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- Network Working Group M. Rose, Editor
- Request for Comments: 1215 Performance Systems International
- March 1991
-
-
- A Convention for Defining Traps
- for use with the SNMP
-
- Status of this Memo
-
- This memo suggests a straight-forward approach towards defining traps
- used with the SNMP. Readers should note that the use of traps in the
- Internet-standard network management framework is controversial. As
- such, this memo is being put forward for information purposes.
- Network management practitioners who employ traps are encouraged to
- make use of this document. Practitioners who do not employ traps can
- safely ignore this document.
-
- This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
- not specify any standard. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
-
- Table of Contents
-
- 1. Historical Perspective ................................ 1
- 2. Defining Traps ........................................ 2
- 2.1 Mapping of the TRAP-TYPE macro ....................... 3
- 2.1.1 Mapping of the ENTERPRISE clause ................... 3
- 2.1.2 Mapping of the VARIABLES clause .................... 4
- 2.1.3 Mapping of the DESCRIPTION clause .................. 4
- 2.1.4 Mapping of the REFERENCE clause .................... 4
- 2.1.5 Mapping of the TRAP-TYPE value ..................... 4
- 2.2 Usage Examples ....................................... 5
- 2.2.1 Enterprise-specific Trap ........................... 5
- 2.2.2 Generic-Traps for use with the SNMP ................ 5
- 3. Acknowledgements ...................................... 7
- 4. References ............................................ 9
- 5. Security Considerations................................ 9
- 6. Author's Address....................................... 9
-
- 1. Historical Perspective
-
- As reported in RFC 1052, IAB Recommendations for the Development of
- Internet Network Management Standards [1], a two-prong strategy for
- network management of TCP/IP-based internets was undertaken. In the
- short-term, the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), defined in
- RFC 1067, was to be used to manage nodes in the Internet community.
- In the long-term, the use of the OSI network management framework was
- be examined. Two documents were produced to define the management
-
-
-
- SNMP Working Group [Page 1]
-
- RFC 1215 Convention for Defining Traps March 1991
-
-
- information: RFC 1065, which defined the Structure of Management
- Information (SMI), and RFC 1066, which defined the Management
- Information Base (MIB). Both of these documents were designed so as
- to be compatible with both the SNMP and the OSI network management
- framework.
-
- This strategy was quite successful in the short-term: Internet-based
- network management technology was fielded, by both the research and
- commercial communities, within a few months. As a result of this,
- portions of the Internet community became network manageable in a
- timely fashion.
-
- As reported in RFC 1109, Report of the Second Ad Hoc Network
- Management Review Group [2], the requirements of the SNMP and the OSI
- network management frameworks were more different than anticipated.
- As such, the requirement for compatibility between the SMI/MIB and
- both frameworks was suspended. This action permitted the operational
- network management framework, based on the SNMP, to respond to new
- operational needs in the Internet community by producing MIB-II.
-
- In May of 1990, the core documents were elevated to "Standard
- Protocols" with "Recommended" status. As such, the Internet-standard
- network management framework consists of: Structure and
- Identification of Management Information for TCP/IP-based internets,
- RFC 1155 [3], which describes how managed objects contained in the
- MIB are defined; Management Information Base for Network Management
- of TCP/IP-based internets, which describes the managed objects
- contained in the MIB, RFC 1156 [4]; and, the Simple Network
- Management Protocol, RFC 1157 [5], which defines the protocol used to
- manage these objects.
-
- 2. Defining Traps
-
- Due to its initial requirement to be protocol-independent, the
- Internet-standard SMI does not provide a means for defining traps.
- Instead, the SNMP defines a few standardized traps and provides a
- means for management enterprises to transmit enterprise-specific
- traps.
