RFC 1187 (rfc1187) - Page 2 of 12

Bulk Table Retrieval with the SNMP

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