Re: DISMAN-PING-MIB questions: default address type, message interval and pingCtlDSField

Thanks for the answers, Randy.

[DEFVAL for pingCtlTargetAddressType]
>I can see two ways to correct this.  Either would result in an erratum:
>  a) fix the DEFVAL, since the change wasn't agreed in the WG
>      as far as I can tell (please correct me if I'm wrong and just
>      couldn't find or remember the discussion).
>  b) fix the single-PDU text.  someone will need to count the bytes
>      to see if the additional varbind would take us over the limit.

I only have experience with one implementation, but it uses the DEFVAL
specified in the MIB, which seems like an eminently reasonable thing
to do - so to avoid making reasonable implementations non-compliant,
I think option b might be better.  I don't know what the limit is, but
an SNMPv2c set with the following varbinds:

DISMAN-PING-MIB::pingCtlTargetAddressType."12345678901234567890123456789012"."12345678901234567890123456789012" = INTEGER: ipv4(1)
DISMAN-PING-MIB::pingCtlTargetAddress."12345678901234567890123456789012"."12345678901234567890123456789012" = Hex-STRING: 04 02 02 02
DISMAN-PING-MIB::pingCtlAdminStatus."12345678901234567890123456789012"."12345678901234567890123456789012" = INTEGER: enabled(1)
DISMAN-PING-MIB::pingCtlRowStatus."12345678901234567890123456789012"."12345678901234567890123456789012" = INTEGER: createAndGo(4)

was 401 bytes, including IP and UDP headers, according to tcpdump.

>> ... section 3.1.2:
>>
>>    Using the maximum value for the parameters defined within a pingEntry
>>    can result in a single remote ping test's taking at most 15 minutes
>>    (pingCtlTimeOut times pingCtlProbeCount), plus whatever time it takes
>>    to send the ping request and to receive its response over the network
>>    from the target host.
>
>15 minutes is the largest amount of time that could be contributed to the
>total time dues to the (pingCtlTimeOut times pingCtlProbeCount)
>component.  The "plus" is an essential part of the total formulation.

I guess we're reading this from opposite sides.  You're reading "a test
could take at most 15 minutes because of the contribution from these
values".  I'm reading "Using the maximum values, you can expect the test
to take at most 15 minutes plus...".  The first one is true; the second
is only barely true (it'll take exactly 15 minutes, plus ...).  I think
this may just be one of those areas where those who are familiar with
a document read it differently because they know what it's trying to say.

This is the behavior of the agent I'm using, so since my real question
was "is this the behavior I should expect" and the answer seems to be
"yes", that's good enough.

>> 3. I don't understand the discussion of the use of pingCtlDSField.
>>...
>> and try to set it anyway and let an SNMP error tell me that it's not
>> supported.  Is there anything wrong with that tactic?
>
>Nope.

Ok!

Thanks,
  Bill