RFC 1303 (rfc1303) - Page 2 of 12
A Convention for Describing SNMP-based Agents
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 1303 Convention for Describing SNMP Agents February 1992
1. The Network Management Framework
The Internet-standard Network Management Framework consists of
three components. They are:
RFC 1155 [1] which defines the SMI, the mechanisms used for
describing and naming objects for the purpose of management.
RFC 1212 [2] defines a more concise description mechanism,
which is wholly consistent with the SMI.
RFC 1213 [3] which defines MIB-II, the core set of managed
objects for the Internet suite of protocols.
RFC 1157 [4] which defines the SNMP, the protocol used for
network access to managed objects.
The Framework permits new objects to be defined for the
purpose of experimentation and evaluation.
2. Objects
Managed objects are accessed via a virtual information store,
termed the Management Information Base or MIB. Within a given
MIB module, objects are defined using RFC 1212's OBJECT-TYPE
macro. At a minimum, each object has a name, a syntax, an
access-level, and an implementation-status.
The name is an object identifier, an administratively assigned
name, which specifies an object type. The object type
together with an object instance serves to uniquely identify a
specific instantiation of the object. For human convenience,
we often use a textual string, termed the OBJECT DESCRIPTOR,
to also refer to the object type.
The syntax of an object type defines the abstract data
structure corresponding to that object type. The ASN.1[5]
language is used for this purpose. However, RFC 1155
purposely restricts the ASN.1 constructs which may be used.
These restrictions are explicitly made for simplicity.
The access-level of an object type defines whether it makes
"protocol sense" to read and/or write the value of an instance
of the object type. (This access-level is independent of any
administrative authorization policy.)
The implementation-status of an object type indicates whether
the object is mandatory, optional, obsolete, or deprecated.
McCloghrie & Rose