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From: sra@ULANA.MITRE.ORG
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: DoD --> CMOT and SNMP
Message-ID: <8909201748.AA15964@ulana.mitre.org>
Date: 20 Sep 89 17:48:50 GMT
References: <12527392280.19.LYNCH@A.ISI.EDU>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
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Dan

I did not think it was possible but your response together with 
the large amount of traffic has stirred me enough to respond.

I can not speak for all of DOD nor can I speak for all of the Air 
Force.  I can, however, respond in terms of my knowlege of the 
ULANA program and its requirements for SNMP and CMOT.  

The ULANA program is currently delivering LAN products to Air 
Force costomers.  These products are basically a wide variety of 
products that implement the extended suite of protocols based 
upon TCP/IP for 802.3 networks and in some cases FDDI networks.
These products range from transceiver cables to full hardware/
software attachments for mainframes.

Managing networks of this type would be difficult if all products 
were from a single supplier.  We do not have that luxury.  Ulana 
products come from a wide variety of LAN vendors.  With a single 
integration contractor we might have been able to define network 
management in the ULANA context.  Instead of one major 
integration contractor the ULANA program has two.  Still with 
only two we might have been able to define an interoperable 
network management subset between these vendors except for the 
fact that ULANA components are not the only components on the 
network.  We also expect AT&T machines from the SMSCRC contract, 
PCs from the Desk Top III contract, gateways from the Host 
concentrator contract and that vast array of user procured  
products that claim to be "ULANA compatable."

Being unable to define a government unique management protocol 
{thank goodness} we strove to develop a single suite of 
network management products form the internet community.  
Unfortunately, rather than a single solution with an evolution 
from today till the future we have two SNMP and CMOT.  Had we 
chosen either it would have cost the government many dollars 
since vendors have decided to implement one or the other (or in 
some cases both).  We chose instead to allow the vendor community 
to implement either.  The management station therefore is 
REQUIRED to implement both.

So as a longwinded answer to the variety of questions:

1) To my knowlege there is no requirement to implement CMOT 
except in the network management station.

2) The only current requirement for the users regarding SNMP or 
CMOT is a policy statement requiring them to use the ULANA 
contract.  

3) If users procure their own equipment outside ULANA, and 
wish to manage this equipment with future management stations 
then they MUST have either a CMOT agent or an SNMP agent.

Should the Army and the Navy join the ULANA program the above 
will apply to them as well.

A second set of questions asked for the availability of network 
management agents.  Although many vendors are shipping SNMP or 
are about to anounce either SNMP or in some cases CMOT, some 
vendors are doing neither.  This makes the network management 
solution even more complex.  For example, EXCELAN, a very good 
network vendor who has been active in network management events 
has declined to provide us cost or schedule information on an 
agent for their VMS attachment.  Because of this I find it hard 
to understand why anyone would buy EXCELAN VMS products.  Other 
vendors have indicated that they will need several hundred 
thousand dollars to provide agents.  Since we desire commercial 
products and do not have the desire or funds to develop a wide 
variety of agents we are not able to come to the aid of the 
community this time.

So to answer the questions as to availabilty of agents:

1) Ensure that your vendor of choice has announced or has 
available network management agents for the product you desire.

2) Be very cautious of vendors that provide dates more than three 
months in the future.

3) Vendors that do not provide management agents for their 
products (for example EXCELAN) are not providing the full suite 
of necessary protocols and should, at all costs, be avoided.

A list of with agents available through the ULANA program will be 
available in early October.

A last thought, if there are any vendors with network management 
stations that implement both SNMP and CMOT NOW! please give us a 
call.  We would like to hear about it.

Stan Ames