RFC 1907, January 1996.

9. Authors' and Editor's Addresses

   Lauren Heintz
   Cisco Systems
   1450 North McDowell Blvd.
   Petaluma, CA 94954-6515
   USA
   Phone:      +1 707-793-1714
   EMail:      lheintz@cisco.com
   
   Smitha Gudur
   Independent Consultant
   EMail:      sgudur@hotmail.com
   
   Mark Ellison (WG editor)
   Ellison Software Consulting, Inc.
   38 Salem Road
   Atkinso, NH 03811
   USA
   Phone:       +1 603-362-9270
   Email:       ellison@world.std.com

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Acknowledgement

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