| > referring to note 669.*, it is still unclear what our advise should be
> in order to manager VITAlink bridges.
> Do we need only a VITAlink AM, only the SNMP AM, or both?
The decision on whether to use the SNMP AM or the Vitalink TransLAN AM
is based on what the BRIDGE ITSELF supports for a management protocol.
TRANSLAN AM = RBMS Management Protocol
TCPIP SNMP AM = SNMP Management Protocol
If the Vitalink Bridge is a TransLAN that speaks the RBMS protocol, then
definitely use the TRANSLAN ACCESS MODULE (since the SNMP AM will NOT WORK
with it). Note that even with the TRANSLAN AM, there are features of the
bridge that cannot be managed (see Doug McPherson's notes on this elsewhere
in this conference).
If the Vitalink Bridge only supports SNMP, then use the SNMP AM (since the
TRANSLAN AM will NOT WORK with it). Note that the SNMP AM V1.0 only supports
MIB I, which means some (most?) of the interesting features of the bridge
cannot be managed.
> Second question: Is there somewhere a description of the functions
> which are foreseen in the VITAlink AM, something as a preliminary
> VITAlink AM use guide.
Contact Doug about this. My understanding is that a TRANSLAN AM MRM document
is being written, with some sort of user documentation to follow...
Their entity model, for the most part, looks VERY similar to what the
BRIDGE AM implements for LAN Bridge 100s (with lots of additional attributes,
and a PROTOCOL entity under LINE). Guess they liked our model :-)
Chris Brienen
Bridge/Station/SNMP
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(I think Chris pretty much explained the SNMP/RBMS issue.)
> Second question: Is there somewhere a description of the functions
> which are foreseen in the VITAlink AM, something as a preliminary
> VITAlink AM use guide.
There is no Use Guide for the AM (yet). I have just released a prelim baselevel of
the Translan AM. Read the release notes; that's IT for documentation, now.
Vitalink has a tech writer working on the Documentation and help files. I
have no access to that yet. As fart as I know, all documentation (except for
release notes, which I'm doing) will be released _directly_ from Vitalink
and they are just not finished yet.
Translan Bridges are a lot like DEC Lanbridges, with a couple of notable excep-
tions. So, if you're relatively familiar with the Bridge AM, then you're 90%
there with the Translan AM. There are several features that Vitalink has added
to Translan bridges that do NOT map into a "standard" vision of what a bridge
(proper) is and does. These 'extensions' to the standard are not completely
handled by their implementation of RBMS and therefore CANNOT be changed or
affected by the Translan AM.
Some things that you WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DO via the Translan AM are:
- changing PATTERN MATCHING FILTERS
- changing the BRIDGE NAME
- changing SOURCE ADDRESS FILTERS
- (maybe one or two more that I forget)
So: You will still need to do these things via the REC screen on each Bridge.
Sorry, but Vitalink has simply no plans to support for those features into their
RBMS agent.
So, for right now, all I can do is suggest that you get the kit, read the
release notes (esp the "Known Problems section) and get some feedback to me.
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