-
- However, with the introduction of experimental MIBs, some of which
- have a need to define experiment-specific traps, a convenient means
- of defining traps is desirable. The TRAP-TYPE macro is suggested for
- this purpose:
-
- IMPORTS
- ObjectName
- FROM RFC1155-SMI;
-
-
-
-
- SNMP Working Group [Page 2]
-
- RFC 1215 Convention for Defining Traps March 1991
-
-
- TRAP-TYPE MACRO ::=
- BEGIN
- TYPE NOTATION ::= "ENTERPRISE" value
- (enterprise OBJECT IDENTIFIER)
- VarPart
- DescrPart
- ReferPart
- VALUE NOTATION ::= value (VALUE INTEGER)
-
- VarPart ::=
- "VARIABLES" "{" VarTypes "}"
- | empty
- VarTypes ::=
- VarType | VarTypes "," VarType
- VarType ::=
- value (vartype ObjectName)
-
- DescrPart ::=
- "DESCRIPTION" value (description DisplayString)
- | empty
-
- ReferPart ::=
- "REFERENCE" value (reference DisplayString)
- | empty
-
- END
-
- It must be emphasized however, that the use of traps is STRONGLY
- discouraged in the Internet-standard Network Management Framework.
- The TRAP-TYPE macro is intended to allow concise definitions of
- existing traps, not to spur the definition of new traps.
-
- 2.1. Mapping of the TRAP-TYPE macro
-
- It should be noted that the expansion of the TRAP-TYPE macro is
- something which conceptually happens during implementation and not
- during run-time.
-
- 2.1.1. Mapping of the ENTERPRISE clause
-
- The ENTERPRISE clause, which must be present, defines the management
- enterprise under whose registration authority this trap is defined
- (for a discussion on delegation of registration authority, see the
- SMI [3]). This value is placed inside the enterprise field of the
- SNMP Trap-PDU.
-
- By convention, if the value of the ENTERPRISE clause is
-
-
-
-
- SNMP Working Group [Page 3]
-
- RFC 1215 Convention for Defining Traps March 1991
-
-
- snmp OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { mib-2 11 }
-
- as defined in MIB-II [7], then instead of using this value, the value
- of sysObjectID is placed in the enterprise field of the SNMP Trap-
- PDU. This provides a simple means of using the TRAP-TYPE macro to
- represent the existing standard SNMP traps; it is not intended to
- provide a means to define additional standard SNMP traps.
-
- 2.1.2. Mapping of the VARIABLES clause
-
- The VARIABLES clause, which need not be present, defines the ordered
- sequence of MIB objects which are contained within every instance of
- the trap type. Each variable is placed, in order, inside the
- variable-bindings field of the SNMP Trap-PDU. Note that at the
- option of the agent, additional variables may follow in the
- variable-bindings field.
-
- However, if the value of the ENTERPRISE clause is
-
- snmp OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { mib-2 11 }
-
- as defined in MIB-II [7], then the introduction of additional
- variables must not result in the serialized SNMP Message being larger
- than 484 octets.
-
- 2.1.3. Mapping of the DESCRIPTION clause
-
- The DESCRIPTION clause, which need not be present, contains a textual
- definition of the trap type. Note that in order to conform to the
- ASN.1 syntax, the entire value of this clause must be enclosed in
- double quotation marks, although the value may be multi-line.
-
- Further, note that if the MIB module does not contain a textual
- description of the trap elsewhere then the DESCRIPTION clause must be
- present.
-
- 2.1.4. Mapping of the REFERENCE clause
-
- The REFERENCE clause, which need not be present, contains a textual
- cross-reference to a trap, event, or alarm, defined in some other MIB
- module. This is useful when de-osifying a MIB produced by some other
- organization.
-
- 2.1.5. Mapping of the TRAP-TYPE value
-
- The value of an invocation of the TRAP-TYPE macro is the (integer)
- number which is uniquely assigned to the trap by the registration
- authority indicated by the ENTERPRISE clause. This value is placed
-
-
-
- SNMP Working Group [Page 4]
-
- RFC 1215 Convention for Defining Traps March 1991
-
-
- inside the specific-trap field of the SNMP Trap-PDU, and the
- generic-trap field is set to "enterpriseSpecific(6)".
