[asterisk-dev] Notes from SNMP breakout session

[Jeff Gehlbach]

Hi!

On Thu, May 24, 2007 at 10:13:36AM -0500, Brandon Kruse wrote:
> I personally think all the infrastructure is already in snmp.c

Can I get a copy of that?  It's not in my checkout ;)  I assume you mean
res_snmp.c?

> All you really have to do is look up the CLI command you like and find
> the function that returns the numbered or string result of certain
> commands.

Yes, much or all of the logic that we need is already in the CLI.  The
issue is that the handler functions for the CLI tend to mix their
presentation code with their calculations.  Many of those same
calculations are repeated in the manager code.  Implementing each
relevant handler a third time for res_snmp starts to get into the realm
of silliness IMO.  I didn't come into this effort wanting to add a data
access layer, but having a such a thing seems to me like an effort that
would pay off in future maintainability.

> For example, I have been hacking at this for a couple of weeks and I
> have gotten most of the IAX2 statistics that you get when you issue an
> iax2 show stats CLI command.

I would love to see what you have come up with here.

> Write a sample template for cacti (done already) and nagios, and other
> leading SNMP monitoring tools. Then we just let the community adapt
> and take it from there.

The more tools that can use this data, the better.  It's important not
to limit the targets to Cacti / Nagios / MRTG / Cricket, though -- the
data available from the MIB needs to be laid out thoughtfully in order
to be used effectively by more sophisticated tools that do complex
analysis.  I'm thinking of IBM Netcool / CA eHealth / HP OpenView class
products*.  Providing a good MIB that these large enterprise- and
carrier-grade management suites can use, and working with the vendors'
certification and services organizations to make them manage Asterisk
the box, will increase Asterisk's ability to penetrate larger
markets.

*I include OpenNMS in this category -- see <http://tinyurl.com/2jxbdr>.
Note my admitted bias as a member of that project's core team.

-jeff