Customer Reviews

SNMP MIB Handbook

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Let me start simple: I'm neither a book author nor a professional "reviewer".

The only reason for this review -- and yes, this is my very first one -- is that I'm truly impressed with "SNMP MIB Handbook". Let me try to explain how did I happen to find it -- and why do I consider it "The Bible of MIB Design".

My recent task was (well, still is :)) to design an architecture for Enterprise Infrastructure Management, where the term "Infrastructure" is broad and a little bit vague (or should I say: "yet to be defined"? :)) -- but at the very least it includes hardware, software and essential business processes. SNMP, by no surprise, is one of several "ways to go" -- so I decided to refresh my SNMP knowledge.

After reading some introductory tutorials and not-so-introductory books, it occurred to me that something is missing, while 80% of information is "covered" again and again. Everybody talks about familiar subject: SNMP history, the fact that SNMP is based on UDP -- and how it is encapsulated; differences between SNMPv1, SNMPv2c and SNMPv3, the internal format of different types of SNMP messages, what is MIB, the concept of TRAP (notification), how to configure and use various commercial or freeware SNMP tools, etc.

What's missing then? Here is the short answer: nobody tells you how to DESIGN *your* MIB.

Let me make an analogy: there are plenty books on English Grammar; there are also quite a few on different reading "techniques". But how many books will teach you writing? Not writing in general, but writing *good prose* or *nice poems*? There you are!

Does it matter? Well, as usual, it depends. If your job is to *use* already existing MIBs -- that's one thing. But what if you have to *create* (i.e. design and implement) a MIB of your own -- the one that *others* will have to use? How would you do that? Where to start? What to cover - and what to omit? What are current design practices? What are the most typical mistakes?

Try to "google" on a topic of MIB design -- you'd be surprised with the results.

That being said, what's so special about this book?

It has answers to all of the questions above -- and goes far beyond.

Without further ado let me provide brief highlights about what I like most:

-- Not only it teaches you SMI (v1 and v2) syntax but also tells *how to read* MIBs, how to tell whether a particular MIB is good or not - and why;

-- While most other SNMP books fall short on advanced MIB objects (telling you about MIB tables at most), this one goes deep into the world of complex MIBs: you'll know about tables with multiple INDEX objects (and about different types of INDEX objects themselves), about row-create tables (and different scenarios of using them), about object identifier POINTERS, INDEX pointers, etc.

-- MIB Design Patterns: this part alone justifies the price! All-in-One vs. Product-specific MIBs; why SMI registration MIBs are important (and what to put inside); how to design TRAPs *properly* (different models for TRAP design, best practices, typical mistakes, consequences for end-users (e.g.: network engineers)); what objects are essential for Enterprise MIB design; how to *partition* you MIB properly (for example, how to model Product Options, how to account for future versions of the Product, how to model new/modified/deprecated functionality of the Product, the importance of state information -- and the difference between dynamic and static state info). And on top of that the book provides real-world *full* Enterprise-level MIB examples -- to read and learn from!

-- References (Appendix A) are really useful. Ever tried to figure out what RFCs define SNMPv3 (and what are *current* ones)? What SNMP Validation compilers are available? Where to look for various Enterprise MIBs?

-- Did I mention short quiz-type exercises after each chapter? You'll have a chance to grade yourself: Appendix F has correct answers.

To sum it up: this book is brilliantly written, easy to read and comprehend -- and *incredibly* useful.

It fills-in an important gap in today's SNMP literature: MIB Design Patterns and Practices.

Second to none, it establishes a Gold Standard on the subject -- for years to come.

The SNMP MIB Handbook by Larry Walsh is a must-have book whether you need to use existing MIBs or you need to develop your own MIBs. This book is written for administrators and developers by a developer and educator. A first glance through the book might seem intimidating due to the amount of material covered. It is full of practical information that will ensure that your MIBs are written correctly and will work with the various SNMP managers out there.

There are references to the MIB-related specifications (RFCs) as well as Web sites dedicated to the support of MIB development. Also, tools for developing and verifying your MIBs are listed. Most topics are followed by at least one example and there is an enterprise-level MIB example. Where ever necessary, the differences between the SNMP messaging versions and the SMI versions are detailed. Exercises test your understanding of the material in each chapter.

This book brings together in one place the information needed to efficiently develop clean MIBs. There are hints and recommendations on how to produce the best MIBs. Extremely useful checklists ensure a good process is being used, including one for diagnosing problems and one for the whole MIB design process.

If you are a MIB network manager, developer or user, you need this book. It will help network managers to identify bad MIB's, developers to write correct MIB's, and users to repair MIB's. Novice or expert, there's something in this book for you.

