As per Relevance of the word services, we have this rfc below:
Network Working Group C.
Request for Comments: 2039 OnRamp Technologies, Inc
Category: Informational November 1996
Applicablity of Standards Track MIBs to Management of World
Web
Status of this
This memo provides information for the Internet community. This
does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution
this memo is unlimited
1.
This document was produced at the request of the Network
Area Director following the HTTP-MIB BOF at the 35th IETF meeting
report on the applicability of the existing standards track MIBs
management of WWW servers
Requirements for management of a World Wide Web (WWW) server
presented. The applicable existing standards track MIBs are
examined. Finally, an analysis of the additional groups of
attributes that are needed to meet the requirements is presented
Table of
1. Abstract.................................................1
2. Overview.................................................2
3. Requirements.............................................3
3.1 Operational Model Requirements...........................3
3.1.1. Host specific and Application Monitoring.................3
3.1.2. Dependencies among applications..........................3
3.1.3. Error generation and reporting...........................3
3.1.4. Capacity planning........................................4
3.1.5. Log Digester.............................................4
3.2. Service Model Requirements...............................4
3.2.1. Retrieval services.......................................4
3.2.2. Document information store -- managing documents.........4
3.2.3. Server configuration.....................................4
3.2.4. Server Control...........................................4
3.2.5. Quality of Service.......................................4
4. Relationship to existing IETF efforts....................5
4.1. MIB-II [2]...............................................5
4.2. Host Resources MIB [3]...................................5
4.3. Network Services Monitoring MIB [4]......................6
4.4. Application MIB [5]......................................7
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5. Summary of Existing Standards Track MIBs.................8
6. Definition of additional attributes......................9
7. Usage Scenarios.........................................11
8. Conclusion..............................................11
9. References..............................................13
10. Acknowledgments.........................................13
11. Further Information.....................................14
12. Security Considerations.................................14
13. Authors' Address........................................14
2.
The World Wide Web (WWW) is a network of information, accessible
a simple easy to use interface. The information is often
in HyperText or multi-media. The information is provided by
which are located all around the world. The usability of the
depends largely on the performance of these servers. WWW servers
typically monitored through log files. This becomes a difficult
when a single organization is responsible for a number of servers
Since many organizations currently use the Internet Standard SNMP
manage their network devices, it is desirable to treat these
servers as additional devices within this framework. This will
a single Network Management Station (NMS) to automate the
of a number of WWW servers as well as the entire enterprise.
a standard for this purpose allows a single management application
manage a number of servers from a variety of vendors. Additionally
a formal definition of what has to be managed and how to manage
tends to lead to integrated and improved performance and
management
Content providers are interested in the access statistics
configuration of their sites. The content provider may be the same
a different organization than the one that maintains the server as
whole. It may be possible to realize the new paradigm of "
Network Management" to provide this information to the
provider. This means that there exists a distinct
different than the network operations center that is also
in the management information from a device. Customer
management is desirable to allow each content provider on a server
access information about his own documents independent of the rest
Various organizations may be interested in SNMP manageable
clients and proxies as well. At this time, our focus is on
servers. A natural extension to this work could be a framework
managing WWW Clients and general information retrieval systems
WWW proxies, NNTP, GOPHER, FTP and WAIS. The focus of this
remains the management of WWW servers
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3.
WWW servers can be viewed from several perspectives when
management responsibilities. For the sake of discussion,
perspectives are named the Operational Model and the Service Model
The Operational Model views WWW servers as computers with hardware
disk, OS and web server software. This model represents the
resources that make up the machine so that it can be monitored
the perspective of resource utilization. The Service Model views
WWW server as a black box that simply handles the responses
requests from clients located on the web
The two models compliment each other while providing
information about the server. Members of the
responsible for the WWW server, may be interested in one and/or
of the management models. For this reason, the
information should be scalable, for one or both models to
implemented independent of the other
With this in mind, the requirements for WWW server management can
summarized below by expanding upon those generated at the HTTP-
BOF
3.1 Operational Model
3.1.1. Host specific and Application
This includes monitoring the utilization of CPU, disk and
capacity
3.1.2. Dependencies among applications
Some systems implement a number of services within a single piece
code. Others use multiple pieces of code to implement the same set
services. Because of this, dependencies develop among processes
These dependencies become critical when a particular process needs
be stopped, restarted or reconfigured. These dependencies need to
defined within the management information so that
applications can operate the systems correctly
3.1.3. Error generation and
The WWW server generally reports errors via logging facilities.
