Subject: RE: AgentX implementation reports requested

From: Richard Whalen <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 15:03:48 -0400

AgentX Implementation Report

Report date:          __April 25,
2001________________________________________________

Submitted by:          _Richard Whalen__________________________________

Organization:         __Process Software, LLC___________________________

E-mail address:       [email-masked] 

Implementation name:  __MultiNet, released August 2000; TCPware, released
April 2001

Implementation type:  _X_ Master and/or _X_ Sub-Agent and/or _X_ Toolkit
    The initial goal was to implement a master agent.  The creation of test
    programs for the master agent led to the creation of the toolkit and
    sub-agents.

Runtime platform(s):  __OpenVMS VAX V5.5-2 to V7.3, OpenVMS AXP V6.1 to V7.3

Reported version id:  __MultiNet V4.3A; TCPware V5.5-3_____________________

If Master Agent, did you implement:

SNMPv1 support in master agent:   _X_ Yes  ___ No
   Comments: Agent X support was added on to an existing SNMPv1 master agent
   that has SMUX and a proprietary subagent interface.  The same code base
is
   used in two different products, hence I consider this to be a single
   implementation.  To provide a level of security, the master agent must be
   supplied with a list of IP addresses that subagents can connect from.

SNMPv2c support in master agent:  ___ Yes  ___ No
   Comments:

SNMPv3 support in master agent:   ___ Yes  ___ No
   Comments:

If Sub-Agent, what MIB(s) did you implement:
   Comments:
   (Please identify each specific MIB.)
    Partial implementation of RFC 2788 at enterprises.105.2.21
    Partial implementation of RFC 2789 at enterprises.105.3.25

If Toolkit, please identify:
   Internal tool kit used for instrumenting services to present
   MIB information.  Interface descriptions have not been included
   in product documentation as there are rough edges and it currently
   requires significant knowledge of Agent X in order to build
   response PDUs.

Development languages supported:  All supported on VMS
   Comments:
   Code is written in C. VMS has a well defined calling standard that
   allows routines written in any language to be used by any other.

Development platforms supported: OpenVMS VAX and OpenVMS AXP
   Comments:

Runtime platforms supported: OpenVMS VAX and OpenVMS AXP
   Comments:

For all implementations:  Did you implement the following PDU types:

agentx-Open-PDU:             _X_ Yes  ___ No, but plan to within ___ months
   Comments:

agentx-Close-PDU:            _X_ Yes  ___ No, but plan to within ___ months
   Comments:

agentx-Register-PDU:         _X_ Yes  ___ No, but plan to within ___ months
   Comments:

agentx-Unregister-PDU:       _X_ Yes  ___ No, but plan to within ___ months
   Comments:

agentx-Get-PDU:              _X_ Yes  ___ No, but plan to within ___ months
   Comments:

agentx-GetNext-PDU:          _X_ Yes  ___ No, but plan to within ___ months
   Comments:

agentx-GetBulk-PDU:          _X_ Yes  ___ No, but plan to within ___ months
   Comments:

agentx-TestSet-PDU:          _X_ Yes  ___ No, but plan to within ___ months
   Comments:

agentx-Commit-PDU:           _X_ Yes  ___ No, but plan to within ___ months
   Comments:

agentx-Set-PDU:              ___ Yes  _X_ No, but plan to within ___ months
   Comments: I don't see this described in RFC 2741

agentx-UndoSet-PDU:          _X_ Yes  ___ No, but plan to within ___ months
   Comments:

agentx-CleanupSet-PDU:       _X_ Yes  ___ No, but plan to within ___ months
   Comments:

agentx-Notify-PDU:           _X_ Yes  ___ No, but plan to within ___ months
   Comments: There were difficulties here due to misunderstanding the
required
   OIDs specified in RFC 2741. There were difficulties due to translating
the
   SNMPv2 trap information into a SNMPv1 trap due to misunderstanding
RFC2089,
   section 3.3

agentx-Ping-PDU:             _X_ Yes  ___ No, but plan to within ___ months
   Comments: Master agent does not send pings, tool kit subagents may send
   pings.

