Re: Multiple entities - snmpv3
David Spakes <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.ietf.snmpv3 |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
On Fri, 25 Oct 2002, Tom Petch wrote: > That to me is why I need multiple contexts (although I have never > heard if that is why the SNMPv3 architects specified them:-). Hi Tom, Context (specifically, contextName) was architected specifically for the type of scenario you describe--i.e., "a separate MIB II for each hub or router or switch instance"--otherwise known as a virtual agent. Context is really just a formalization of a common practice in SNMPv1 of overloading the community string. Community strings were specifically intended for authentication. But developers found it useful to associate communities with virtual agents/instances of a device in a box. So if you do a mibwalk using community string "public1", you get back different object values than if you use community string "public2". > The bad news is that all the boxes I see are SNMPv1; and I am not > holding my breath. > > I only have > one backplane, one physical lump, one management module (plus backup), > one set of console ports so I want to have one SNMP engine, one set of > security and access/transport information that supports multiple MIB > module instances If you are running IP over your backplane, and if at least one of your blades has enough horsepower to run multiple processes (for example, if you are running an embedded Linux on the board), then it is pretty easy to fold together individual SNMPv1 agents in the box under a single SNMPv3 umbrella and to give each of the agents its own contextName. See the white paper called "Proxy Agent Concepts" on our web site at http://www.snmp.com/protocol/proxyinfo.html. You would be most interested in Section 1.3.1 on "Native Agent Adapter". Regards, David Spakes ------------------------------------------------------------- David Spakes email: [email protected] SNMP Research voice: +1 865 573 1434 3001 Kimberlin Heights Road fax: +1 865 573 9197 Knoxville, TN 37920-9716 USA http://www.snmp.com -------------------------------------------------------------