SNMP Research International Inc. offers a unique product that maps HTML constructs and SNMP data, supporting a standards-based transition to Web-based management. For management applications, DR-Web reduces coding effort as well as memory requirements. For developers and end-users, DR-Web preserves investments in SNMP by ensuring consistent data naming with more than 5000 standard MIB objects specified in over 60 RFCs.
The DR-Web Extensible Agent is one of three products in the DR-Web family of Web-based management tools from SNMP Research. The architecture of DR-Web provides operators with easy access to management information from any Web browser while preserving the standards-based format of management data required for programmatic manipulation by software applications. DR-Web's primary differentiator from other Web-based management solutions is the level at which SNMP/Web integration takes place in the agent/management architecture (Fig. 1).
Figure 1: Architecture of DR-Web Extensible Agent.
From any popular browser, operators can request SNMP management information from DR-Web-enabled applications, systems, or devices by making an HTTP request in the form of an Uniform Resource Locator (URL), such as:
http://my.host.machine:280/subtree/
where the host is the host name or address for the computer running DR-Web, and subtree specifies the starting point for browsing the SNMP MIB. Port 280 is the proposed port for Web-based management, pending approval by the IETF.
Upon receiving the HTTP request, DR-Web retrieves information from the Subagent and converts SNMP MIB data into HTML pages. The operator can easily create customized pages using point-and-click operations. For example, network administrators may want to create a page called "routerstatus" which contains only those MIB variables of interest to them. Operators can retrieve this customized page again and again without respecifying the variable grouping.
The DR-Web Extensible Agent is actually an enhancement to SNMP Research's EMANATE Master Agent/Subagent system. The EMANATE Master Agent is extended to support an HTTP interface as well as the existing SNMP interface to the event queueing subsystem. DR-Web converts HTTP requests and SNMP requests to EMANATE events, and dispatches them to the appropriate Subagents. Because this modular architecture requires no changes below the event queuing subsystem, all customer investment in EMANATE-based SNMP subagents is preserved. The layering approach also allows for future support of the HyperMedia Management Protocol (discussed later) as well as other new protocols without requiring changes to the Master Agent/Subagent relationship.
The DR-Web Extensible Agent meets the needs of those seeking applications, systems, or device management solutions that are both standards-based and accessible via Web browsers. Using the automatic code-generating facilities provided by SNMP Research's Subagent Development Kits, users can generate Subagents for monitoring critical application processes. Checking the status of an application or changing its priority can then be accomplished at the nearest available Web browser.
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