3Com 4007R Implementation Guide - Page 648

648 CHAPTER 23: DEVICE MONITORING Figure 82 Example of an RMON MIB Counter Object etherStatsPkts OBJECT-TYPE SYNTAX Counter ACCESS read-only STATUS mandatory DESCRIPTION This is a total number of packets received, including bad packets, broadcast packets, and multicast packets. ::= { etherStatsEntry 5 } The counter object information includes these items: s The name of the counter. In Figure 82, the counter is called etherStatsPkts (Ethernet, Statistics, Packets). s Access level. In Figure 82, access is read-only. s The number of the counter's column in the table. In Figure 82, the counter is in column 5 of the etherStatsEntry table. The name of the table where the counter resides is 3CometherStatTable, although this name does not appear in the display. To manage a network, you do not need to know the contents of every MIB object. Most network management applications, including Transcend Network Control Services, make the MIB transparent. However, by knowing how different management features are derived from the MIB you can better understand how to use the information they provide. MIBs include MIB-II, other standard MIBs (such as the RMON MIB), and vendors' private MIBs (such as enterprise MIBs from 3Com). These MIBs and their objects are part of the MIB tree. MIB Tree The MIB tree is a structure that groups MIB objects in a hierarchy and uses an abstract syntax notation (ASN.1) to define manageable objects. Each item on the tree is assigned a number (shown in parentheses after each item), which creates the path to objects in the MIB. See Figure 83. This path of numbers is called the object identifier (OID). Each object is uniquely and unambiguously identified by the path of numeric values.