agentx-IndexAllocate-PDU:    ___ Yes  _X_ No, but plan to within ___ months
   Comments: Subagents that it was initially intended to be used with do
   not use IndexAllocate, so this was put off until needed.  Some research
   into what is needed to be done to implement this has been done.

agentx-IndexDeallocate-PDU:  ___ Yes  _X_ No, but plan to within ___ months
   Comments: See IndexAllocate Comment.

agentx-AddAgentCaps-PDU:     ___ Yes  _X_ No, but plan to within ___ months
   Comments: No immediate subagent need, put off until needed and better
   understood.

agentx-RemoveAgentCaps-PDU:  ___ Yes  _X_ No, but plan to within ___ months
   Comments: See AddAgentCaps.

agentx-Response-PDU:         _X_ Yes  ___ No, but plan to within ___ months
   Comments:  Master agent handles Response-PDU.  Master agent had some
problems
   with receiving pings while waiting for responses; these have been
resolved.
   Toolkit does not provide a mechanism for building response PDUs.

Does this implementation have interoperability experience with at least one
other independent implementation with respect to:

Registration operations:         _X_ Yes  ___ No, but plan to within ___
months
   Comments: Master agent only.

Registration priorities:         ___ Yes  _X_ No, but plan to within ___
months
   Comments:

Index allocation operations:     ___ Yes  _X_ No, but plan to within ___
months
   Comments:

Index deallocation operations:   ___ Yes  _X_ No, but plan to within ___
months
   Comments:

Multiple sub-agent connections:  _X_ Yes  ___ No, but plan to within ___
months
   Comments:

Connecting sub-agent(s) to multiple master agents:  ___ Yes  _X_ No, but
plan to within ___ months
   Comments:

Detecting loss of connection of sub-agent(s):       ___ Yes  _X_ No, but
plan to within ___ months
   Comments: Loss of connection is detected when PDUs are not respond to,
but master agent does
   not actively send pings.

Detecting loss of connection with master agent(s):  ___ Yes  _X_ No, but
plan to within ___ months
   Comments: The privately developed subagents developed connect to
localhost, and are designed to
   be used in the context of the TCP/IP product implementations that they
come with.  It would be
   difficult to test them with independent implementations of the master
agent.  They do detect loss
   of connection with the master agent in our environment.

What transport mappings did you implement:

TCP/IP on port 705:                           _X_ Yes  ___ No, but plan to
within ___ months
   Comments:

UNIX Domain Sockets on "/var/agentx/master":  ___ Yes  _X_ No, but plan to
within ___ months
   Comments:

UNIX Domain Sockets on other endpoints:       ___ Yes  _X_ No, but plan to
within ___ months
   Comments:

Other(s):                                     ___ Yes  ___ No, but plan to
within ___ months
   Comments:
   (Please indicate at least type(s) and connection specifics.)

Did you implement the AgentX MIB (RFC2742):   _X_ Yes  ___ No, but plan to
within ___ months
   Comments:

Did you satisfy the agentxMIBCompliance
           MODULE-COMPLIANCE requirements::   ___ Yes  _X_ No, but plan to
within ___ months
   Comments: Only recently came to understand what is needed for
MODULE-COMPLIANCE since
   reading "The Simple Times" Vol 8, Num 1.

Did you implement the MIB as an integral part of the master agent:  _X_ Yes
___ No
   Comments:

Did you implement the MIB in an AgentX sub-agent:                   ___ Yes
_X_ No
   Comments:  The idea of implementing RFC2742 as a sub-agent never occurred
to me because
   of its need for information that is maintained by the master agent.
After thinking
   about it a bit, I see how it could be done as a component (thread) of the
master agent
   with the SNMP operations being done through AgentX.  That type of
implementation would
   not have been possible with our existing SNMP master agent.

Please record any other comments or notes you deem useful for the record:
   Comments:
   The master agent is being used with the subagent tool kit provided in
Compaq TCP/IP
   Services for OpenVMS V5.1 to allow Compaq Insight Manager MIB agents to
run.  It has
   also been tested with Comtek Services NMServer for OpenVMS.  The
subagents that we
   provide use our own tool kit.