RFC 1565 (rfc1565) - Page 3 of 17

Network Services Monitoring MIB

RFC 1565            Network Services Monitoring MIB         January 1994


2.1  Object Definitions

   Managed objects are accessed via a virtual information store, termed
   the Management Information Base or MIB.  Objects in the MIB are
   defined using the subset of Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1)
   defined in the SMI.  In particular, each object type is named by an
   OBJECT IDENTIFIER, an administratively assigned name.  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 descriptor, to refer to the
   object type.

3.  Rationale for having a Network Services Monitoring MIB

   Much effort has been expended in developing tools to manage lower
   layer network facilities.  However, relatively little work has been
   done on managing application layer entities.  It is neither efficient
   nor reasonable to manage all aspects of application layer entities
   using only lower layer information.  Moreover, the difficulty of
   managing application entities in this way increases dramatically as
   application entities become more complex.

   This leads to a substantial need to monitor applications which
   provide network services, particularly distributed components such as
   MTAs and DSAs, by monitoring specific aspects of the application
   itself.  Reasons to monitor such components include but are not
   limited to measuring load, detecting broken connectivity, isolating
   system failures, and locating congestion.

   In order to manage network service applications effectively two
   requirements must be met:

      (1)  It must be possible to monitor a large number of components
           (typical for a large organization).

      (2)  Application monitoring must be integrated into general
           network management.

   This specification defines simple read-only access; this is
   sufficient to determine up/down status and provide an indication of a
   broad class of operational problems.










Kille & Freed