RFC 2249 (rfc2249) - Page 2 of 28
Mail Monitoring MIB
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 2249 Mail Monitoring MIB January 1998
3. The SNMPv2 Network Management Framework
The SNMPv2 Network Management Framework consists of seven major
components. They are:
o RFC 1902 [1] which defines the SMI, the mechanisms used for
describing and naming objects for the purpose of management.
o RFC 1903 [2] defines textual conventions for SNMPv2.
o RFC 1904 [3] defines conformance statements for SNMPv2.
o RFC 1905 [4] defines transport mappings for SNMPv2.
o RFC 1906 [5] defines the protocol operations used for network
access to managed objects.
o RFC 1907 [6] defines the Management Information Base for SNMPv2.
o RFC 1908 [7] specifies coexistance between SNMP and SNMPv2.
The Framework permits new objects to be defined for the purpose of
experimentation and evaluation.
3.1. Object Definitions
Managed objects are accessed via a virtual information store, termed
the Management Information Base or MIB. Objects in the MIB are
defined using the subset of Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1)
defined in the SMI. In particular, each object type is named by an
OBJECT IDENTIFIER, an administratively assigned name. The object type
together with an object instance serves to uniquely identify a
specific instantiation of the object. For human convenience, we
often use a textual string, termed the descriptor, to refer to the
object type.
4. Message Flow Model
A general model of message flow inside an MTA has to be presented
before a MIB can be described. Generally speaking, message flow is
modelled as occuring in four steps:
(1) Messages are received by the MTA from User Agents, Message
Stores, other MTAs, and gateways.
(2) The "next hop" for the each message is determined. This is
simply the destination the message is to be transmitted to; it
may or may not be the final destination of the message.
Freed & Kille Standards Track
