RE: why i should like pibs

["Weiss, Walter" <wweiss@Ellacoya.com>]

Randy,

I have two responses.

1. Political:
Why are you asking? Why do you keep asking? And more importantly why, based
on your criteria, haven't you asked for every non-monitoring MIB, or for
various other works such as Policy Framework. I don't mind if we want to
have a substantive discussion around the evolution of configuration
management if you applied your own metrics consistently. If you believe that
none of these technologies meet's your requirements, then freeze them all.
At least then there will be some pressure on all the parties to converge to
a common approach. Personally, I believe your question is a waste of time
since the existing IETF process addresses your question when there is
sufficient implementation to transition standards from proposed standards to
draft standards. Certainly there have been lot's of standards that have
never made it past proposed for the very reasons you describe.

2. Technical:
Given your role, I would not expect you to use this PIB. The very argument
justifying DiffServ is the same one that Operators use to manage their
networks. Both share the goal of making the core of the network static and
stupid (minimal configuration). By recognizing that the core should be kept
as simple as possible, we also all understand that removing complexity from
the core only moves the complexity to some other location: the edge. If the
edge must configure bindings of QoS, Security, Access Control, Tunneling,
Usage Accounting, etc, this drives specific requirements that COPS-PR comes
closest to meeting. I could go into all the details here, but given that
this thread inevitably de-evolves to the usual suspects and the usual
posturing, I have serious doubts about the value of going into any more
details.

regards,

-Walter

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Randy Bush [mailto:randy@psg.com]
> Sent: Monday, March 18, 2002 9:13 AM
> To: rap@ops.ietf.org; diffserv@ietf.org
> Cc: ipsec-policy@vpnc.org
> Subject: why i should like pibs
> 
> 
> wearing my iesg hat but being just a stupid operator, i am trying to
> understand the pib/mib controversy.  fyi, i currently use snmp heavily
> for monitoring devices on my network.  i configure using 
> large db-driven
> code and spew text-based cli to the devices.
> 
> let's assume i want to take the leap to a binary, as opposed 
> to textual,
> configuration language.  i.e. for some reason(s) [which we will PLEASE
> NOT discuss here] i decide to move from pushing text-based cli configs
> out to pushing a binary format.
> 
> hence, i would have to push my vendors to implement snmp/cops 
> writes for
> all configuration aspects of all devices.  this would be big cost for
> both me and for my vendors.
> 
> why would cops/pibs be significantly better (remember it has 
> to replace
> my current investment, so it can not be 'just as good') than 
> snmp/mibs?
> 
> randy
> 
>