Editor's Note: Minutes received 11/14/92 INTERIM_MEETING_REPORT_ Reported by Steven Waldbusser/CMU Minutes of the Host Resources MIB Working Group (HOSTMIB) Minutes of the Host Resources MIB Working Group held October 12-13, 1992 at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA Agenda o Introduction (Waldbusser) - Local Arrangements - Attendance - Agenda o Overview of Changes (Grillo, Waldbusser) o Questions about current draft (Discussion) o Proposals o Summary Overview of Changes from Last Draft o New DateAndTime syntax (more changes in the works) o Processor is now a device o Storage allocation units o New device types o Nuke device location (as per mailing list) o Add device status o Add device errors o Nuke video table (as per mailing list) o Rearrange disk/partition/file system o Full/Partial backup date o Printer table o SW type (OS, device driver,application) Resolutions to the Proposed Topics o Storage -> Device - explain logical vs. physical There were requests to clarify the differences between the hrStorage table and why it isn't in the hrDevice table. The hrStorage table is defined as a table of logical storage entries as opposed to the hrDevice table, which describes physical devices. It was agreed that additional dialogue in the MIB was needed in order to clarify the use of the hrStorage table. 1 o ProductID - Guidance to Industry, Should CMU Bootstrap? It was agreed that ProductIDs are a good idea. There was discussion as to how to encourage adoption of ProductIDs throughout the industry. There was a proposal to `seed' a list in CMU address space with definitions for popular products. o Logging It was decided that logging of system `events' was a useful function, but was outside of the scope of the host resources MIB effort. o Nuke hrDiskStorageType This enumerated list was dropped. This same information may be determined from the hrDeviceType. o ReadWrite/readOnly in disk/FS Entries There was confusion about what readWrite/readOnly meant in the disk and file system entries. This was clarified (see new MIB for clarification). o Asset Management - Serial #, ... It was suggested that an object should exist for serial numbers of devices (and possibly S/W). The Group agreed that, instead, the hrDeviceDescr and hrSwInstalledName could contain the serial number. o Printer Status - deviceStatus relationship See `general printer discussion' below. o Nuke outOfPaper, Replace with interventionRequired See `general printer discussion' below. o Additional Variables for Network Table A proposal was made for some additional variables to be added to the network table. After some discussion, it was determined that the proposed variables were PC NOS specific or belonged in a networking MIB. The proposal was then dropped. o Networked Disks It was agreed that it would be important to identify those file systems that were remotely mounted, but that the host MIB should not support remote troubleshooting of these file systems (it should contain enough information for a manager to find the file server and communicate directly with it). A new object, hrFSRemoteMountPoint was added to the hrFSTable to provide this linkage. 2 o References to (MIB-II) System Group The host resources MIB requires the use of certain MIB-II System Group variables. There was concern about the discussions going on in the SNMPv2 Working Group about the unclear semantics of the sysDescr object. It was agreed that we would monitor these activities and not duplicate them here, but if at some later date this issue is not resolved we may need to add this functionality into this MIB. o General Printer Discussion Considerable discussion occurred on how to best define printers in this MIB. It was agreed that this MIB was not the place to have total printer knowledge, but that generic printer state information was needed. Some problems with the October draft were that the printerStatus variable was overloaded with a couple of orthogonal issues. The usefulness of the tonerStatus variable did not warrant its own variable in the MIB. The printer group was redesigned and is included in the November draft ofi the MIB. The relationship between the deviceStatus object and the printerStatus object was refined and all the common error states were moved into a bit string. o ``Other'' It was agreed that an enumeration for ``other'' would be included wherever appropriate throughout the MIB. o Re: # of Users; What is a User? A discussion took place over the definition of a user. There were two possibilities: a human, or a distinct user session (possibly many per human). The latter definition was chosen because it was 1) easier to calculate and, 2) correlated better with system resource use. o Processor Load Due to the difficulty in calculating and interpreting processor load using the semantics defined in the October draft, it was decided that hrProcessorLoad was an average percentage of load between 0 and 100% computed over the last minute. o Parity Errors A proposal was made to add memory/disk parity errors. After discussion, we decided to use the existing deviceErrors variable for these errors. o 5, 15 Minute Averages It was suggested that averages should exist over 5 and 15 minute intervals. This idea was dropped as it was possible to determine 3 these averages from the 1 minute average currently in the MIB. o SW Run CPU Used There was a proposal to add this object and general agreement that it was useful, but there was also a concern about the costs of implementation on some systems. The resolution was to create the object in a new group, the optional Running Software Performance group. In addition, the hrSWRunSize object was moved into this new group. o SW Installed Path The Group agreed that the hrSWInstalledPath object was not very usable, o so it was deleted. o SW Run Index/Status There was some concern that with the ability to kill processes, the hrSWRunIndex might not be ``unique enough'' and that the wrong process could be killed. The resolution was to suggest that the agent use the operating system's native process identification scheme (i.e., the process id). o SNMPv2 Format It was agreed that the working group would not produce a document with the new macros defined in SNMPv2, but that the Working Group Chair would keep a (separate) working copy in that format to use as an aid in rigorously identifying conformance and grouping issues that should be addressed by the working group and described in comments in the MIB. Open Issues o Networked Printer Identification A proposal was made that networked printers and their addresses be identified for all such printers ``connected'' to the system. This would be useful for remote troubleshooting of printing problems. The debate was over what ``connected'' meant in an environment when network printing protocols typically require no state to be saved on either end. In addition, many systems don't have any idea what printers their applications are accessing, especially in multiuser systems, where there is no common place to look for this information. No consensus was reached on whether or not to include this functionality. o Queue Monitoring A proposal was made to add a table for monitoring queues (print, mail, ...). The three options discussed were: 4 1. Don't add any support for queue monitoring. 2. Leverage off of similarities between queues and allocated memory by monitoring queues with the hrStorageTable. 3. Add a table similar to the following: HrQueueEntry ::= SEQUENCE { hrQueueIndex INTEGER, hrQueueDescription DisplayString, hrQueueLength INTEGER, hrQueueServicedItems Counter, hrQueueInsertFailures Counter } Attendees Amatzia Ben-Artzi amatzia@netmanage.com Steve Bush sfb@ncoast.org Raymond Edgerton bellmf!edgerton@uwm.edu Michael Erlinger mike@lexcel.com Pete Grillo pl0143@mail.psi.net Todd Kulick TK24@andrew.cmu.edu Ed Reeder ereeder@vnet.ibm.com Jon Saperia saperia@tcpjon.ogo.dec.com Steven Waldbusser waldbusser@andrew.cmu.edu Walter Wong wcw@cmu.edu 5