format of the log file is not well defined. It is required that
standard facility for error reporting be utilized
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3.1.4. Capacity
It is required to obtain statistics which can be used for
planning purposes. This includes planning for increased
bandwidth, computing power, disk space, number of concurrent
threads, etc
3.1.5. Log
WWW servers generally report status information by data generated
Common Log Format [1]. This information needs to be preserved
attributes in a MIB to facilitate remote monitoring providing
standard way to represent and retrieve the management information
3.2. Service Model
3.2.1. Retrieval
Retrieval services are an abstract decoupling the information
from the underlying transport mechanism. The goal at this time is
focus on the requirements for management of WWW servers. There may
considerable overlap with other types of servers like (FTP, NNTP
GOPHER and WAIS). The term "retrieval services" is used here
retain this abstraction. It is required to get statistics about
usage and performance of the retrieval services
3.2.2. Document information store -- managing documents
Information from a WWW server can be static (a file) or dynamic (
output of some processing). Management of these two types
information sources range from maintaining access statistics
access permissions to verifying the operational status of
applications that provide the dynamic information
3.2.3. Server configuration
It is desirable to be able to centralize configuration management
the servers within an enterprise
3.2.4. Server Control
WWW servers generally need to be controlled in regards to
and stopping them as well as rotating log files
3.2.5. Quality of
Provide an indication of the quality of service the WWW server
providing
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4. Relationship to existing IETF
In general, a WWW server is made up of or depends upon the
components
-a general purpose workstation running some operating
-http server software to answers requests from the
-various support routines like CGI programs or
applications (like DBMS) used to access
-a document store on one or more storage
The health and performance of each of the above components is
interest when managing a WWW server
There are a number of standards track MIB modules that are
interest to the above list of items. This list includes MIB-II [2],
Host Resources MIB [3], Network Service Monitoring MIB [4]
Application MIB [5].
This creates an impressive list of attributes to be implemented.
definition of various levels of management of a WWW server is
so that the implementor may scale his implementation in chunks
may include various components of each section. For instance,
may allow customer network management without requiring the
groups being implemented
4.1. MIB-II [2]
MIB-II defines the managed objects which should be contained
TCP/IP based devices
The WWW server should support the applicable portions of MIB-II
This set probably includes, as a minimum, the following groups
system, interfaces, udp, icmp, tcp and snmp
4.2. Host Resources MIB [3]
This MIB defines a uniform set of objects useful for the
of host computers independently of the operating system,
services, or any software application
The MIB is structured as six groups; each specified as
"mandatory" or "optional". If ANY "optional" group of the MIB
implemented, then ALL "mandatory" groups of the MIB must also
implemented. This may cause implementation problems for
developers since many of these attributes require intimate
of the OS
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The groups defined by the MIB are
-System Group
-Storage Group
-Device Group
-device
-device
-processor
-network
-printer
-disk storage
-partition
-file-system
-file-system
-Running Software Group
-Running Software Performance Group
-Installed Software Group
The system group provides general status information about the host
The storage and device groups define the information about
configuration and status of the resources which compose the host.
defines the resources which make up a generic host system and
they relate to each other. Much of this information is useful
managing various aspects of a WWW server, like the file system
CPU utilization. This information is useful for meeting
operational requirements. Much of this information is however
detailed than many WWW server managers require for service
requirements
The remaining groups define software components which are
and/or running on the host. Performance information is defined
extends that defined for each running process. Unfortunately,
mapping between running software and installed software is
since it is related by a foreign key (Product ID) which does
appear to be required to exist in either table [6]. There is
provision to represent a group of processes which together
some task (IE an application made up of multiple processes).
