CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_ Reported by Shannon Nix/Metaplex Minutes of the SNA DLC Services MIB Working Group (SNADLC) Agenda o Discuss SDLC MIB Module status o Discuss Charter Revisions o Work on the LLC-2 MIB Module - Scope of work - Relationship to other work - Review member contributions - Discuss MIB architecture - Develop work plan SDLC Status The status of the SDLC MIB was reported and discussed. The most recent version of the SDLC MIB Internet-Draft is ``draft-ietf-snadlc-sdlc-mib-02.txt.'' A list of comments on the document from Kaj Tesink of the Network Management Area Directorate was reviewed and discussed by the attendees. That review produced a list of edits which Wayne Clark, our editor, will incorporate and post a revised draft for review. It was decided that if, after a period of review, the revised SDLC draft showed reasonable consensus, then that draft would be submitted to the IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard. Please note, however, that this decision could be affected by some proposals presented later in the meeting. Charter Revision After some discussion, the attendees agreed that revisions to the charter (text and revised timelines) were dependent on a later discussion of the scope of the LLC-2 MIB work. This agenda item was, therefore, deferred. LLC-2 MIB Work Items Scope of Work The first work item was to attempt to gain closure on the scope of the effort in defining a standard LLC-2 MIB module. There have been two major issues raised with regard to the scope of this effort: 1. Do we restrict the scope of the MIB to cover only LLC as an SNA data link transport or do we attack a broader scope and define a MIB to manage LLC as a transport to multiple protocols? 2. Given that LLC-2 has a number of common elements with other reliable SNA data links, should we factor out the common elements of the SDLC and LLC-2 MIBs into a common MIB module and the define media-specific MIB modules for SDLC and LLC-2? With respect to the first issue, there was a general feeling that having a more general LLC MIB would be desirable. However, the following concerns exist: o The group's charter, as it stands today, is defined to be develop MIB modules for SNA data links. o While some ``I-would-like-it'' sentiment has been identified, it is not clear that we have a constituency of ``I-would-be-able-and-willing-to-do-it'' sentiment. o Broadening the scope of the project increases the risk and lengthens the timeline It was decided, that we should use e-mail discussions to gauge the interest in having and making a general MIB module. Absent an identified constituency for this, we shall proceed assume our current, more focused scope. The second issue, however, has proven to be a gating issue for a number of other items: MIB architecture, what to do with the SDLC MIB, etc. As such, it is important that we reach consensus on this as soon as possible! It has been demonstrated that there is a significant commonality between the SDLC MIB module and the objects one would instrument in an LLC-2 MIB. There is, therefore, significant support for factoring these common elements into a ``generic'' SNA DLC MIB and then sparsely augmenting that in a series of media-specific MIB modules. However, the following concerns exist: o The SDLC MIB is very close to a significant milestone. Do we really want to recycle it at this point? o Will the same level of commonality exist in other SNA data links (QLLC, Channel, ...)? o Will the generic objects be as intuitive as multiple specific objects? These concerns not withstanding, the group saw compelling enough benefits in factoring the MIBs to undertake an exercise in better understanding the issue. MIB Architecture Assuming a factored MIB, the group drafted a high level MIB architecture, or organization, to use as a framework for discussing existing contributions. 1. A generic SNA DLC MIB Module to model link connections (a) Link Station Tables which are doubly indexed by: i. The ifIndex of an owning entity (port, SAP, ...) ii. A DLC identifier (not tied to a media addressing mechanism) dlcLSAdminTable dlcLSOperTable dlcLSStatsTable 2. SDLC MIB Module (a) SDLC Port Table indexed by an ifIndex sdlcPortAdminTable sdlcPortOperTable sdlcPortStatsTable (b) SDLC Link Station Tables sparsely augmenting their corresponding tables in the generic MIB module link station tables sdlcLSAdminTable sdlcLSOperTable sdlcLSStatsTable 3. LLC-2 MIB Module (a) C-2 Port Tables indexed by an ifIndex llc2PortAdminTable llc2PortOperTable llc2PortStatsTable (b) LLC-2 SAP Tables indexed by an ifIndex llc2SAPAdminTable llc2SAPOperTable llc2SAPStatsTable (c) LLC-2 Link Station Tables sparsely augmenting their corresponding tables in the generic MIB module link station tables llc2SAPAdminTable llc2SAPOperTable llc2SAPStatsTable Member Contributions on LLC-2 The following contributions were reviewed in detail in the context of the above architecture: o Wayne Clark presented a boiler-plate for the LLC-2 MIB which was created by stripping the SDLC draft of all media-specific objects. This illustrated the degree of commonality between the two MIBs. Copies of this will be made available either on the mailer or on the FTP server. o Alan Bartky submitted a document discussing the management of LLC-2 relative to the objects defined in the IEEE 802.2 specification. o Eicon submitted the LLC-2 portion of their vendor-specific MIB modules. o Netlink submitted the LLC-2 portion of their vendor-specific MIB modules. o Sync Research submitted the LLC-2 portion of their vendor-specific MIB modules. After walking through the above contributions in detail, the group found no objects to be consistent to the proposed architectural framework. LLC-2 Work Plan In the final session, the following action items were developed and assigned: 1. Invoke a mailing list discussion regarding the scope of the LLC-2 MIB work. I, as chair, would instigate said discussions. Many of the remaining action items should provide technical input to these discussions. 2. Bill Kwan and Mike Otto agreed to investigate and submit technical discussions covering the relationships of counters and timers in SDLC and LLC- 2. 3. Wayne Clark agreed to present a proposal outlining a row-creation strategy in the factored MIB architecture. 4. Shannon Nix agreed to investigate and submit technical discussion with respect to the format of MAC addresses as per the technical issue raised in the contributions walk-through. 5. Mike Otto agreed to investigate and submit a technical discussion of link station and port statistic as per the technical issue raised in the contributions walk-through. 6. Wayne Clark agreed to present an overview of how QLLC might fit into a generic SNA DLC MIB schema. The group also noted, that other active members, not present, have expertise in that area and would solicit their input as well. 7. Wayne Clark agreed to present a matrix of managed objects in the SDLC world and the LLC-2 world which further illustrates their commonality. Should the working group reach a consensus that a common MIB module should be factored out of the SDLC MIB module the following work items were identified: 1. Revise charter describing the approach and including new milestones. 2. Factor the common elements from the SDLC MIB and produce a generic DLC MIB module as well as an SDLC-specific MIB module. These would be posted as separate Internet-Drafts. 3. Reach consensus on the new Internet-Drafts. 4. Request Proposed Standard status for the generic and SDLC MIB drafts. 5. Produce an LLC-2-specific MIB module and post as an Internet-Draft. 6. Reach consensus on the LLC-2 MIB Internet-Draft. 7. Request Proposed Standard status for the LLC-2 MIB draft. If, however, the group decides to keep the MIBs separate, then items (2) and (3) are omitted. When we have achieved consensus on our approach, we can then assign dates to the above list and revise the charter. Attendees David Chen dchen@vnet.ibm.com Wayne Clark wclark@cisco.com Louis Fernandez lff@sequent.com Peter Gayek gayek@vnet.ibm.com Jeff Johnson Deirdre Kostick dck2@mail.bellcore.com William Kwan kwan@crosscomm.com Kevin Loo loo_k@timeplex.com Shannon Nix snix@metaplex.com Michael Otto mho@netlink.com Daniel Richard daniele@icon.qc.ca Marshall T. Rose mrose.iesg@dbc.mtview.ca.us Barbara Sterling bjs@mcdata.com Ed Stern els@proteon.com Kaj Tesink kaj@cc.bellcore.com