Re: opstat model questions

[J Nevil Brownlee <[e-mail]>]

Hello Jeff:

> 1. The Model for Common Operational Statistics draft mentions the 
> Internet Standard MIB several times.  Does this term refer to 
> MIB-II or the collection of all standard MIBs?

All the standard MIBs.  These form a huge tree of MIB objects, any
of which can be read (at least in principle, in practice many of them
aren't useful for operational statistics).  The important thing here
is that each MIB object has a unique name.

> 2. The discussion of metrics seems to be biased towards obtaining
> data from MIB-II, and particularly from routers.  I have a couple
> years of experience with RMON, and it seems like a natural supplier 
> of network metrics data.  Has this, or other standard MIBs been 
> considered?

You're right about the bias towards routers, and this reflects the
fact that most people who have taken part in the WG have been network
operators who have a lot of experience in monitoring routers.

I agree that the RMON MIB should provide useful operational data.
We'd be delighted if you would share your experiences in this area!

> 3. The storage format described again seems to show a bias towards
> routers.  Is there any reason that the "router-name" field couldn't
> be something more abstract like host or device since other hosts 
> on the network may supply network metrics?

RFC 1404 is intended to be an interchange format rather than a storage 
format.  You could certainly use it for storage, but there will usually
be more efficient formats available.  The idea of the 'client-server' 
draft (draft-ietf-opstat-client-server- ..) is to provide a statistics
server delivering 1404-format files.

The router-name field could certainly be used to name whatever source
of data is being used.

> 4. Can someone clarify the "link-name" in the storage format?

Link-name is the name of a data circuit.  It's really a sub-name, with
router-name as the name.  This naming hierarchy fits naturally with
routers (router-name identifies the router, link-name identifies the
interface, etc).  Again, there's no reason why these two levels on
name couldn't be used for other devices.

Cheers, Nevil

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Nevil Brownlee       [e-mail]        Deputy Director |
|   FAX: [phone]      Computer Centre, The University of Auckland |
| Phone: [phone] x8941   Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------C