CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_


Reported by Lee Oattes/University of Toronto

AGENDA


   o Administrivia
      -  Attendance list, someone to write minutes
   o Review of Charter
      -  Objectives, goals of each document
   o Document 1:  FINAL REVIEW (again!)
      -  Behind Timeframe objectives
      -  WILL submit to RFC process on 22 Feb.  (Thursday)
      -  DRAFT with minor revisions will be posted to mailing list for
         final comments THIS MONDAY. Comments will be accepted through
         20 Feb.
      -  Revisions to date:  primarily syntax, semantics from the
         draft.01.  Major change was moving examples from the statement
         of problem to an appendix.
      -  My questions:  Agreement on logged alert is ASN.1 OCTET STRING?
         No implication as to contents, and the goal is to avoid the
         dreaded OPAQUE. String might or might not be a construct (mine
         aren't right now :-).  Since SNMP says primitives, we would be
         treating the OCTET STRING like an OPAQUE; the guy asking for it
         has to know it's intern format.  Failure to reach closure TODAY
         means I will mak it a CHOICE of the two.
   o OPEN FOR QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS ON DRAFT 1, but ...
      -  Protocol implementers are encouraged to voice concerns on
         specific deviations from SNMP/CMOT specs
      -  Document syntax, layout is still fair game
      -  Document goals have been agreed on for over 6 months, and are
         no longer a topic for debate (closure was reached).
      -  Criticisms of mechanisms must be backed up with implementations
         (eg.  I tried this, and it cost too much, didn't work, etc).


MINUTES

Meeting opened with Lou discussing the two documents that the WG is
chartered with writing.  The first deals with mechanisms that systems
should use to control the flow of alert information.  It is being
authored by Lou.  The second, written by John Cook, details specific
techniques that an implementer of alerts may wish to consider.  Its
focus is on how alerts are generated.

Final Review of document 1

Logged alerts should be of the SMI type OPAQUE.

Lou was hesitant to use this, as OPAQUES use has been avoided.  However,

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the SNMP constraint of not using construct ASN.1 types ruled out the
option of encapsulating an SNMP trap in an OCTET STRING. The use of a
simple OCTET STRING would be a violation of ASN.1, and would not result
in further parsing of the trap.

A review of the DRAFT event and logging tutorial by the OIM Working
Group followed.  Lou agreed to contact Lee LaBarre about resolving any
potential conflicts with the alert logging.  The only problem centered
on the Alert-Man requirement that a full log wrap.  OIM shows this
wrapping behavior as optional; halting behavior must be supported.  The
Alert-Man requirements might be presented as a subset of the OSI logging
function.  No problems were found with the OIM view of feedback/pin.

The latest set of changes to the DRAFT will be posted on the 11th of
this month.  Comments will be accepted through the 22nd.  At that time,
the DRAFT will be submitted to the RFC process, as a protocol standard.
Its initial, requested status will be elective.

2nd Document

Lou will again post his sample technique/format to the mailing list.  He
also agreed to write a short overview of CMOT events that Brian will
review for the second document.  John discussed the format and status of
the second document.  Implementation reviews are being solicited for the
following techniques:

   o threshold hysteresis (time and value based)
   o snapshots
   o thresholds on exceptions
   o thresholds built on counters, gauges, tidemarks
   o sliding window "pins" on each threshold
   o adaptive thresholds

We are also looking for any other techniques in use.  Submissions should
represent actual implementations (can be in-house code), and can be
posted to the working group list in the format Lou is using.

John will post the DRAFT in its current state shortly.


ATTENDEES


    Aronson, Cathy              cja@merit.edu
    Cook, John                  cook@chipcom.com
    Feridun, Metin              mferidun@bbn.com
    Handspicker, Brian          bd@vines.dec.com
    Minshall, Greg              minshall@kinetics.kinetics.com
    Newkerk, Oscar              newkerk@decwet.dec.com
    Oattes, Lee                 oattes@utcs.utoronto.ca
    Perkins, David              dave_perkins@3com.com
    Pokorney, Dave              poke@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu

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Sheridan, Jim               jsherida@ibm.com
Waldbusser, Steve           sw01@andrew.cmu.edu
Wittbrodt, Dave             dmw@cisco.com



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