-
- By convention, if the value of the ENTERPRISE clause is
-
- snmp OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { mib-2 11 }
-
- as defined in MIB-II [7], then the value of an invocation of the
- TRAP-TYPE macro is placed inside the generic-trap field of the SNMP
- Trap-PDU, and the specific-trap field is set to 0. This provides a
- simple means of using the TRAP-TYPE macro to represent the existing
- standard SNMP traps; it is not intended to provide a means to define
- additional standard SNMP traps.
-
- 2.2. Usage Examples
-
- 2.2.1. Enterprise-specific Trap
-
- Consider a simple example of an enterprise-specific trap that is sent
- when a communication link failure is encountered:
-
- myEnterprise OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { enterprises 9999 }
-
- myLinkDown TRAP-TYPE
- ENTERPRISE myEnterprise
- VARIABLES { ifIndex }
- DESCRIPTION
- "A myLinkDown trap signifies that the sending
- SNMP application entity recognizes a failure
- in one of the communications links represented
- in the agent's configuration."
- ::= 2
-
- 2.2.2. Generic-Traps for use with the SNMP
-
- Consider how the standard SNMP traps might be defined:
-
- coldStart TRAP-TYPE
- ENTERPRISE snmp
- DESCRIPTION
- "A coldStart trap signifies that the sending
- protocol entity is reinitializing itself such
- that the agent's configuration or the rotocol
- entity implementation may be altered."
- ::= 0
-
- warmStart TRAP-TYPE
- ENTERPRISE snmp
-
-
-
- SNMP Working Group [Page 5]
-
- RFC 1215 Convention for Defining Traps March 1991
-
-
- DESCRIPTION
- "A warmStart trap signifies that the sending
- protocol entity is reinitializing itself such
- that neither the agent configuration nor the
- protocol entity implementation is altered."
- ::= 1
-
- linkDown TRAP-TYPE
- ENTERPRISE snmp
- VARIABLES { ifIndex }
- DESCRIPTION
- "A linkDown trap signifies that the sending
- protocol entity recognizes a failure in one of
- the communication links represented in the
- agent's configuration."
- ::= 2
-
- linkUp TRAP-TYPE
- ENTERPRISE snmp
- VARIABLES { ifIndex }
- DESCRIPTION
- "A linkUp trap signifies that the sending
- protocol entity recognizes that one of the
- communication links represented in the agent's
- configuration has come up."
- ::= 3
-
- authenticationFailure TRAP-TYPE
- ENTERPRISE snmp
- DESCRIPTION
- "An authenticationFailure trap signifies that
- the sending protocol entity is the addressee
- of a protocol message that is not properly
- authenticated. While implementations of the
- SNMP must be capable of generating this trap,
- they must also be capable of suppressing the
- emission of such traps via an implementation-
- specific mechanism."
- ::= 4
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- SNMP Working Group [Page 6]
-
- RFC 1215 Convention for Defining Traps March 1991
-
-
- egpNeighborLoss TRAP-TYPE
- ENTERPRISE snmp
- VARIABLES { egpNeighAddr }
- DESCRIPTION
- "An egpNeighborLoss trap signifies that an EGP
- neighbor for whom the sending protocol entity
- was an EGP peer has been marked down and the
- peer relationship no longer obtains."
