Re: Final BOF Agenda?

[Andy Bierman <abierman@cisco.com>]

Juergen Schoenwaelder wrote:
> 
> >>>>> Margaret Wasserman writes:
> 
> Margaret> I think (but am not sure) that Andy also wants to talk about
> Margaret> how instance information could be represented in XML.
> 
> Just to be clear:
> 
> - The smidump xsd output format translates a MIB module (SMIv1/SMIv2)
>   into an XML schema which defines XML document formats for instance
>   information.
> 
> - The smidump xml output format translates a MIB module (SMIv1/SMIv2)
>   into an XML document which can be used to process MIB module
>   definitions with XML tools. (This is an older project and not really
>   relevant in the context of xmlconf - but it is important to not
>   confuse them.)
> 
> A student is also working on an implementation (which I guess will be
> available soon) which implements a gateway that returns instance data
> in XML conforming to the XML schema generated by the smidump xsd
> translation.
> 
> The question which remains to be discussed is how useful such an
> automated translation really is. Sure, you get access to MIB data in
> XML format which is easier to process for many people. Bulk transfers
> become easier since you usually assume TCP as a transport. However,
> with an automated translation, you do not really make any steps
> forward to overcome the semantic mismatch between the low-level
> data-centric MIB models and the more task-oriented models operators
> seem to prefer. This also has to do with naming and references which
> are implemented by some kind of pointers in MIB modules, where you
> can't really hide MIB specifics when doing automated translations.
> Perhaps it is more useful to do half-automated translations where MIB
> augmentations are defined for translation purposed to derive XML
> schemas that are closer to the underlying conceptual model.
> 

I'm more interested in the generic ability to specify a varbind list
from a Set PDU as the contents of a configuration command, as an interim
measure during the transition to a more appropriate data model.
The XML format does not have to closely follow the SNMP format,
but it would be nice to have a standard template (meta-schema as Randy P.
suggested) in the initial version of the standard.  The smidump program
is a good tool, and that should also be considered as a viable format for
people to use.  It's not clear how much effort the xmfconf WG should
spend on payload formats in the initial release, and it's possible
another WG or an industry consortium will end up doing this work.


> /js
> 
> --
> Juergen Schoenwaelder    <http://www.informatik.uni-osnabrueck.de/schoenw/>

Andy

> 
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