Applications MIB WG plans to address these deficiencies
4.3. Network Services Monitoring MIB [4]
This MIB is one of three documents produced by the MADMAN (
And Directory MANagement) Working group. It defines a set of
purpose attributes which would be appropriate for a range
applications that provide network services. This definition is
the perspective of the service without considering the
in terms of host computers or processes. Attributes
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statistics and status on the in-bound and out-bound associations
are currently active, and which have been active
This MIB is intended to be the minimum set of attributes
across a number of Network Service Applications.
attributes are to be defined as necessary to manage specific
service applications. WWW servers clearly fall into the category
network service applications. All attributes in this MIB
relevant to WWW servers
The MIB consists of two tables
-applTable
-assocTable
The applTable describes applications that provide network
and keeps statistics of the current number of active associations
the total number of associations since application initialization
The assocTable contains more detailed information about
associations
The other two MIBs defined by MADMAN, MTA MIB [7] and DSA MIB [8],
are not relevant to the management of WWW services. They do
however, demonstrate how to extend the Network Services
MIB for a specific set of applications
4.4. Application MIB [5]
The Application MIB WG is defining two separate MIBs: the
and the applMib. The first defines attributes that can be
without instrumenting the applications. The second will
additional attributes requiring application instrumentation
The sysApplMIB allows for the description of applications as
collection of executables, and files installed and executing on
host computer. The objects support configuration, fault
performance management of some of the basic attributes of
software
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The groups defined in the sysApplMIB are
-System Application Installed Group
-
-
-System Application Run Group
-
-
-
-
The sysApplInstalledTable captures what applications are installed
a particular host and the sysApplCfgElmtTable provides
regarding the executables and non executable files which
compose the application. The sysApplRunTable contains the
instances which are currently running and the
contains a history about applications which have previously
on the host. The sysApplElmtRunTable contains the process
which are currently running and sysApplElmtPastRunTable contains
history about processes which have previously executed on the host
It should be noted that two implementations of the same set
network services may each define a different set of processes
files within this MIB. Ultimately enough management information
needed so that these different implementations can at least
managed similarly
WWW servers fall into the general category of application software
Therefore the attributes of this MIB are applicable if the
level detail is requested to meet the Operational Model requirements
The Application MIB WG is to resolve the problems described
with the relationship between the running and installed software
the Host Resources MIB
5. Summary of Existing Standards Track
The existing MIBs are largely orthogonal as demonstrated by
diagram below. Host Resources relates network information to
interfaces defined in MIB-II. The system application MIB relates
running element table to the equivalent entry in the Host
running software table
It should be noted that the running software of the Host
includes ALL software running on the host, while the running
table of the system application MIB only includes "interesting
processes of monitored applications
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In the diagram below, "Other Services", "Application Specific MIBs
and "Application MIB" represent work to be done or in progress
+---------------+
| Application |
| Specific MIBs |
+---------------+
|
+--------+ +---+ +---+ +---------------+
|Other | |MTA| |DSA| | Application |
|services| |MIB| |MIB| | MIB |
+--------+ +---+ +---+ +---------------+
| | | |
+--------------------+ +---------------+ +--------------+ +------+
| Network Services | | System | |Host Resources| |MIB-II
| Monitoring MIB | |Application MIB|--| MIB |--| |
+--------------------+ +---------------+ +--------------+ +------+
The stack of MIBs above "Network Services Monitoring MIB"
monitoring from the Service Model. The other stacks
monitoring from the Operational Model. Neither of these stacks
to the level of specific detail for any application. The author is
the opinion that HTTP or Web Server specific MIBs would exist at
top of each stack to represent the service and implementation view
the server respectively. There should be a relationship
these two perspectives defined so that the correlations between
two perspectives is possible. This relationship would be useful
general application and service monitoring in addition to just
servers. However, it is not of specific interest to either
MADMAN WG or the Application MIB WG. It is therefore suggested
such a relationship is defined in a general case outside of either
those groups that would be applicable for WWW servers as well as
other application to service mappings
6. Definition of additional
The existing MIB attributes meet the Operational Model
for tracking information specific to a host. Specifically, MIB-II
Host Resources and the Applications MIB address these items.
