RFC 1187 (rfc1187) - Page 2 of 12
Bulk Table Retrieval with the SNMP
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 1187 Bulk Table Retrieval with the SNMP October 1990
The reader is expected to be familiar with both the Simple Network
Management Protocol and SNMP's powerful get-next operator. Please
send comments to: Marshall T. Rose [email protected]>.
3. Bulk Table Retrieval with the SNMP
Empirical evidence has shown that SNMP's powerful get-next operator is
effective for table traversal, particularly when the management
station is interested in well-defined subsets of a particular table.
There has been some concern that bulk table retrieval can not be
efficiently accomplished using the powerful get-next operator. Recent
experience suggests otherwise.
In the simplest case, using the powerful get-next operator, one can
traverse an entire table by retrieving one object at a time. For
example, to traverse the entire ipRoutingTable, the management station
starts with:
get-next (ipRouteDest)
which might return
ipRouteDest.0.0.0.0
The management station then continues invoking the powerful get-next
operator, using the value provided by the previous response, e.g.,
get-next (ipRouteDest.0.0.0.0)
As this sequence continues, each column of the ipRoutingTable can be
retrieved, e.g.,
get-next (ipRouteDest.192.33.4.0)
which might return
ipRouteIfIndex.0.0.0.0
Eventually, a response is returned which is outside the table, e.g.,
get-next (ipRouteMask.192.33.4.0)
which might return
ipNetToMediaIfIndex.192.33.4.1
So, using this scheme, O(rows x columns) management operations are
required to retrieve the entire table.
Rose, McCloghrie & Davin