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