RFC 1856 (rfc1856) - Page 2 of 17
The Opstat Client-Server Model for Statistics Retrieval
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 1856 Opstat Client-Server Model October 1995
This document defines a protocol which would allow a client on a
remote machine to retrieve data from a central server, which itself
retrieves from the common statistics database. The client then
presents the data to the user in the form requested (maybe to a X-
window, or to paper).
The basic model used for the retrieval methods defined in this
document is a client-server model. This architecture envisions that
each NOC (or NSP) should install a server which provides locally
collected information for clients. Using a query language the client
should be able to define the network object of interest, the
interface, the metrics and the time period to be examined. Using a
reliable transport-layer protocol (e.g., TCP), the server will
transmit the requested data. Once this data is received by the
client it could be processed and presented by a variety of tools
including displaying the data in a X window, sending postscript to a
printer, or displaying the raw data on the user's terminal.
The remainder of this document describes how the client and server
interact, describes the protocol used between the client and server,
and discusses a variety of other issues surrounding the sharing of
data.
2.0 Client-Server Description
2.1 The Client
The basic function of the client is to retrieve data from the server.
It will accept requests from the user, translate those requests into
the common retrieval protocol and transmit them to the server, wait
for the server's reply, and send that reply to the user.
Note that this document does not define how the data should be
presented to the user. There are many methods of doing this
including:
- use a X based tool that displays graphs (line, histogram, etc.)
- generate PostScript output to be sent to a printer
- dump the raw data to the user's terminal
Future documents based on the Operational Statistics model may define
standard graphs and variables to be displayed, but this is work yet
to be done (as of this writing).
Clark Informational