IETF #42 WG Minutes
OPS Area; Entity MIB WG
Chicago, IL 24-aug-98
WG Chair:	Keith McCloghrie	(kzm@cisco.com)
Minutes:	Andy Bierman      	(abierman@cisco.com)

Review Material
  Entity MIB (Version 2):  <draft-ietf-entmib-v2-00.txt>

Agenda:

1. Review minutes of last meeting
2. Review changes incorporated into draft-ietf-entmib-v2-00.txt
3. General discussion of current MIB
4. Decision on whether document is ready to go to Last Call

Executive Summary:

The working group is finishing up Version 2 of the Entity MIB (RFC 2037). The current 
draft was reviewed at this meeting, and the next version should be ready for "WG Last 
Call".  The final draft should be ready for RFC publication in October 1998.

1) Review minutes of last meeting

The WG Chair gave a summary of the MIB changes agreed to at the last IETF meeting. 
There wasn't much comment on this topic, and no issues were raised regarding the L.A. 
meeting minutes.

2) Review changes incorporated into draft-ietf-entmib-v2-00.txt

The WG spent most of the meeting discussing open issues with the Entity MIB draft.

2.1) RevisionString textual convention

The WG discussed the RevisionString TC, as currently specified in the draft. After much 
debate over the field separator section, the WG decided that this TC should be removed 
from the MIB.  

The textual convention defines several field separator character sequences for 
distinguishing multiple revision strings within a single MIB object (with syntax 
RevisionString).  Since several field separators are identified, it is possible one or more 
of these characters could be present inadvertently in a particular vendor's revision string, 
which could cause an NMS to misinterpret the returned MIB value.  The WG could not 
decide on a single field separator value.

The RevisionString TC will be removed, and the revision string MIB objects will use the
SnmpAdminString TC instead.  The DESCRIPTION clauses for these objects will stress 
rhat binary revision strings must be converted to printable strings somehow, in order to 
comply with the SnmpAdminString semantics.

2.2) entLogical compliance 

The compliance macro for the entLogical group is broken in the current draft.  A new 
compliance macro will be created, which does not contain the (now deprecated) 
entLogicalCommunity object.

2.3) Document format 

The Entity MIB draft boilerplate text and document format will be updated to comply 
with the following documents: 

  * "Internet Standards Process -- Revision 3" (RFC 2026)
  * "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels" 
    (RFC 2119)
  * "Instructions to RFC Authors"  (RFC 2223)

3) General discussion of current MIB

The WG next discussed new features and issues outside the scope of the current draft.

3.1) Support for a hierarchy of logical entities

The WG discussed possible enhancements to the Entity MIB to represent a hierarchy of 
logical components.  The entPhysicalContainedIn object and entPhysicalContainsTable 
could be 'cloned' for the entLogicalTable.  

The WG decided that this feature might be added in a future version of the Entity MIB, 
but it will not be added to the draft in progress.

4) Decision on whether document is ready to go to Last Call 

The WG agreed on the following milestones:
 * the WG Editor should update the Entity MIB I-D within two weeks
 * The draft will be then discussed on the mailing list for one week. 
 * If no major issues are raised, the WG Chair will then issue a two week WG Last Call.
 * If no issues are raised during this last call, the draft will then be forwarded to the IESG 
    for publication consideration as a standards track RFC. The MIB will cycle at "Proposed 
    Draft Standard" status.