Discussion:
OID format and MIB
(too old to reply)
alessandro macuz
2016-05-13 07:24:09 UTC
Permalink
Hello all,

I tried to search the Internet for my answer but I don't seem to find it.

At my company we have an appliance that for some OIDs it doesn't return an
integer calue that can be processed and graphed but a string that looks
like the following



.1.3.6.1.3456.c.f.r.t.h.y.j.uu.i.w. : STRING ::This OID gives the height of
the cake in the owen = 5.45

Where the value of te OID is "This OID gives the height of the cake in the
owen = 5.45"

The vendor of the appliance doesn't release any MIB and from my
understanding the way to provide a human exclamation is right returning a
self-explanatory-string AND the value.

As far as I know MIBs can only serve to describe the OIDs' structure.

Now the quite-a-newbie-question: can a MIB be used to describe the format
of the OID's value?

I don't think so and I'd like to hear the opinon from somebody who knows
SNMP much better.

Because the SNMP poller we use cannot parse such returned value.

Thanks in advance,

Alex
Fedor Sumkin
2016-05-13 07:57:52 UTC
Permalink
Hi Allesandro,

Sure, MIB declaration have types for each leaf oid it have declared, but
unfortunatelly I'm not sure if the SNMP Poller you use is using type
presented in MIB.

I think that SNMP Poller you use is doing it's type assumptions based on
SNMP PDU type it receives, so I think that it wouldn't be possible to trick
your SNMP Poller to use/parse data based on MIB type.

Regards,
Fedor

On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 10:24 AM, alessandro macuz <
Post by alessandro macuz
Hello all,
I tried to search the Internet for my answer but I don't seem to find it.
At my company we have an appliance that for some OIDs it doesn't return an
integer calue that can be processed and graphed but a string that looks
like the following
.1.3.6.1.3456.c.f.r.t.h.y.j.uu.i.w. : STRING ::This OID gives the height
of the cake in the owen = 5.45
Where the value of te OID is "This OID gives the height of the cake in the
owen = 5.45"
The vendor of the appliance doesn't release any MIB and from my
understanding the way to provide a human exclamation is right returning a
self-explanatory-string AND the value.
As far as I know MIBs can only serve to describe the OIDs' structure.
Now the quite-a-newbie-question: can a MIB be used to describe the format
of the OID's value?
I don't think so and I'd like to hear the opinon from somebody who knows
SNMP much better.
Because the SNMP poller we use cannot parse such returned value.
Thanks in advance,
Alex
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alessandro macuz
2016-05-13 08:13:28 UTC
Permalink
Thank you Fedor and Mattias.

@Mattias I haven't seen such MIBs. I have to admit that I tried to learn
them but I haven't understood this capabilities of their of parsing the OID
output.

Maybe I haven't sought the Internet in the right way.

Do you perhaps have an example or a web-page where I can read of this
specific MIBs that parse the OID value and learn from it?