Network Services MIB addresses a portion of the service
requirement for the decoupling of the information space from
transport mechanism
Several sets of additional attributes are needed to meet
remaining requirements. These additional attributes may be
applicable to other network information retrieval services (like FTP
NNTP, GOPHER and WAIS) as well as client and proxy management
Management of these services is not the scope of this document
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These additional attributes can be classified as
1) Definition of relationship between the Network Services
and Application MIBs. This allows the functional organization
the server to be known. It allows the management application
understand the effect of restarting specific processes on
services provided. This addresses the Operational
requirement to model dependencies between applications
2) Additions to generic Network Services Monitoring MIB. A draft [9]
has already been circulated due to the work of a mailing list
a sample implementation. These attributes list a summary at
service level of the configuration and the health of the server
From this, performance metrics can be observed. In addition,
health of the server in terms of data timeouts is known.
attributes address the requirement for Operational Model
of specific activity and the requirement for Service
retrieval services
3) Document storage and access statistics are needed to
service model requirements
4) Additions to Application MIB are required to address
configuration requirements in the service model
5) Error and fault management attributes are required to
requirements for tracking specific activity of the web server
6) Configuration and Control are items that may be able to be
in a general way within the applications MIB. If not, a
definition would be required here
Of the items listed above, (1) is needed on a general basis.
others appear to the author as WWW server specific unless the
of the work is opened to WWW clients and proxies as well as
services (like NNTP, FTP, GOPHER and WAIS).
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7. Usage
The example scenario will be a single host computer which
WWW services using the "virtual domain" concept. In this model,
single host performs as the WWW server for one or more addresses
For the purpose of example, we will specify that there are
domains being serviced from this host whose WWW servers are
-www.a.
-www.b.
-www.c.
Some implementations may implement these services as one set
processes that handle requests for each of the addresses. Others
implement these services as a set of processes for each address
This means that the relationship defined between the Network
Monitoring MIB and Application MIB components of the
information may vary between different implementations of the
configuration
MIB-II and Host Resources would provide the information about
host including the CPU, disk and network. The Host Resource
table provide information on the processes in the system
There would be an entry in the Network Services Monitoring
for each virtual domain. In addition, the assocTable shows
connections are currently active. An extension to the
table would be helpful to provide information as to what is
transmitted
The sysApplMib would have entries in its installed software
for the web server software and each "interesting" component.
should include the server binary, CGI programs, configuration
and possibly the server log files. Depending on the
of the server, the processes for each domain may show up in the
or different running software tables
Additional information as described in the previous section
round out the management information that would be available for
WWW server
8.
A number of currently defined attributes are useful for management
a WWW server. Specifically, MIB-II and Host Resources should
considered for monitoring the health of the machine in terms of
and network configuration and capacity. The Network
Monitoring MIB and the Application MIBs provide a general
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to represent the components of the WWW server from both a service
implementation perspective. The Network Services Monitoring
suggests that extensions are necessary to cover specific
application monitoring. A set of such attributes can be well
to provide status information of the WWW server. The Application
suggests similar extensions. Some of these attributes may be
to all applications, and thus be implemented within the scope of
applMib. It is the opinion of this author that there will
remain specific instrumentation for WWW servers that can not,
should not, be covered in the Network Services Monitoring
Application MIBs
Since the Network Services Monitoring MIB and the Applications
represent orthogonal efforts of management, it is desirable to
the relationship between the two in a standard way. This
is probably more than a simple pointer from one table to another
Since it is outside the scope of either of those efforts, it is
author's opinion that that definition could and should be
within the scope of defining management of a specific application (
WWW servers). This defintion although defined for a
application, should be useful in a general way to describe
relationship between the Network Services Monitoring MIB and
Applications MIB
Additional attributes are needed in order to meet all of
requirements specified in this document. An IETF standard
prevent independent developments of this effort in many
MIBs. It also allows management applications to control servers
multiple vendors. It is likely that as the work in this
progresses, the management information will be useful for
Network Information Retrieval services (like FTP, GOPHER, WAIS
NNTP) as well
Finally, the Operational Model and Service Model Requirements lead
two main uses of the management information. Design of the
including the usage of the existing MIBs should allow one or
other or both of these models to be implemented in a standard way
This may be desirable depending specifically on the audience of
data, the cost of instrumentation and the resources of the system
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9.
