Re: scalars like ifNumber and ifTableLastChange

[Bob Stewart <[e-mail]>]

Circa 7:37 PM +0000 1/30/97, Bert Wijnen bitwhacked:
>I am crossposting again because Bob answer with copy to 3 mailing lists
>I prefer to move this to one mailing list.

I agree about the cross posting.  The problem is which list to pick:

If the issue is items in the Interfaces MIB, pick the if-mib mailing list.

If the issue is proposed global restrictions on SNMP, pick the SNMPv2 list.

If the issue is whether AgentX is adequate or whether the AgentX troops
would like to develop some global restrictions for SNMP, pick the AgentX
list.

It's your issue.  You get to pick which of those it belongs in.

>I find Bob's "attack" on agentX a litle bit harsh... I know he means
>well though. I was not trying to justify agentX topics so much as
>I was trying to raise the issue w.r.t. to SNMP MIB-Views.

My intention was not to attack AgentX but to say clearly that I believe
limiting MIBs based on AgentX's 80% goal is short sighted.  Arguments that
start with AgentX's limitations don't ring well.

>Oh... well, mybe Bob can explain his statement a bit better
>I seemed unable to understand it as it was written.

ifNumber is indeed a silly object.

A similar object that said how many active users were on a system even
though you couldn't look at all of their individual entries might be less
silly.  It's an anonymous measure of overall load, but you may not be
allowed to know who the load is coming from, other than perhaps your own
designated view's entries.

An application that used ifTableLastChange as its event indicator and got
upset when it couldn't find a change would be silly.  As you said, it might
not have a full view of all entries and missed the changed ones.  But then
again it might find one it really cared about and would have been saved
having to poll the whole table regularly to check for a change.  And in the
typical case where their is no view limitation the object is fully useful.

	Bob