Conference netcad::hub_mgnt

Howdy,

>2)  Is hubwatch doing anything with SNMP II?  Specifically, I would assume 
>that this would have as much to do with when the hub devices will support 
>SNMP II but as I really know nothing about it I guess I would like to know 
>the following (so that I can respond intellgently to the RFP).
>
>   A.  Is the SNMP II done, signed off to etc.  (apparently competitors are 
> already selling products that claim so support it.
>

No, HUBwatch does not support snmpV2 nor are there any plans to support
it in the near future.  If you (your customer) think snmpV2 is important
then please contact product management.

>   B.  What is SNMP II?
>

Briefly, the next version of SNMP supports:

	- security (message encryption),
	- two new operations operators, the getBulk which is used
          to retrieve large amounts of table data, and the informRequest
          which is used by NMS to communicate changes made to a device,
          and,
	- better error reporting.

>   C.  Does it have any relevance to hubwatch?
>

Yes.

>3) Does Hubwatch support RMON? If so how?

No.  However, it may support a small subset of RMON (namely customized
RMON Alarms and Events) in a future version.

>6) Is Hubwatch both MIB I and MIB II compliant?  If so, how does this
>apply to hubwatch?

Yes.  Er, kind of.

MIB-II is a superset of MIB-I.  Devices which support MIB-II also, by
definition of the word "superset", support MIB-I.  All DEChub900 modules
support MIB-II.  There are several groups defined by MIB-II.  Not all
groups are supported by all devices.

HUBwatch makes use of MIB-II objects supported by the devices.

							-Shawn

    For V3.1  HUBwatch on OSF/1 only has the application launch integrated
    with NetView.  No added functionality will be contained in the V4.0
    release coming shortly.  After that we will begin to add more features
    to better integrate HUBwatch with NetView.  If you have any list of
    priorities for integration let us know.
    
    I also believe that a number of the HUB related MIBs are shipped with
    the DEC NetView product.  So if you understand the MIBs and NetView
    features can set up some functionality yourself.
    
    								John

    >>So if you understand the MIBs and NetView features can set up some 
    >>functionality yourself.
    
    Ah...there's the rub!
    
    Most folks don't understand the implications of many of the MIB
    variables, particularly those introduced in the private branches
    of the tree as does HUBwatch.
    
    HUBwatch does a very nice job of displaying both the MIB variable
    name as well as a more "English" like name with the current value.
    But the documentation hasn't kept up with the technology in terms
    of trouble shooting.
    
    When one understands what a MIB variable means and why it might
    change and what it means when it does change, then one can build
    MIB applications in Netview to quickly monitor a particular network
    element.  But without this knowledge, it is difficult to watch the
    multitude of counters and variables and still make sense of them
    without "inside knowledge" of the technology.
    
    Another point, in early evaluation of lauching HUBwatch from Netview,
    the "automatic" nature of this operation was lacking.  It was necessary
    to edit the hub objects charactertics on the map, for each hub found.
    Discovery of a hub, by Netview, was not enough to allow HUBwatch to 
    be lauched from the map.
    
    John, could you comment on whether this has improved or not?
    
    Al

    Unfortunately, this has not improved this time around (V4.0).
    
    							John