RFC 1909 (rfc1909) - Page 2 of 19


An Administrative Infrastructure for SNMPv2



Alternative Format: Original Text Document



RFC 1909        An SNMPv2 Administrative Infrastructure    February 1996


1.  Introduction

   A management system contains:  several (potentially many) nodes, each
   with a processing entity, termed an agent, which has access to
   management instrumentation; at least one management station; and, a
   management protocol, used to convey management information between
   the agents and management stations.  Operations of the protocol are
   carried out under an administrative framework which defines
   authentication, authorization, access control, and privacy policies.

   Management stations execute management applications which monitor and
   control managed elements.  Managed elements are devices such as
   hosts, routers, terminal servers, etc., which are monitored and
   controlled via access to their management information.

   It is the purpose of this document, An Administrative Infrastructure
   for SNMPv2, to define an administrative framework which realizes
   effective management in a variety of configurations and environments.
   The SNMPv2 framework is fully described in [1-6].  This framework is
   derived from the original Internet-standard Network Management
   Framework (SNMPv1), which consists of these three documents:

      STD 16, RFC 1155 [7] which defines the Structure of Management
      Information (SMI), the mechanisms used for describing and naming
      objects for the purpose of management.

      STD 16, RFC 1212 [8] which defines a more concise description
      mechanism, which is wholly consistent with the SMI.

      STD 15, RFC 1157 [9] which defines the Simple Network Management
      Protocol (SNMP), the protocol used for network access to managed
      objects.

   For information on coexistence between SNMPv1 and SNMPv2, consult
   [10].

2.  Overview

   A management domain typically contains a large amount of management
   information.  Each individual item of management information is an
   instance of a managed object type.  The definition of a related set
   of managed object types is contained in a Management Information Base
   (MIB) module.  Many such MIB modules are defined.  For each managed
   object type it describes, a MIB module defines not only the semantics
   and syntax of that managed object type, but also the method of
   identifying an individual instance so that multiple instances of the
   same managed object type can be distinguished.




McCloghrie                    Experimental