There are many illustrations, screen shots, and examples of actual MIB's. This is one of the easiest SNMP books to read and understand because of its excellent organization. The author starts with basic concepts and builds from there. And, because this book provides such a clear and concise guide to MIB's, it is an excellent companion to "Essential SNMP" by Mauro and Schmidt.

A well written, logically organized text targeted at developers and end-users.

The author lays a strong foundation with the SNMP tutorial followed by a meticulous, step-by-step description of how to construct high quality MIBs. He has managed to balance the need to cover advanced concepts without glossing over the basic concepts. The text works as both an instructional manual and a reference.

I strongly recommend that you purchase this text. Personally, I keep it within arm's reach.

SNMP MIB Handbook is an essential guide for understanding and implementing MIBs.

The text is well written, structured logically, and presents concise details and equal coverage for both SNMPv1 and SNMPv2 protocols.

Ample examples are provided throughout to assist Developers in understanding v1 and v2 syntax differences.

The topics covered in great detail are MIB syntax and structure

(including derived types), Traps, Indexes and Tables, and Troubleshooting.

This is a must-have book for Engineers responsible for SNMP management and development.

My first SNMP assignment was to implement an agent on an embedded Nucleus based system. I had no experience with SNMP nor am I "network" savvy. I started searching the web and Amazon for anything on the subject. I ordered two books before this one and thought them to be as (un)readable as the RFCs, and much of what I found in these books and on the web was quite dated. There was so much jargon and references: SNMPv1, SNMP v2, SNMPv3; not to be confused with SMIv1 and SMIv2.....

OK, maybe I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but this stuff was overwhelming me. Maybe I could eventually handle it as a user, CRC and perhaps others have some slick stuff that comes up kicking and reporting on Cisco managed switches and the like but I had to develop an agent. I needed "SNMP and MIBS for Dummies". This book is better than that. It puts all the jargon, versions, and concepts in proper perspective without insulting the reader. I have found no other source that brings so much information together in such a concise, yet very readable manner. I found the RFCs confusing and perhaps contradictory but now ASN.1, SMI, SMNP, OIDs, SYNTAX, SEQUENCE, SEQUENCE OF, etc are things I can grasp and relate to each other.

This book is not just about MIBs, the SNMP tutorial is excellent, giving me an uncluttered, unconfused SNMP background to build on. There are plenty of excellent examples with lots of comments. The use of the CD changer as a model was great idea as it is someone most anyone is familiar with and it makes the objects being discussed more tangible.

Besided being instructional this book is also a great reference as I know of no other place that clearly illustrates syntax and also has examples handy. Not just examples of syntax but whole MIBS, see appendixes G & H. Lest I forget the MIB diagnostics scattered throughout have already come to my rescue. The title says MIB handbook but it does a good job of introducing SNMP too.

Finally the book on MIBs outlining concise MIB construction techniques using ASN.1 language. The SNMP MIB Handbook by Larry Walsh is very well written and conveys much of the same information presented in his training courses. Now everyone from product supervision to MIB developers to users of developed MIBs can have this industry information in their hands. As a Network Engineer, I find many manufacturers enterprise MIBs to be chockfull of errors as well as deficient in providing the kinds of information essential to network management. Now that a book actually details these MIB short-comings, that this book will become de-facto reading for those doing this essential development. There are many references to common and not so common developmental mistakes as well as composing MIBs to the highest standard. While it is understood that the MIB is basically a map of the available data on the device to be managed and that the device agent is part of this management, perhaps the highlights within this book will be beneficial to those developing agent software as well.

The book will help Network Engineers determine causes and fixes for poorly written MIBs. Test tools and methodology are a significant focus and apply to all levels of use and development. The information presented in this respect cannot be obtained anywhere else except through years of trouble-shooting effort.

This book is highly recommended reading for those involved in all levels of SNMP understanding, development and use.

Hello all,

TO be honest I was looking for real SNMP MIB handbook or at least some thing that look like this. But this is terrible book. It look like some one was creating a MIB for his product once whit this friend (and the friend had done most of the work, and the person was just observing him and according to the notices he hes written this book).

Probably its just my personal filing as I'm working couple of years with monitoring and reporting tools. On another hand I was expecting much more not just common used stuff without deeper explanation of the topics.

Any way I will keep on search for some better book about mentioned topics as this one was just loosing of my time.

iggy

I was given a task to "develop SNMP support" for a new product that my company is doing. There aren't any other products exactly like it, so it requires a lot of design work instead of just copying what some other company did. Being new to SNMP, this book made so many things make sense. It also opened my eyes to the entire world of standard MIBs, some of which do apply quite nicely to certain aspects of our product. This is a great book for understanding how to design and write a high quality MIB. One caveat, this has very little on how to implement an agent, but I'm finding that once you understand how to structure the MIB, the agent is pretty easy.

This book saved me and to my colleagues days or maybe weeks of searching informations somewhere else. It's well structured and full of practicall informations.