What is a Management Information Base?

A management information base is a collection of standard variable definitions for the monitored network equipment. In order to uniquely identify the management variables in the device in the SNMP message, SNMP uses a hierarchical naming scheme to identify the management object, just like a tree. The nodes of the tree represent the management object. You can use a path starting from the root Righteous identification. ^[1]

The management information base is an information storage place for network management system applications. In the information management library, the managed network and its management information are represented by management objects. Management objects encapsulate the data of network management behavior and role. The management information base provides the ability to perform queries, manage object operations, event processing, and manage relationships between objects.

The network management system can usually support a single or multiple management information base (MIB) architecture. Multiple management information bases can be distributed in multiple systems. The distribution of such management information bases is transparent to network operators. It can optimize the performance of accessing the management information base. Similarly, management objects can also be distributed in multiple management information bases.

Conceptually, a network management system has only one MIB, which is located in the control center of the network, but the MIB is actually distributed among various network elements, rather than centralized storage. Each network element has its own local

The management information base is the basis of network management. It contains management objects and attributes. In defining the management information base to be used, as far as possible, the management information base of some international and industrial standard that has been published should be adopted in order to provide the greatest possible compatibility.

Management information base generally includes three parts: access service, construction service and support service.

(1) Access service of management information base

The access service provides a programming interface for accessing management object information in the management information base. The user's access to the management information base may involve the establishment of a connection between the management information base user and the management information base server, the user sends an inquiry request and receives a response, and lock management. And notification management.

(2) Construction service of management information base

The construction service will provide a definition means for the managed resources in the management application to be represented as management objects. Object-oriented methods and MIB compilers are the main technical approaches.

(3) Support services for management information base

The support service provides permanent storage of the management information base and management of storage resources. The method of providing this long-term storage capability is mainly based on

The data in MIB can be roughly divided into three types: sensing data, structural data and control data.

Sensing data indicates the measured network status. It is the original information obtained through the monitoring process of the network, including node queue length, retransmission rate, link status, call statistics, etc. These data are the network's billing management, performance management, and Basic data for fault management.

Structure data describes the physical and logical structure of the network. Compared with sensing data, structure data is static network information, including network topology, switch and trunk configuration, data keys, user records, etc. These data are the network configuration Basic data for management and security management.

Controls the operation settings of the data storage network. The control data represents the settings of the adjustable parameters in the network, such as the maximum traffic of the trunk, the traffic distribution ratio of the switch output link, and the routing table. These data are mainly used for network performance management. ^[4]