RFC 1451 (rfc1451) - Page 3 of 36

Manager-to-Manager Management Information Base

          RFC 1451            Manager-to-Manager MIB          April 1993


          2.  Overview

          The purpose of this MIB is to provide the means for
          coordination between multiple management stations.  That is,
          the means by which the controlling and monitoring functions of
          network management can be distributed amongst multiple
          management stations.  Such distribution facilitates the
          scaling of network management solutions based on the SNMPv2 to
          meet the needs of very large networks, or of networks composed
          of multiple interconnected administrations. Specifically, this
          MIB provides the means for one management station to request
          management services from another management station.


          2.1.  A SNMPv2 Entity Acting in a Dual Role

          A management station providing services to other management
          station(s), is a SNMPv2 entity which acts in the dual role of
          both manager and agent; the requests for service are received
          through acting in an agent role (with respect to the managed
          objects defined in this MIB), and the requested services are
          performed through acting in a manager role.


          2.2.  Alarms, Events, and Notifications

          In this initial version, this MIB defines the concepts of
          "alarms", "events", and "notifications".  Each alarm is a
          specific condition detected through the periodic (at a
          configured sampling interval) monitoring of the value of a
          specific management information variable.  An example of an
          alarm condition is when the monitored variable falls outside a
          configured range.  Each alarm condition triggers an event, and
          each event can cause (one or more) notifications to be
          reported to other management stations using the Inform-Request
          PDU.

          Specifically, this MIB defines three MIB tables and a number
          of scalar objects.  The three tables are: the Alarm Table, the
          Event Table, and the Notification Table.










          Case, McCloghrie, Rose & Waldbusser