- ::= 5
-
- 3. Acknowledgements
-
- This document was produced by the SNMP Working Group:
-
- Anne Ambler, Spider
- Karl Auerbach, Sun
- Fred Baker, ACC
- Ken Brinkerhoff
- Ron Broersma, NOSC
- Jack Brown, US Army
- Theodore Brunner, Bellcore
- Jeffrey Buffum, HP
- John Burress, Wellfleet
- Jeffrey D. Case, University of Tennessee at Knoxville
- Chris Chiptasso, Spartacus
- Paul Ciarfella, DEC
- Bob Collet
- John Cook, Chipcom
- Tracy Cox, Bellcore
- James R. Davin, MIT-LCS
- Eric Decker, cisco
- Kurt Dobbins, Cabletron
- Nadya El-Afandi, Network Systems
- Gary Ellis, HP
- Fred Engle
- Mike Erlinger
- Mark S. Fedor, PSI
- Richard Fox, Synoptics
- Karen Frisa, CMU
- Chris Gunner, DEC
- Fred Harris, University of Tennessee at Knoxville
- Ken Hibbard, Xylogics
- Ole Jacobsen, Interop
- Ken Jones
- Satish Joshi, Synoptics
- Frank Kastenholz, Racal-Interlan
- Shimshon Kaufman, Spartacus
- Ken Key, University of Tennessee at Knoxville
-
-
-
- SNMP Working Group [Page 7]
-
- RFC 1215 Convention for Defining Traps March 1991
-
-
- Jim Kinder, Fibercom
- Alex Koifman, BBN
- Christopher Kolb, PSI
- Cheryl Krupczak, NCR
- Paul Langille, DEC
- Peter Lin, Vitalink
- John Lunny, TWG
- Carl Malamud
- Randy Mayhew, University of Tennessee at Knoxville
- Keith McCloghrie, Hughes LAN Systems
- Donna McMaster, David Systems
- Lynn Monsanto, Sun
- Dave Perkins, 3COM
- Jim Reinstedler, Ungerman Bass
- Anil Rijsinghani, DEC
- Kathy Rinehart, Arnold AFB
- Kary Robertson
- Marshall T. Rose, PSI (chair)
- L. Michael Sabo, NCSC
- Jon Saperia, DEC
- Greg Satz, cisco
- Martin Schoffstall, PSI
- John Seligson
- Steve Sherry, Xyplex
- Fei Shu, NEC
- Sam Sjogren, TGV
- Mark Sleeper, Sparta
- Lance Sprung
- Mike St.Johns
- Bob Stewart, Xyplex
- Emil Sturniold
- Kaj Tesink, Bellcore
- Dean Throop, Data General
- Bill Townsend, Xylogics
- Maurice Turcotte, Racal-Milgo
- Kannan Varadhou
- Sudhanshu Verma, HP
- Bill Versteeg, Network Research Corporation
- Warren Vik, Interactive Systems
- David Waitzman, BBN
- Steve Waldbusser, CMU
- Dan Wintringhan
- David Wood
- Wengyik Yeong, PSI
- Jeff Young, Cray Research
-
-
-
-
-
-
- SNMP Working Group [Page 8]
-
- RFC 1215 Convention for Defining Traps March 1991
-
-
- 4. References
-
- [1] Cerf, V., "IAB Recommendations for the Development of Internet
- Network Management Standards", RFC 1052, NRI, April 1988.
-
- [2] Cerf, V., "Report of the Second Ad Hoc Network Management Review
- Group", RFC 1109, NRI, August 1989.
-
- [3] Rose M., and K. McCloghrie, "Structure and Identification of
- Management Information for TCP/IP-based internets", RFC 1155,
- Performance Systems International, Hughes LAN Systems, May 1990.
-
- [4] McCloghrie K., and M. Rose, "Management Information Base for
- Network Management of TCP/IP-based internets", RFC 1156, Hughes
- LAN Systems, Performance Systems International, May 1990.
-
- [5] Case, J., Fedor, M., Schoffstall, M., and J. Davin, "Simple
- Network Management Protocol", RFC 1157, SNMP Research,
- Performance Systems International, Performance Systems
- International, MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, May 1990.
-
- [6] Information processing systems - Open Systems Interconnection -
- Specification of Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1),
- International Organization for Standardization International
- Standard 8824, December 1987.
-
- [7] Rose M., Editor, "Management Information Base for Network
- Management of TCP/IP-based internets: MIB-II", RFC 1213,
- Performance Systems International, March 1991.
-
- 5. Security Considerations
-
- Security issues are not discussed in this memo.
-
- 6. Author's Address
-
- Marshall T. Rose
- Performance Systems International
- 5201 Great America Parkway
- Suite 3106
- Santa Clara, CA 95054
-
- Phone: +1 408 562 6222
-
- EMail: mrose@psi.com
- X.500: rose, psi, us
-
-
-
-
-
- SNMP Working Group [Page 9]
-