Network Services Monitoring MIB

This document defines the generic part of a MIB suitable for monitoring applications which provide some kind of network services. This MIB is intended to be extended to accomodate monitoring specific to a given type of service, for example, a Message Transfer Agent (MTA) service or a Directory Service Agent (DSA) service. Rationale for having an Network Services Monitoring MIB There is a substantial need to monitor applications which provide network services, particularly distributed components such as MTAs and DSAs, in order to measure load and to detect broken connectivity, system failure, congestion, and other types of problems. Specific requirements include: (1) General monitoring of a large number of components (typical for a large organization). (2) Integration with general network management. SNMP is the clear choice for this function. At present only simple read-only access is defined; this is sufficient to determine up/down status and provide an indication of a broad class of operational problems. Restriction of Scope The framework provided here is very minimal; there is a lot more that could be done. For example: (1) General network service application configuration. (2) Detailed examination and modification of individual entries in service-specific request queues. (3) Probing to determine the status of a specific request (e.g. the location of a mail message with a specific message-id). (4) Requesting that certain action be performed (e.g. forcing an immediate connection and transfer of pending messages to some specific system). Whilst all these capabilities are both impressive and useful, to be effective, security is an absolute requirement. These capabilities also mandate a much more complex design with many characteristics likely to be fairly implementation- specific. As a result such facilities are likely to be both contentious and difficult to implement. This document religiously keeps things simple and focuses on the basic monitoring aspect of managing ap ...