[1] Anonymous, "Logging in the W3C httpd",
http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Daemon/User/Config/Logging.html
W3C, July 1995.
[2] McCloghrie, K., and M. Rose, Editors, "Management
Base for Network Management of TCP/IP-based internets: MIB
II", STD 17, RFC 1213, Hughes LAN Systems,
Systems International, March 1991.
[3] Grillo, P., and S. Waldbusser, "Host Resources MIB", RFC 1514,
Network Innovations, Intel Corporation, Carnegie
University, September 1993.
[4] Kille, S., and N. Freed, "Network Services Monitoring MIB",
RFC 1565, ISODE Consortium, Innosoft, January 1994.
[5] Saperia, J., C. Krupczak, R. Sturm, and J. Weinstock, "
of Managed Objects for Applications", Work in Progress
[6] Krupczak, C. and S. Waldbusser, "Applicability of Host
MIB to Application Management", Empire Technologies, Inc.,
International Network Services, October 1995.
[7] Kille, S., and N. Freed, "Mail Monitoring MIB", RFC 1566,
Consortium, Innosoft, January 1994.
[8] Mansfield, G., and S. Kille, "X.500 Directory Monitoring MIB",
RFC 1567, AIC Systems Laboratory, ISODE Consortium, January 1994.
[9] Hazewinkel, H., E. van Hengstum, A. Pras, "Definitions of
Objects for HTTP", Work in Progress
10.
This document was produced at the request of the Network
Area Director following the HTTP-MIB BOF at the 35th IETF meeting
report on the applicability of the existing standards track MIBs
management of WWW servers
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The author gratefully acknowledges the comments of the
individuals
Ned Freed, ned@innosoft.
Innosoft, Inc
Harrie Hazewinkel, hazewink@cs.utwente.
University of
Cheryl Krupczak, cheryl@empiretech.
Empire Technologies, Inc
Rui Meneses, rui.meneses@jrc.
Centre for Earth
Jon Saperia, saperia@bgs.
BGS Systems, Inc
Juergen Schoenwaelder, schoenw@cs.utwente.
University of
Chris Wellens, chrisw@iwl.
InterWorking Labs, Inc
11. Further
The current status of the HTTP-MIB standardization can be found
the World Wide Web at . An
list is in operation for discussion of this topic. To subscribe
send email to "http-mib-request@onramp.net" with the message body
"subscribe HTTP-MIB".
12. Security
Security issues are not discussed in this memo
13. Authors'
Carl W.
OnRamp Technologies, Inc
Email: cwk@onramp.
1950 Stemmons
2026
Dallas, TX 75207, USA Tel: (214) 672-7246
cwk@onramp.net Fax: (214) 672-7275
Kalbfleisch Informational [Page 14]
if you see any problems within the linking, don't worry be happy,
this is version 0.1 of the Relevance System and you gotta expect some crappy subroutines sometimes,
just be content we did not write this in Java, which would have made this "bigger and better" HAHAHHA.
RFC documents can be found at I.E.T.F.
Relevance System Copyright © 2002 Spectrum WorldResearch
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collaboration of BobX
