The Internet community has recently put considerable effort into the development of network management protocols. The result has been a two-pronged approach [MGT:1, MGT:6]: the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) [MGT:4] and the Common Management Information Protocol over TCP (CMOT) [MGT:5].
In order to be managed using SNMP or CMOT, a host will need to implement an appropriate management agent. An Internet host SHOULD include an agent for either SNMP or CMOT.
Both SNMP and CMOT operate on a Management Information Base (MIB) that defines a collection of management values. By reading and setting these values, a remote application may query and change the state of the managed system.
A standard MIB [MGT:3] has been defined for use by both management protocols, using data types defined by the Structure of Management Information (SMI) defined in [MGT:2]. Additional MIB variables can be introduced under the "enterprises" and "experimental" subtrees of the MIB naming space [MGT:2].
Every protocol module in the host SHOULD implement the relevant MIB variables. A host SHOULD implement the MIB variables as defined in the most recent standard MIB, and MAY implement other MIB variables when appropriate and useful.