Conference azur::mcc

4561.0. "fibronics and FDDI AM!??" by COL01::LUNT () Wed Feb 17 1993 16:05

    Hello,
    
    
    	I am trying to manage Fibronics FDDI bridges ( FX8210 ). I have
    a customer with 39 bridges, that I want to manage with DECmcc.
    I did sucessfully register one as an snmp entity and read counters
    using the BRIDGE_STD_MIBDEF and FDDI_STD_MIBDEF and Fibronics private
    mib, which seems only to have objects about trap addresses. That I have
    them registered with DECmcc has please the customer immensely, but it
    would be nice to draw a ring map and using the FDDI AM.
                       
    Can I also register them using the FDDI AM, or is that DEC-product
    specific? 
    
    The Fibronics Bridge has SMT implemented. 
    Should I be able to register it as FDDI and use the FDDI autotopology!? 
    I tried this and got an error from DECmcc that my request
    could not be completed due to unrecognized entity. The end of the
    message was garbage. It was not even partially registered. 
    
    Perhaps I need a specific verion of SMT?
    
    From the InterView manual I know that the bridges support SMT:                            
    "The InterView NMS and the FX8210 stations support several SMT
    versions." The manual goes on to tell how to change the version using
    InterView. Later in the manual it says "The SMT operations are used
    to retrieve configuration and performance data, and to check the FDDI
    links of the target FX8210. The displayed data conforms to the ANSI
    X3T9.5 SMT format." The manual goes on to tell me how using InterView
    to get information using SIF frames.                   
    
    
    Has anyone else worked with fibronics bridges that could shed some
    light on how to manage them?  Fibronics has their own management
    software called InterView NMS. It is a PC based software. Are there
    any plans to have Fibronics as a strategic vendor and eventually
    have an access module?
    
    thanks in advance
    
    Julie Ann Lunt
    

    Hi Julie,
    
    As long as you have a DECbridge or DECconncentrator on your ring
    to use as a gateway you should be able to register the Fibronics 
    bridge as class FDDI and it should also show up on your ring map.
    
    -Bob

    Hi Bob,
    
    	Thanks for the quick reply, but why do I need a DEC-product to
    act as a gateway? Can you please explain the function of this
    gateway and is this function a DEC-specific function or an FDDI
    function? There doesn't seem to be any mention in the documentation
    that only DEC-products can function as a SMT-Gateway, it is very
    vague.
    
    Thanks,
    
    Julie Ann

    Hi Julie Ann,
    
    The FDDI AM uses the RBMS protcol to communicate from the ethernet
    to a gateway device on the ring.  The DECbridge and DECconcentrator
    products have implemeted an RBMS-SMT gateway function.   This
    type of gateway is DEC specific.   The gateway device uses SMT to 
    communicate the request to the target FDDI device.  
    
    When the FDDI AM was released the standards had not been settled 
    around SMT gateways and we didn't know about any other gateway
    implemetations using standard protocols like SNMP.   In the future
    SNMP-SMT gateway capabilities may be added.
    
    I checked the FDDI AM book and you are right.  It is unclear about
    what constitutes a gateway.   The only place that I could find more
    clarity on this was in the ELM SPD.
    
    Regards,
    
    Bob