Network Working Group                                            V. Cerf
Request for Comments: 1052                                           NRI
                                                              April 1988

               IAB Recommendations for the Development of
                 Internet Network Management Standards

Status of this Memo

   This memo is intended to convey to the Internet community and other
   interested parties the recommendations of the Internet Activities
   Board (IAB) for the development of network management protocols for
   use in the TCP/IP environment.  The memo does NOT, in and of itself,
   define or propose an Official Internet Protocol.  It does reflect,
   however, the policy of the IAB with respect to further network
   management development in the short and the long term.  Distribution
   of this memo is unlimited.

Background

   At the IAB meeting on 21 March 88 in videoconference, the report of
   the Ad Hoc Network Management Review Committee was reviewed.  The
   recommendations of the committee were endorsed by the IAB and
   direction given to the chairman of the Internet Engineering Task
   Force to take the necessary steps to implement the recommendations.

   The IAB expressed its gratitude for the efforts of the HEMS, SNMP and
   CMIP/CMIS working groups and urged that parties with technical
   interest in the outcome of the network management working groups
   convey their ideas and issues to the relevant working group chairmen.

   The IETF chairman was directed to form two new working groups, one of
   which would be responsible for the further specification and
   definition of elements to be included in the Management Information
   Base (MIB).  The other would be responsible for defining extensions
   to the Simple Network Management Protocol to accommodate the short-
   term needs of the network vendor and operator communities.  The
   longer-term needs of the Internet community are to be met using the
   ISO CMIS/CMIP framework as a basis.  A working group of the IETF
   exists for this work and would continue its work, coordinating with
   the two new groups and reporting to the IETF chairman for guidance.

   The output of the MIB working group is to be provided to both the
   SNMP working group and the CMIS/CMIP ["Netman"] working group so as
   to assure compatibility of monitored items for both network
   management frameworks.






 
RFC 1052                  Internet Management                 April 1988


Specific Recommendations

   The IAB recommends that the Simple Network Management Protocol be
   adopted as the BASIS for network management in the short-term.
   Extensions may be required to the existing SNMP specification to
   accommodate additional data types or to deal with functional or
   performance issues arising as multiple SNMP implementations are
   deployed and applied, especially in multi-vendor applications.

   The SNMP working group constituted by the IETF is charged with
   considering requirements not met by the present SNMP definition,
   defining extensions, if necessary, to accommodate these needs, and
   preparing revisions of the SNMP specifications to address any new
   extensions.

   The IAB urges the working group to be extremely sensitive to the need
   to keep SNMP simple, to work quickly to come to concensus on any
   revisions needed and to promulgate expeditiously the results of its
   work in one or more RFCs within the next 90 days.  The IETF chairman
   is responsible for resolving disagreements arising if they cannot be
   resolved within the working group and is instructed to escalate
   problems quickly to the IAB should resolution not be forthcoming.

   The IAB further recommends that the MIB working group begin its work
   equally expeditiously, taking as its starting inputs the MIB
   definitions found in the existing High-Level Entity Management
   Systems (HEMS) RFC-1024, the SNMP IDEA-11, and CMIS/CMIP IDEAs.

   It is the intention of the IAB that the MIB definitions be applied
   both to the SNMP system in the short term and CMIS/CMIP for TCP/IP in
   the longer term.  The three working groups will have to coordinate
   their efforts carefully to achieve these objectives:

           1. Rapid convergence and definition for SNMP.

           2. Rapid convergence and definition for the TCP/IP MIB.

           3. Provision for transitioning from SNMP to CMIP/CMIS.