Tales from the MIB

fennec

Documentation is always fun. Presented here is a MIB, the thing that tells you about what's in your devices' SNMP. A normal MIB entry looks something like this:

		ccTrapWips NOTIFICATION-TYPE
			OBJECTS { ccTrapCtrlWipsAction, ccTrapCtrlWipsMac }
			STATUS current
			DESCRIPTION 
				"Description."
			::= { ccNotifications 24 }

(That's about the level of description you can expect from a typical MIB, too. This is not yet the WTF.)

Apparently this vendor has discovered that the MIB can be used not just as machine-readable documentation, but as a collaborative development tool!


--  1.3.6.1.4.1.388.6.2.16.4.1.1
		-- 1.3.6.1.4.1.388.6.2.16.4.1.1
		ccAPPolicyBSS OBJECT-TYPE
			SYNTAX DisplayString (SIZE (1..10))
			MAX-ACCESS not-accessible
			STATUS current
			DESCRIPTION
				"The BSS for which the primary wlan property needs to be get/set"
			::= { ccAPPolicyBSSEntry 1 }
		

--  Mower: changed range 1..100 to 1..10.  It's actually an
-- integer, (expressed as a DisplayString), 1..4.


--  Mower: added.
-- 
-- Take caution when implementing this notification: be
-- careful to not disable the SNMP deamon before sending the
-- notification.  Likewise, you may need to ensure the SNMP
-- deamon is up and stable before immediately sending this
-- notification.
-- 


		-- 1.3.6.1.4.1.388.6.3.32.1.1
		ccMUInfoIndex OBJECT-TYPE
			SYNTAX Integer32 (1..2147483647)
			MAX-ACCESS read-only
			STATUS current
			DESCRIPTION
				"The index of MU Information Table."
			::= { ccMUInfoEntry 1 }
-- ??Mower: added a range 1..2**31 to eliminate an error,
-- but what range is correct?


-- Mower: to eliminate a compiler warning, change '-' to 'and'
-- in each of the following:
--   rt1-2Mbps
--   rt1-55Mbps
--   rt2-55Mbps
--   rt1-2-55Mbps
--   rt1-11Mbps
--   rt2-11Mbps
--   rt1-2-11Mbps
--   rt55-11Mbps
--   rt1-55-11Mbps
--   rt2-55-11Mbps
--   rt1-2-55-11Mbps
-- 
-- (Also, this should have been a BITS definition).


--  ??Mower: this NOTIFICATION, and all others in this group 
-- have been slightly re-defined since v1.2 to include a 
-- string as an included var-bind: "ccTargetTrapString", 
-- which I am told is in the actual NOTIFICATION.
-- 
-- I created this DisplayString as 
-- accessible-for-notify at an arbitrary OID.  I need someone
-- to tell me the actual OID for this string.
-- 
-- I am told that the string actually has the same OID as the
-- notification itself.  This is wrong.

The good news is, at least one guy there knows how to operate a MIB. The bad news.... well...

PJH

@fennec said:

Documentation is always fun. Presented here is [...], the thing that tells you about what's in your devices' SNMP.

Ohhh - ta for that. I'm (now! as of about 2 years ago) responsible for our company's MIB(s).

I'm quite unsure about the MIB presented, however I'm sure it's, um, something I could learn from. May-be I could stuff it with comments...

Not having read the MIB presented, and ignoring comments in it, have they changed anything recently? Deprecated stuff that probably won't exist soon? Or are they deprecating stuff in comments while not doing it in the substance of the MIB?

fennec

@PJH said:

Not having read the MIB presented, and ignoring comments in it, have they changed anything recently? Deprecated stuff that probably won't exist soon? Or are they deprecating stuff in comments while not doing it in the substance of the MIB?

Not sure exactly. We've had this copy sitting around for a while, I just had to reference it. They did do real-deprecation, though.

notromda

This screams that you don't have source control on that file, as if you did, you would put the comments THERE.

versatilia

For a moment there I thought you had accidentally posted the unique OID of your company!

belgariontheking

So where's the part where we shoot aliens and save the galaxy?

PJH

@belgariontheking said:

So where's the part where we shoot aliens and save the galaxy?

.1.3.6.1.4.1.6925 at a guess.

dhromed

@PJH said:

.1.3.6.1.4.1.6925 at a guess.

@site said:

Carnegie Mellon
Mark Poepping

HAR HAR HAR

Nyquist

@dhromed said:

@site said:
Carnegie Mellon
Mark Poepping

HAR HAR HAR

Some people should just change their names by deed poll. Imagine this guy getting pizza deliveries... "Pizza for Mr. Pooping? Oh sorry..."

fennec

So, I just found out why there's excruciating detail here that I probably shouldn't have been presented with in the file.
The MIB authoring tool in question stores the version history in the comments. That's probably a small WTF, but it's not the real WTF.

The real WTF is that I found this out because the guy who wrote the comments is my new third-level manager.