Entity State MIB
RFC 4268
Network Working Group S. Chisholm
Request for Comments: 4268 Nortel Networks
Category: Standards Track D. Perkins
SNMPinfo
November 2005
Entity State MIB
Status of This Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).
Abstract
This memo defines a portion of the Management Information Base (MIB)
for use with network management protocols in the Internet community.
In particular, it describes extensions to the Entity MIB to provide
information about the state of physical entities.
In addition, this memo defines a set of Textual Conventions to
represent various states of an entity. The intent is that these
Textual Conventions will be imported and used in MIB modules that
would otherwise define their own representations.
Table of Contents
1. The Internet-Standard Management Framework ......................2
2. Entity State ....................................................2
2.1. Hierarchical State Management ..............................3
2.2. Entity Redundancy ..........................................3
2.3. Physical Entity Users ......................................3
2.4. Physical Class Behavior ....................................4
3. Relation to Other MIBs ..........................................4
3.1. Relation to the Interfaces MIB .............................4
3.2. Relation to Alarm MIB ......................................5
3.3. Relation to Bridge MIB .....................................5
3.4. Relation to the Host Resources MIB .........................5
4. Textual Conventions .............................................6
5. Definitions .................................................... 9
Chisholm & Perkins Standards Track [Page 1]
RFC 4268 Entity State MIB November 2005
6. Security Considerations ........................................16
7. Acknowledgements ...............................................17
8. References .....................................................17
8.1. Normative References ......................................17
8.2. Informative References ....................................18
1. The Internet-Standard Management Framework
For a detailed overview of the documents that describe the current
Internet-Standard Management Framework, please refer to section 7 of
RFC 3410 [RFC3410].
Managed objects are accessed via a virtual information store, termed
the Management Information Base or MIB. MIB objects are generally
accessed through the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).
Objects in the MIB are defined using the mechanisms defined in the
Structure of Management Information (SMI). This memo specifies a MIB
module that is compliant to the SMIv2, which is described in STD 58,
RFC 2578 [RFC2578], STD 58, RFC 2579 [RFC2579] and STD 58, RFC 2580
[RFC2580].
2. Entity State
The goal in adding state objects to the Entity MIB [RFC4133] is to
define a useful subset of the possible state attributes that could be
tracked for a given entity and that both fit into the state models
such as those used in the Interfaces MIB [RFC2863] as well as
leverage existing well-deployed models. The entStateTable contains
state objects that are a subset of the popular ISO/OSI states that
are also defined in ITU's X.731 specification [X.731]. Objects are
defined to capture administrative, operational, and usage states. In
addition, there are further state objects defined to provide more
information for these three basic states.
Administrative state indicates permission to use or prohibition
against using the entity and is imposed through the management
services.
Operational state indicates whether or not the entity is physically
installed and working. Note that unlike the ifOperStatus [RFC2863],
this operational state is independent of the administrative state.
Usage state indicates whether or not the entity is in use at a
specific instance, and if so, whether or not it currently has spare
capacity to serve additional users. In the context of this MIB, the
usage state refers to the ability of an entity to service other
entities within its containment hierarchy.
Chisholm & Perkins Standards Track [Page 2]
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