Many thanks in advance,

Alex
A MIB writer can define a new type.
We do that a lot.
Post by alessandro macuz
Hello all,
I tried to search the Internet for my answer but I don't seem to find it.
At my company we have an appliance that for some OIDs it doesn't return
an integer calue that can be processed and graphed but a string that looks
like the following
.1.3.6.1.3456.c.f.r.t.h.y.j.uu.i.w. : STRING ::This OID gives the height
of the cake in the owen = 5.45
Where the value of te OID is "This OID gives the height of the cake in
the owen = 5.45"
The vendor of the appliance doesn't release any MIB and from my
understanding the way to provide a human exclamation is right returning a
self-explanatory-string AND the value.
As far as I know MIBs can only serve to describe the OIDs' structure.
Now the quite-a-newbie-question: can a MIB be used to describe the format
of the OID's value?
I don't think so and I'd like to hear the opinon from somebody who knows
SNMP much better.
Because the SNMP poller we use cannot parse such returned value.
Thanks in advance,
Alex
Avis de confidentialité
Les informations contenues dans le présent message et dans toute piÚce qui
lui est jointe sont confidentielles et peuvent être protégées par le secret
professionnel. Ces informations sont à l’usage exclusif de son ou de ses
destinataires. Si vous recevez ce message par erreur, veuillez s’il vous
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exemplaire. De plus, il vous est strictement interdit de le divulguer, de
le distribuer ou de le reproduire sans l’autorisation de l’expéditeur.
Merci.
Confidentiality notice
This e-mail message and any attachment hereto contain confidential
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Mattias Barthel
2016-05-13 08:02:05 UTC
Permalink
A MIB writer can define a new type.
We do that a lot.
Post by alessandro macuz
Hello all,
I tried to search the Internet for my answer but I don't seem to find it.
At my company we have an appliance that for some OIDs it doesn't return an
integer calue that can be processed and graphed but a string that looks
like the following
.1.3.6.1.3456.c.f.r.t.h.y.j.uu.i.w. : STRING ::This OID gives the height
of the cake in the owen = 5.45
Where the value of te OID is "This OID gives the height of the cake in the
owen = 5.45"
The vendor of the appliance doesn't release any MIB and from my
understanding the way to provide a human exclamation is right returning a
self-explanatory-string AND the value.
As far as I know MIBs can only serve to describe the OIDs' structure.
Now the quite-a-newbie-question: can a MIB be used to describe the format
of the OID's value?
I don't think so and I'd like to hear the opinon from somebody who knows
SNMP much better.
Because the SNMP poller we use cannot parse such returned value.
Thanks in advance,
Alex
--
Avis de confidentialité

Les informations contenues dans le présent message et dans toute piÚce qui
lui est jointe sont confidentielles et peuvent être protégées par le secret
professionnel. Ces informations sont à l’usage exclusif de son ou de ses
destinataires. Si vous recevez ce message par erreur, veuillez s’il vous
plait communiquer immédiatement avec l’expéditeur et en détruire tout
exemplaire. De plus, il vous est strictement interdit de le divulguer, de
le distribuer ou de le reproduire sans l’autorisation de l’expéditeur.
Merci.

Confidentiality notice

This e-mail message and any attachment hereto contain confidential
information which may be privileged and which is intended for the exclusive
use of its addressee(s). If you receive this message in error, please
inform sender immediately and destroy any copy thereof. Furthermore, any
disclosure, distribution or copying of this message and/or any attachment
hereto without the consent of the sender is strictly prohibited. Thank you.
Fulko Hew
2016-05-13 12:21:02 UTC
Permalink
On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 3:24 AM, alessandro macuz
Post by alessandro macuz
Hello all,
I tried to search the Internet for my answer but I don't seem to find it.
At my company we have an appliance that for some OIDs it doesn't return an
integer calue that can be processed and graphed but a string that looks like
the following
.1.3.6.1.3456.c.f.r.t.h.y.j.uu.i.w. : STRING ::This OID gives the height of
the cake in the owen = 5.45
Where the value of te OID is "This OID gives the height of the cake in the
owen = 5.45"
The vendor of the appliance doesn't release any MIB and from my
understanding the way to provide a human exclamation is right returning a
self-explanatory-string AND the value.
As far as I know MIBs can only serve to describe the OIDs' structure.
A MIB describes not only the structure of all the OIDs, but also the type
of each OID. In this case, the type would be OCTET STRING.
Post by alessandro macuz
Now the quite-a-newbie-question: can a MIB be used to describe the format of
the OID's value?
Unfortunately, once defined as a string, there isn't a way to define
the format of that string (other than its length).
[Strings are intended for human consumption, not machine processing.]

If the value is defined as an INTEGER or an OCTET STRING, then there
could be a technique for hinting at the way it could/should be printed
(using a DISPLAY-HINT clause in the OID's definition.)
Basically it allows you to define how the value should be printed, or
octet unpacked so that it could be printed.

