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- CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_
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- Reported by Robin Iddon/AXON Networks
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- Minutes of the Remote LAN Monitoring Working Group (RMONMIB)
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- Slides presented by the chair can be found at:
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- ftp://ftp.cisco.com/ftp/rmonmib/minutes/andyb-danvers-slides.ps
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- Agenda
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- o Agenda bashing
- o Solution proposal evaluation criteria
- o 7-layer protocol monitoring and filtering
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- if time permits:
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- o Data reduction reporting mechanisms
- o Solution proposals not related to 7-layer statistics or filtering
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- Agenda Bashing
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- The agenda was not changed.
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- Solution Proposal Evaluation Criteria
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- The working group agreed on the following list of criteria for
- evaluating each solution proposal, in no particular order:
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- o Usefulness of feature for intended application(s)
- o Accuracy of information (no ambiguity)
- o Ease of information retrieval
- o Ease of configuration
- o Implementation costs for agent
- o Implementation costs for NMS
- o Multiple manager robustness
- o Applicability to high-speed networks
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- 7-Layer Protocol Monitoring and Filtering
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- Application Monitoring
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- There was concern that RMON-2 will not contain enough support for
- application monitoring. Even though a great deal of time has been spent
- on upper-layer monitoring proposals, there are some people concerned
- about the increase in resources needed (i.e., cost) to provide this
- level of detail. Working group consensus seems to be that application
- monitoring is needed, even though it will be expensive to provide.
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- Current proposals fall into four basic camps:
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- (Related documents in ftp://ftp.cisco.com/ftp/rmonmib/danvers.)
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- o 7-layer stats, host, matrix and enhancements
- ecam2-mib.txt
- dickw-proto-id-mib.txt
- anil-ecam2-changes.txt
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- o 7-layer host, matrix, history, hostTopN, matrixTopN
- drilldown1-mib.txt
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- o Network layer statistics, address mapping, host, and matrix
- stevew-rmon2-draft-mib.txt
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- o 7-layer statistics and filtering
- danh-filter-mib.txt
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- Protocol Directory Issues
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- Three modes of protocol directory population must be supported.
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- 1. Agent supplied (from configuration, NVRAM, etc.).
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- 2. NMS supplied (most likely one user-defined port number added to the
- end of a protocol identifier OID known to the agent).
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- 3. Discovered by the agent. Protocols should not be added directly
- into the directory. An NMS should screen additions to the protocol
- directory.
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- Robin Iddon and Steve Waldbusser presented their agreed
- protocolDirectory from ecam2-mib.txt and stevew-rmon2-draft-mib.txt. It
- is based on a hierarchical OID representation of the entire protocol
- layering (formally called a protocol vector). Actual protocol
- identifier values (e.g., etherType, port) are used in the OID. There
- seemed to be working group consensus to accept this proposal.
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- Dan Hansen presented the Network General protocol directory proposal
- (danh-filter-mib.txt). This has the ability to insert a ``garbage''
- padding layer with pointers to well known next layer protocols; proposal
- integrates filtering and protocol definitions. Allows user-defined
- protocols by layer, using the exist bit-wise filter mechanism. The
- bit-wise filters are expanded to allow a filter per protocol layer, as
- well as channel `ANDing'.
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- Greg Bruell described Bay Networks' Packet Description Language (PDL).
- This is a C-like syntax for describing protocol header fields with
- support for many existing protocols. The working group liked the idea
- of using PDL in a companion document, coupled to the Protocol Directory
- companion document, to precisely describe the protocol decodes supported
- by a probe. PDL could be used to support an arbitrary mix of
- user-defined and agent-known protocols. There was agreement that this
- was useful, but no agreement that it was worth the cost. The PDL
- documents need to be posted (and released as an Informational RFC)
- before the proposal can be considered further.
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- Rmon-2 Draft
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- There was general agreement to take Steve's draft
- (stevew-rmon2-draft-mib.txt) forward and import good technology from
- other proposals as we go. Application monitoring, History, TopN, and
- Filtering will (likely) be added in some form.
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- Agreement was reached on protocolOID -- both encoding and counting
- methodology. There was agreement that the proposed (limited)
- extensibility was valid. It was not agreed that this extensibility is
- the only mechanism required. The indexing will likely be changed to use
- an arbitrary index, which must stay constant between agent reboots.
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- Application Monitoring Tables
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- The group discussed table structures which were possible. There was
- much discussion about topN/history of matrix. Dispute over memory
- size/application usage of the tables. A possible method of table size
- control was discussed.
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- A proposal to construct a matrix of applications and their usage of the
- probe data was made. It was agreed that more accurate data should be
- submitted before judgement be made on the cost of application
- monitoring.
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- The pros and cons of history and sampling were discussed. The need for
- matrix history was disputed because the optimized retrieval was not
- really needed by the NMS. Proposals for matrix history will still be
- considered however.
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- Interim Meeting
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- An interim meeting will be held in the middle of May in Santa Clara for
- three days to discuss the draft-in-progress. An announcement will be
- made as soon as possible regarding meeting details.
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-