This is only a rough draft - Megan 04/20/92 CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_ Reported by David Perkins/SynOptics Communications SNMP Agent Description BOF Minutes A Birds of a Feather was held on Tuesday to present the contents of the recently published RFC1303 and to gather feedback from the attendees. Leading the presentation was David Perkins from SynOptics with assistance from Marshall Rose from Dover Beach Consulting, one of the joint authors of the RFC. RFC 1303, an informational document, proposes a method to describe the MIB objects implemented by an SNMP agent using an ASN.1 macro. This concise and precise technique provides a crisp communication between agent implementors and users of an agent. The set of overheads that were presented are included in the proceedings. The overheads included a description of the proposal, uses of the proposal, problems with the proposal, and suggested changes. There were close to 80 people in attendance with a good mix of agent technology vendors, managed device vendors (i.e., those who ship devices with agents), network management system vendors, and users of network management systems. The feedback to the presentation was generally that the proposal in RFC1303 was timely and pretty much on the mark. However, most people found the proposal to have the problems as presented in the BOF. The problems ranked in order of importance were: 1) missing support for traps; 2) problems in applying to SMUX type agents; 2) incomplete definition of syntax refinements; 3) document problems with row creation and deletion; 4) fuzzy definition of MIB groups; and 5) potential for a large number of macro instances. The attendees were urged to use the macro defined by the proposal to describe some agents to determine if there was a good fit and report the results back to the authors. There was some interest in forming a working group and taking the proposal on the standards track. This action was not the intent of the BOF. Further consultation with the authors, the network management director, and interested parties was needed to determine a course of action.