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- Network Working Group R. Wormley
- Request for Comments: 1298 S. Bostock
- Novell, Inc.
- February 1992
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- SNMP over IPX
-
- Status of this Memo
-
- This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
- not specify an Internet standard. Distribution of this memo is
- unlimited.
-
- Abstract
-
- This memo defines a convention for encapsulating Simple Network
- Management Protocol (SNMP) [1] packets over the transport mechanism
- provided via the Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) protocol [2].
-
- Editor's Note
-
- As stated below and in reference [5], it is strongly advised that for
- interoperability, SNMP be implemented over UDP/IP and not directly on
- media or other protocols (such as IPX).
-
- 1. Introduction
-
- The SNMP protocol has been specified as the official network
- management protocol of the Internet. Its widespread acceptance and
- implementation by developers, both inside and outside the Internet
- community, is fostering synergetic growth to a variety of protocols
- and platforms.
-
- This memo addresses the use of SNMP over the IPX protocol, which has
- become quite widespread principally due to the popularity of Novell
- NetWare. Roughly equivalent to UDP in function, IPX provides
- connectionless, unacknowledged datagram service over a variety of
- physical media and protocols.
-
- Although modifications have been made elsewhere in the NetWare
- protocol suite, IPX is identical to the Xerox Internet Datagram
- Protocol (IDP) [3]. The socket address space authority is
- administered by Novell.
-
- The use of SNMP over the UDP transport [4] is today the common mode
- of operation in the Internet. This specification may be appropriate
- for some environments in which UDP transport services are not
-
-
-
- Wormley & Bostock [Page 1]
-
- RFC 1298 SNMP over IPX February 1992
-
-
- available. SNMP implementors should be aware that the choice of
- underlying transport may have a significant impact on the
- interoperability and ubiquity of the management capability in the
- Internet. Considerations relevant to choosing a transport for use
- with SNMP are described in [5].
-
- 2. Specification
-
- SNMP packets will always set the Packet Type field in the IPX header
- to 4 (i.e., Packet Exchange Packet).
-
- 2.1 Socket Assignments
-
- SNMP protocol entities will receive GetRequest-PDU, GetNextRequest-
- PDU, and SetRequest-PDU messages on socket 36879 (Destination Socket
- field set to hexadecimal 900F), and Trap-PDU messages on socket 36880
- (Destination Socket field set to hexadecimal 9010).
-
- GetResponse-PDU messages will be addressed to the IPX address and
- socket from which the corresponding GetRequest-PDU, GetNextRequest-
- PDU, or SetRequest-PDU originated.
-
- 2.2 Maximum Packet Length
-
- Although SNMP does not require conformant implementations to accept
- messages whose length exceed 484 bytes, it is recommended that
- implementations support a maximum SNMP message size of 546 bytes (the
- maximum size allowed under IPX). Furthermore, this limit is the
- maximum packet length guaranteed to traverse IPX routers which do not
- provide fragmentation. Implementors may choose to use longer packet
- lengths if the maximum is known, which depends on the intermediate
- routers and/or intermediate datalink layer protocols.
-
- 2.3 The agent-addr Field for the Trap-PDU
-
- The agent-addr field in a Trap-PDU emitted by an SNMP agent should
- contain the IpAddress 0.0.0.0. An SNMP manager may ascertain the
- source of the trap by querying the transport layer.
-
- 2.4 IPX Transport Address Representation
-
- There are occasions when it is necessary to represent a transport
- service address in a MIB. For instance, the SNMP party MIB [6] uses
- an OBJECT IDENTIFIER to define the transport domain (IP, IPX, etc.)
- and an OCTET STRING to represent an address within that domain. The
- following definitions are provided for use in such a scheme.
-
-
-
-
-
- Wormley & Bostock [Page 2]
-
- RFC 1298 SNMP over IPX February 1992
-
-
- RFC1298-MIB DEFINITIONS ::= BEGIN
-
- IMPORTS
- enterprises FROM RFC1155-SMI;
-
- novell OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { enterprises 23 }
- transportDomains OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { novell 7 }
-
- ipxTransportDomain OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { transportDomains 1 }
-
- -- Authoritatively names the IPX Transport Domain
-
- IpxTransportAddress ::= OCTET STRING (SIZE (12))
-
- -- A textual convention denoting a transport service address in
- -- the ipxTransportDomain. An IpxTransportAddress is 12 octets
- -- long and comprises 3 fields, each in network-byte (high-low)
- -- order.
-
- -- The first field is 4 octets long and contains the network
- -- number.
-
- -- The next field is 6 octets long and contains the physical
- -- address of the node. Since IPX can run over a variety of
- -- subnet architectures, the physical node address may not
- -- require all 6 octets. As specified in [2], the physical
- -- node address will occupy the least significant portion of
- -- the field and the most significant octets should be set
- -- to zero.
-
- -- The last field is 2 octets long and contains the socket
- -- number.
-
- END
-
- 3. Document Procurement
-
- This section provides contact points for procurement of selected
- documents.
-
- A complete description of IPX may be secured at the following
- address:
-
- Novell, Inc.
- 122 East 1700 South
- P. O. Box 5900
- Provo, Utah 84601 USA
- 800 526 5463
-
-
-
- Wormley & Bostock [Page 3]
-
- RFC 1298 SNMP over IPX February 1992
-
-
- Novell Part # 883-000780-001
-
- The specification for IDP (part of XNS) may be ordered from:
-
- Xerox System Institute
- 475 Oakmead Parkway
- Sunnyvale, CA 94086
- Attn: Fonda Pallone
- (415) 813-7164
-
- 4. References
-
- [1] Case J., Fedor M., Schoffstall M., and J. Davin, "A Simple
- Network Management Protocol (SNMP)", RFC 1157, SNMP Research,
- Performance Systems International, Performance Systems
- International, and MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, May 1990.
-
- [2] Novell, Inc., "NetWare System Technical Interface Overview", June
- 1989.
-
- [3] Xerox System Integration Standard, "Internet Transport
- Protocols", XSIS 028112, Xerox Corporation, December 1981.
-
- [4] Postel, J., "User Datagram Protocol," RFC 768, USC/Information
- Sciences Institute, 28 August 1980.
-
- [5] Kastenholz, F., "SNMP Communications Services," RFC 1270,
- Clearpoint Research Corporation, October 1991.
-
- [6] McCloghrie, K., Davin, J., and J. Galvin, "Definitions of Managed
- Objects for Administration of SNMP Parties", RFC in preparation.
-
- 5. Security Considerations
-
- Security issues are not discussed in this memo.
-
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- Wormley & Bostock [Page 4]
-
- RFC 1298 SNMP over IPX February 1992
-
-
- 6. Authors' Addresses
-
- Raymond Brett Wormley
- Novell, Inc.
- 2180 Fortune Drive
- Mail Stop F5-91-2
- San Jose, CA 95131
-
- Phone: 408 473 8208
- EMail: bwormley@novell.com
-
-
- Steve Bostock
- Novell, Inc.
- 2180 Fortune Drive
- Mail Stop F5-91-2
- San Jose, CA 95131
-
- Phone: 408 473 8203
- EMail: steveb@novell.com
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- Wormley & Bostock [Page 5]
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