Network Services Monitoring MIB
obsoleted by
- rfc-2788 — Network Services Monitoring MIB
obsoletes
- rfc-1565 — Network Services Monitoring MIB
Extracted elements (19)
Static configuration information about applications is intentionally excluded; only operational aspects are monitored. The applDirectoryName or applURL fields can point to external sources (e.g., X.500 Directory) where configuration details are stored.
The MIB is designed as a building block to be used in conjunction with application-specific MIBs (e.g., for MTAs or DSAs), providing only the facilities common to any network service application. Each specific application type is expected to have its own MIB extending these common facilities.
The MIB is intentionally limited to read-only, simple monitoring to avoid the complexity and security requirements that write access or detailed queue management would entail. The goal is a framework that is simple, useful, and widely implementable rather than a comprehensive management solution.
This MIB obsoletes RFC 1565. Changes include addition of applDescription and applURL fields, the new 'quiescing' state in applOperStatus, removal of confusing 'dynamic single threaded processes' prose, and renaming from APPLICATION-MIB to NETWORK-SERVICES-MIB to avoid conflict with a separate IETF application MIB under development.
The applCompliance MODULE-COMPLIANCE requires implementation of the applGroup (all applTable objects) for basic network service application monitoring. The assocCompliance additionally mandates the assocGroup for implementations that monitor associations.
applAccumulatedInboundAssociations and applAccumulatedOutboundAssociations are Counter32 objects tracking total associations since application initialization. applRejectedInboundAssociations counts application-layer rejections only (not lower-layer rejections), and applFailedOutboundAssociations counts failed outbound connection attempts.
applDirectoryName uses the DistinguishedName textual convention (DisplayString encoded per RFC 1779) to link the MIB entry to an X.500 Directory entry. An empty string indicates no directory information is available.
applInboundAssociations and applOutboundAssociations are Gauge32 objects tracking current active associations where the application is responder or initiator, respectively.
applOperStatus is an INTEGER with six states: up(1), down(2), halted(3), congested(4), restarting(5), and quiescing(6). 'halted' means operational but unavailable; 'congested' means no additional inbound associations can be accepted; 'quiescing' means shutting down and may reject new inbound associations.
applRejectedInboundAssociations counts only associations the application itself rejected; it does not count rejections at lower network layers. This means the counter may not reflect the true number of failed inbound associations.
applURL uses the URLString textual convention (DisplayString encoded per RFC 1738) to point to a description of the application, intended for use in status displays.
assocApplicationProtocol is an OBJECT IDENTIFIER identifying the protocol in use. For TCP-based protocols not in the IANA registry, the form {applTCPProtoID port} is used; for UDP-based protocols, {applUDPProtoID port} is used, where 'port' is the primary port number.
assocApplicationType is an INTEGER with four values: ua-initiator(1), ua-responder(2), peer-initiator(3), peer-responder(4), distinguishing whether the remote end is a user agent or peer, and whether it initiated or responded to the connection. MTAs and messaging gateways are classified as peers.
assocRemoteApplication identifies the remote system: for IP applications it should be a domain name or IP address; for OSI applications, a string-encoded Distinguished Name; for X.400(1984) MTAs without a DN, the RFC 1327 'mta in globalid' syntax.
The applTable holds one row per operational network service application on the system, indexed by applIndex (INTEGER 1..2147483647). It contains name, directory name, version, uptime, operational status, association counts, and descriptive fields.
The assocTable augments applTable with per-association information, indexed by (applIndex, assocIndex). Each entry contains assocRemoteApplication, assocApplicationProtocol (OID), assocApplicationType, and assocDuration.
The module is registered at OID {mib-2 27}. The document defines applTCPProtoID ({application 4}) and applUDPProtoID ({application 5}) as OID prefixes for constructing protocol identifiers for TCP-based and UDP-based protocols not otherwise assigned OIDs by IANA.
The MIB provides no write access and cannot be used to actively attack a system. However, it exposes passive information about application existence, type, and configuration that could indicate vulnerabilities, and network usage data that could be used to analyze traffic patterns.
applOperStatus defines six operational states for a network service application: up, down, halted, congested, restarting, and quiescing. Transitions are not explicitly specified, but 'quiescing' is the graceful shutdown state leading toward 'down', and 'restarting' is a transient unavailable state leading toward 'up'.