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Conference netcad::hub_mgnt

Title:DEChub/HUBwatch/PROBEwatch CONFERENCE
Notice:Firmware -2, Doc -3, Power -4, HW kits -5, firm load -6&7
Moderator:NETCAD::COLELLADT
Created:Wed Nov 13 1991
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:4455
Total number of notes:16761

741.0. "Hubwatch as an SNMP manager?" by WOTVAX::HATTOS (I think, Therefore I'm paid less) Fri Feb 18 1994 07:08

    This is a general question about Hubwatch (any version).
    
    Is Hubwatch a proprietary hub management tool or can it with some work
    be made into an SNMP management tool with the addition of MIBS from
    other vendors ?
    
    I am specifically interested in whether or not I could get Hubwatch to
    manage CHIPCOM Online HUBS.
    
    I am now familiar with Hubwatch and would prefer to use this rather
    than have to go to a general SNMP management tool such as NETVIEW if
    'twere at all possible. 
    
    This also applies to DS300's, could it manage them too?
    
    Thanx,
    Stuart
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741.1Not proprietary, but not general purposeSLINK::HOODI'd rather be surfingFri Feb 18 1994 13:2118
HUBwatch (any platform, any version) is neither proprietary nor general 
purpose.  We don't use any features or functions of the hub or any of
the hub modules that aren't published either in any of the standards MIBs
or in Digital's published MIB extensions.

But, we are assuming that we know what kind of modules we're dealing with.

We don't yet have code that looks at the sysObjectId of a device and says
"Hey, this looks like it is something like a DECserver 900TM.  I'll use
the DS900TM/DS90M/DS90TL code and try to manage this."  (The next versions
of HUBwatch (Windows 2.0, OpenVMS & OSF/1 3.0) will do this with a Cisco 
IGS...  It will use the same management as the DECbrouter 90's.)

We're trying to get better at this, but it involves diverting people from
supporting DEChub products and other needed features.

Tom Hood
HUBwatch
741.2Don't divert effort....8*)WOTVAX::STUS::Stuart HattoACB actually means A Cold BeerFri Feb 18 1994 15:2014
Thanks for that..

One of the reasons I ask is that there is a company in the
UK who market an SNMP Hub management tool which purports
to support full front panel views of many vendors hubs.

I just wondered what kind of SNMP management system I would
be better off with to manage HUB90's, CHIPCOM and DS300's

Is there a general SNMP management system available which
when fed a vendor MIB can manage the device even if it
can't display a nice picture of it?

Stuart
741.3QUIVER::SLAWRENCEFri Feb 18 1994 15:479
    There are a number of tools out there that can read a MIB and give the
    user browsing and even setting functions, but when you get beyond the
    simple port on/off kind of operations it takes more than that to manage
    the device.  Something, either the tool or the user, needs to
    understand the relationships between objects.  Backplane lan hopping, 
    for example, requires sets to a number of different tables.  
    
    We attempted to document these relationships in the MIBs themselves,
    but that doesn't mean that we succeeded.
741.4This will do the trickLEVERS::SWEETSun Feb 20 1994 21:406
    We will be putting HUBwatch for Windows on HP PC OpenView. Other
    vendors have their HUB apps on that platform also as well as it
    provides general purpose SNMP and MIB browsing. This combo will
    help you solve your problem. Expect it by the end of the FY.
    
    Bruce
741.5Can HUBwatch browse a MIB-II agent ??MSDOA::REEDJohn Reed @CBO, DTN:367-6463, KB4FFE, SouthEastTue Apr 26 1994 12:3232
    Hello;
    
    in reply .3, you state:
    
    >There are a number of tools out there that can read a MIB and give the
    >user browsing and even setting functions, but when you get beyond the
    >simple port on/off kind of operations it takes more than that to manage
    >the device.  
    
    
    	Could you mention a few PC-based tools (hopefully available on the
    EasyNet) that can dump MIB-II variables of any MIB-II agent?   I would
    like to use the stacks that came with HUBwatch, so I don't have to load
    more than just this code.   
    
    Is there any way to bring up HUBwatch (v2.0) on my customer site,
    without connecting to a DEChub?  For instance, I just want to look at
    the SNMP MIB-II interface variables of a specific address, in TEXT
    mode.  I don't wish to use a GUI, or the DEC pictures of the hub.  I
    just want to use the guts of the tool, to troubleshoot the network.
    
    This would also be helpful, when working with a DECagent, to see if my
    agent is responding with the proper ascii text, before I bring up
    HUBwatch.
    
    Is there a special DEbug mode or something I can use, to just bring up
    the SNMP manager part of Hubwatch ??
    
    thanks,
    
    JR
    
741.6No browsing from HubWatch.QUIVER::GALLAGHERTue Apr 26 1994 13:3917
HubWatch wasn't designed to be a general purpose MIB browser.  It won't
do what you'd like it to do.

UNIX-based SNMP free-ware is available, but I don't know of any pc-based 
SNMP-manager freeware.  However, there are, as Scott mentions, several 
cheap SNMP browser products available.  We've used FTP Software's product 
in our testing.  It cost about $400-500 and is pretty impressive for the 
price.  I've also heard good things about Castle Rock Computing's product 
($500).  NetManage also has a product.  Castle Rock and NetManage ads can 
be found in the back of any issue of Network World or Communications Week.
FTP comes with its own stack.  Castle Rock advertise "supports any TCP/IP".
                         
These products all offer more than what you're asking for - which is why
they're $400-500.  They all have MIB compilers and offer graphical browsing.

						-Shawn