Read the appropriate sections of this:
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2579
Post by alessandro macuz
I don't think so and I'd like to hear the opinon from somebody who knows
SNMP much better.
Because the SNMP poller we use cannot parse such returned value.
Thanks in advance,
Alex
Mattias Barthel
2016-05-14 05:43:26 UTC
Permalink
Lets look at snmp type BITS which is actually an OCTET-STRING with a very
special format.
It can be used for to assign what parts of a quantity an entity supports.
Take a network interface for example. What media types does it support?

BITS is an snmp type derived from a primitive snmp type.

https://www.webnms.com/snmp/help/snmpapi/snmpv3/using_mibs_in_applns/bits_datatype.html
Post by alessandro macuz
Thank you Fedor and Mattias.
@Mattias I haven't seen such MIBs. I have to admit that I tried to learn
them but I haven't understood this capabilities of their of parsing the OID
output.
Maybe I haven't sought the Internet in the right way.
Do you perhaps have an example or a web-page where I can read of this
specific MIBs that parse the OID value and learn from it?
Many thanks in advance,
Alex
A MIB writer can define a new type.
We do that a lot.
Post by alessandro macuz
Hello all,
I tried to search the Internet for my answer but I don't seem to find it.
At my company we have an appliance that for some OIDs it doesn't return
an integer calue that can be processed and graphed but a string that looks
like the following
.1.3.6.1.3456.c.f.r.t.h.y.j.uu.i.w. : STRING ::This OID gives the height
of the cake in the owen = 5.45
Where the value of te OID is "This OID gives the height of the cake in
the owen = 5.45"
The vendor of the appliance doesn't release any MIB and from my
understanding the way to provide a human exclamation is right returning a
self-explanatory-string AND the value.
As far as I know MIBs can only serve to describe the OIDs' structure.
Now the quite-a-newbie-question: can a MIB be used to describe the
format of the OID's value?
I don't think so and I'd like to hear the opinon from somebody who knows
SNMP much better.
Because the SNMP poller we use cannot parse such returned value.
Thanks in advance,
Alex
Avis de confidentialité
Les informations contenues dans le présent message et dans toute piÚce
qui lui est jointe sont confidentielles et peuvent être protégées par le
secret professionnel. Ces informations sont à l’usage exclusif de son ou de
ses destinataires. Si vous recevez ce message par erreur, veuillez s’il
vous plait communiquer immédiatement avec l’expéditeur et en détruire tout
exemplaire. De plus, il vous est strictement interdit de le divulguer, de
le distribuer ou de le reproduire sans l’autorisation de l’expéditeur.
Merci.
Confidentiality notice
This e-mail message and any attachment hereto contain confidential
information which may be privileged and which is intended for the exclusive
use of its addressee(s). If you receive this message in error, please
inform sender immediately and destroy any copy thereof. Furthermore, any
disclosure, distribution or copying of this message and/or any attachment
hereto without the consent of the sender is strictly prohibited. Thank you.
--
Avis de confidentialité

Les informations contenues dans le présent message et dans toute piÚce qui
lui est jointe sont confidentielles et peuvent être protégées par le secret
professionnel. Ces informations sont à l’usage exclusif de son ou de ses
destinataires. Si vous recevez ce message par erreur, veuillez s’il vous
plait communiquer immédiatement avec l’expéditeur et en détruire tout
exemplaire. De plus, il vous est strictement interdit de le divulguer, de
le distribuer ou de le reproduire sans l’autorisation de l’expéditeur.
Merci.

Confidentiality notice

This e-mail message and any attachment hereto contain confidential
information which may be privileged and which is intended for the exclusive
use of its addressee(s). If you receive this message in error, please
inform sender immediately and destroy any copy thereof. Furthermore, any
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alessandro macuz
2016-05-18 09:26:40 UTC
Permalink
Many thanks all,

you gave me really useful information.
For the moment I going in the direction of parsing the output but I wonder
if the type STRING can be overriden by any other dattype in a specific MIB
written on purpose. As noticed it's a bit risky because for the string type
we don't know anything in advance, we can only query its lenght.

