CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_



Reported by Sudhanshu Verma/HP

MSI Minutes

The MSI Working Group meeting was rescheduled from Tuesday (3/12)
afternoon to Monday (3/11) evening.  This time clashed with the IETF
dinner at the St.  Louis zoo.  The meeting was attended by only seven
people, and was adjourned early for a lack of a quorum.

The issues raised at the last meeting were reiterated.  These issues are
summarized below.


   o On-line MIB database and the need for both GDMO and SNMP MIB
     definitions.

   o Lack of any implementation suggestions or hints in the MSI
     document.  The MSI draft wants the implementors of the MSI API to
     support features such as translation between SNMP and CMIP and
     scoping, but does not provide ideas on how to implement this.  This
     has hindered adoption of the API.

   o Lack of an SNMP API. Some attendees at the last meeting wanted
     support of an SNMP-oriented API.


The thorniest issue deals with the issue of translation between the two
different SMIs (GDMO and IETF). Based on RFC1109 the IAB has decided
that there was no requirement for compatibility between SNMP and OSI
network management.  This causes the task of the translation between the
two SMIs to be done on a case by case basis; it will be difficult, if
not impossible to have automated conversion between the two.

The future of the group was also discussed briefly.  One option is to
work with the IAB and the Network Management Directorate to resolve any
pending issues.  Another option is to disband the group due to the lack
of significant progress.  The next Working Group meeting will need to
evaluate the situation and make recommendations.

The meeting was adjourned after about 30 minutes due to a lack of a
quorum.

Offline

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The issue of MIB translation was raised by Sudhanshu Verma with the
Chair of the Network Management Area, Chuck Davin.  He suggested that
there was little that could be done to change RFC 1109 at this point and
that we should attempt to work in that framework.  The difficulty of
defining translation rules to achieve automated translation was
reinforced.  At the next meeting the Working Group will have to decide
its future direction and plans.

Attendees

Steve Bostock            steveb@novell.com
Howard Brown             brown@ctron.com
Shawn Gallagher          gallagher@quiver.enet.dec.com
Ron Mackey
Ron Poppen-Chambers      rpc@hpcnd.cnd.hp.com
Sudhanshu Verma          verma@hpindbu.cup.hp.com
Mark Wood



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