Subject: Re: Script MIB Open Issues

From: Frank Strauss <[email-masked]>
Date: 02 Nov 1999 18:24:19 +0100

Hi!

Juergen> Here is the list of issues plus a few strawman proposals: [...]

Here is another issue:

Chapter 7 describes some procedures operating on the Script MIB tables.
Some of them say something like in 7.1. `Pushing a script via SNMP':

   6.   The manager polls the smScriptOperStatus object until the value
        is either `enabled' or one of the error status codes.  The
        script can only be used if the value of smScriptOperStatus is
        `enabled'.

Other procedures don't suggest finally polling a certain variable to
ensure that the procedure succeeds, e.g. 7.6. `Launching a script'
does not suggest to poll smRunTable until an appropriate smRunState
with a value of `executing' exists. Similarly, 7.7. `Terminating a
script' does not suggest to poll smRunTable until the according
smRunState variable(s) has/have a value of `terminated' (or the row(s)
disappeared if smRunExpireTime expired concurrently).

Other procedures like suspending and resuming a running script or
removing an smRunTable entry are not explicitly described in chapter
7, although they are on a similarly high level. We might consider to
add these.

I'd like to mention, that I ran across these issues when I coded a
manager side script and referred to section 7 of RFC 2592 just to be
compliant. ;-)

 Frank

---

From: Juergen Schoenwaelder <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1999 10:24:22 +0100

>>>>> Frank Strauss writes:

Frank> Other procedures don't suggest finally polling a certain
Frank> variable to ensure that the procedure succeeds,
Frank> e.g. 7.6. `Launching a script' does not suggest to poll
Frank> smRunTable until an appropriate smRunState with a value of
Frank> `executing' exists. Similarly, 7.7. `Terminating a script' does
Frank> not suggest to poll smRunTable until the according smRunState
Frank> variable(s) has/have a value of `terminated' (or the row(s)
Frank> disappeared if smRunExpireTime expired concurrently).

I agree that the current text is inconsistent. I have added this as
open issue 8. Strawman proposal: Add text which explains what you have
to poll in order to check whether the operation has completed
successfully.

Frank> Other procedures like suspending and resuming a running script
Frank> or removing an smRunTable entry are not explicitly described in
Frank> chapter 7, although they are on a similarly high level. We
Frank> might consider to add these.

I added this as open issue 9. I think it would be helpful to have
suspending/resume/purge procedures described in section 7 as well.
The question which pops up is whether we also want to add other things
that are not yet there, e.g. remove launch button, remove script,
enable script, disable script, enable launch button, disable launch
button.

Here is the updated open issues list:

   01: closed

   02: Restartable scripts

   03: Error message during script retrieval or compilation
       (smScriptError)

   04: Scripts that can run forever without having to reset
       smRunLifeTime

   05: Index smLangTable and smExtsnTable by name rather than Integer32
       (Wes)

   06: Dependencies between scripts and script versioning (Eamonn)

   07: Storage type of script code versus storage type of script meta
       information

   08: Final polling missing in procedures 7.6 and 7.7 (Frank)

   09: Add procedures for suspend/resume/purge to section 7 (Frank)

/js

-- 
Juergen Schoenwaelder      Technical University Braunschweig
<[email-masked]>  Dept. Operating Systems & Computer Networks
Phone: +49 531 391 3289    Bueltenweg 74/75, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany
Fax:   +49 531 391 5936    <URL:http://www.ibr.cs.tu-bs.de/~schoenw/>