Regards, Alex
Post by Mattias Barthel
Lets look at snmp type BITS which is actually an OCTET-STRING with a very
special format.
It can be used for to assign what parts of a quantity an entity supports.
Take a network interface for example. What media types does it support?
BITS is an snmp type derived from a primitive snmp type.
https://www.webnms.com/snmp/help/snmpapi/snmpv3/using_mibs_in_applns/bits_datatype.html
Post by alessandro macuz
Thank you Fedor and Mattias.
@Mattias I haven't seen such MIBs. I have to admit that I tried to learn
them but I haven't understood this capabilities of their of parsing the OID
output.
Maybe I haven't sought the Internet in the right way.
Do you perhaps have an example or a web-page where I can read of this
specific MIBs that parse the OID value and learn from it?
Many thanks in advance,
Alex
A MIB writer can define a new type.
We do that a lot.
Post by alessandro macuz
Hello all,
I tried to search the Internet for my answer but I don't seem to find
it.
At my company we have an appliance that for some OIDs it doesn't return
an integer calue that can be processed and graphed but a string that looks
like the following
.1.3.6.1.3456.c.f.r.t.h.y.j.uu.i.w. : STRING ::This OID gives the
height of the cake in the owen = 5.45
Where the value of te OID is "This OID gives the height of the cake in
the owen = 5.45"
The vendor of the appliance doesn't release any MIB and from my
understanding the way to provide a human exclamation is right returning a
self-explanatory-string AND the value.
As far as I know MIBs can only serve to describe the OIDs' structure.
Now the quite-a-newbie-question: can a MIB be used to describe the
format of the OID's value?
I don't think so and I'd like to hear the opinon from somebody who
knows SNMP much better.
Because the SNMP poller we use cannot parse such returned value.
Thanks in advance,
Alex
Avis de confidentialité
Les informations contenues dans le présent message et dans toute piÚce
qui lui est jointe sont confidentielles et peuvent être protégées par le
secret professionnel. Ces informations sont à l’usage exclusif de son ou de
ses destinataires. Si vous recevez ce message par erreur, veuillez s’il
vous plait communiquer immédiatement avec l’expéditeur et en détruire tout
exemplaire. De plus, il vous est strictement interdit de le divulguer, de
le distribuer ou de le reproduire sans l’autorisation de l’expéditeur.
Merci.
Confidentiality notice
This e-mail message and any attachment hereto contain confidential
information which may be privileged and which is intended for the exclusive
use of its addressee(s). If you receive this message in error, please
inform sender immediately and destroy any copy thereof. Furthermore, any
disclosure, distribution or copying of this message and/or any attachment
hereto without the consent of the sender is strictly prohibited. Thank you.
Avis de confidentialité
Les informations contenues dans le présent message et dans toute piÚce qui
lui est jointe sont confidentielles et peuvent être protégées par le secret
professionnel. Ces informations sont à l’usage exclusif de son ou de ses
destinataires. Si vous recevez ce message par erreur, veuillez s’il vous
plait communiquer immédiatement avec l’expéditeur et en détruire tout
exemplaire. De plus, il vous est strictement interdit de le divulguer, de
le distribuer ou de le reproduire sans l’autorisation de l’expéditeur.
Merci.
Confidentiality notice
This e-mail message and any attachment hereto contain confidential
information which may be privileged and which is intended for the exclusive
use of its addressee(s). If you receive this message in error, please
inform sender immediately and destroy any copy thereof. Furthermore, any
disclosure, distribution or copying of this message and/or any attachment
hereto without the consent of the sender is strictly prohibited. Thank you.
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