Web Based Monitoring and Management: RE: WBMM> Comments on H

RE: WBMM> Comments on Harry's WSDL

From: McDonald, Ira (imcdonald@sharplabs.com)
Date: Tue Jun 03 2003 - 21:14:38 EDT

  • Next message: Wagner,William: "WBMM> 4 June Meeting"

    Hi folks,

    Back in 1999, Carl Kugler (IBM), Harry Lewis (IBM), and Tom Hastings
    (Xerox) collaborated to write a first draft of IPP Device Operations
    (30 pages, 122 KB) at:

    ftp://ftp.pwg.org/pub/pwg/ipp/new_OPS/ipp-ops-set3-991208.pdf

    Defined in this spec in Table 1 (see first one-page PDF attachment)
    is a set of Device admin operations that correspond closely to the
    equivalent IPP Printer (i.e., Service) operations in IPP/1.1. Also
    defined in Table 3 (see second one-page PDF attachment) is a brief
    description of each Device admin operation (e.g., 'Reset-Device'
    and 'Power-Off-Device').

    Tom Hastings and I also wrote an analysis of possible attributes for a
    minimal IPP Device object. We reviewed 192 IPP Printer or Printer MIB
    candidate attributes and we proposed 23 REQUIRED and 10 OPTIONAL
    Device object attributes. This white paper (7 pages, 48 KB) is at:

    ftp://ftp.pwg.org/pub/pwg/ipp/new_DEV/ipp-device-object-attributes.pdf

    That is, the process of winnowing the 176 attributes in the Printer MIB
    into the essential ones for Device Admin has already been done once.

    Please take a look at the two small attachments (and short specs, if
    possible).

    Cheers,
    - Ira McDonald
      High North Inc

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Wagner,William [mailto:WWagner@NetSilicon.com]
    Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 4:20 PM
    To: wbmm@pwg.org
    Subject: WBMM> Comments on Harry's WSDL

    The following are some basic comments/questions relative to the WSDL that
    Harry posted last week . He will not be able to join us tomorrow, but in the
    interests of getting some thought going on this, I trust he will not mind if
    we discuss this in his absence.

    Also, I have posted some basic definitions and descriptions on the FTP site
    at ftp://ftp.pwg.org/pub/pwg/wbmm/white/definitions1.pdf. I would be
    interested in comments.

    Many thanks.

    Bill Wagner

    Operations:
    The following operations were proposed by Harry in his WSDL. I have
    indicated some questions and some additions.

    GetAttributes
    SetAttributes
    ExecuteCommand (Reset, OpPanelMessage, Off-line, LockOpPanel, DownloadCode)
    GetAll
    Register
    Unregister

    Questions:

    1. Is the term "Attributes" the most desirable term for the management items
    defined in the Management Model? (I shall use "attribute" in the following
    as a tentative label)

    2. Why are things like Reset, OpPanelMessage, Off-line, LockOpPanel, which
    previously were handled as management items, now in a special execute
    command message? Even Download code could be handled by two items (URL and
    time)

    3. We have agreed (I think) that for the data to be presented in the form it
    is to be consumed, the management data can be modeled (structured) in
    different ways (since it will be consumed in different ways). Would then the
    attribute names in the attribute list possibly identify a group as well as a
    specific attribute? Would then the attribute names define also the modeling?

    4. If the attribute name indicates the model, and GetAll includes no
    arguments, I am concerned about what the response would be.

    5. Understanding that MIBs appear to be in disfavor just now, the MIB OID
    structure does provide a effective way to tag attributes in a way that ,
    although not secure, is concise and does not flaunt enterprise information.
    Furthermore, requesting attributes with a given OID prefix can request a
    table, a subgroup or an entire group, although following the MIB structure.
    The new management model is intended to provide more flexibility, not
    limited by the rigid MIB structure. It is not clear to me how is this would
    be provided, at least with this limited message set.

    6. Register Request includes as arguments: Listener, Condition and Interval.

    a. Although the meaning of this is subject to interpretation, I can conclude
    that this one message includes all that I had originally intended for WBMM;
    periodic reporting on identified parameters and asynchronous reporting of
    alerts, subject to conditions and moderation. I think that this message is
    severely overloaded. Perhaps separate alert and report notifications? Still,
    these would be some heavy messages.
    b. We had defined WBMM as a Management Interface communicating with a
    single management server, not as encompassing a general notification
    capability. The inclusion of a "listener" argument suggests an expansion
    into the complexity of general notification, which was not in the use
    examples. Is it regarded as a necessary addition?
    c. Condition, by my understanding can be quite complex, including
    moderation. This is identified as a string. Any notion of the format?

    7. From the message identifications (listed below), I need some explanation
    of the "Async" requests. The arguments include "attribute name" instead of
    "attribute list", and "listener"

    GetAttributesResponse
    GetAttributesRequest

    SetAttributesRequest
    SetAttributesResponse

    GetAttributesAsyncRequest
    GetAttributesAsyncResponse

    SetAttributesAsyncRequest
    SetAttributesAsyncResponse

    ExecuteRequest
    ExecuteResponse

    ExecuteAsyncRequest
    ExecuteAsyncResponse

    GetAllRequest
    GetAllResponse

    RegisterRequest
    RegisterResponse

    UnRegisterRequest
    UnRegisterResponse

    William A. Wagner (Bill Wagner)
    Director of Technology
    Imaging Division
    NETsilicon, Inc.
    781-398-4588







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