INTERNET-DRAFT R. Wormley Novell, Inc August 1990 SNMP Over IPX Status Of This Memo This memo defines a convention for encapsulating Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) [1] packets over the transport mechanism provided via the Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) protocol [5]. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Introduction The SNMP protocol has been specified as the official network management protocol of the Internet. Its widespread acceptance and implementation by developers, both inside and outside the Internet community, is fostering synergetic growth to a variety of protocols and platforms. This memo addresses the use of SNMP over Novell's proprietary IPX protocol. Roughly equivalent to UDP in function, IPX provides connectionless, unacknowledged datagram service over a variety of physical media and protocols. Although modifications have been made elsewhere in Novell's protocol suite, IPX is identical to the Xerox Internet Datagram Protocol (IDP) [8]. The socket address space authority is administered by Novell. Conventions Unless explicitly mentioned, all numerical quantities in this document are represented in base 10. In addition, it should be noted that all fields in an IPX packet header are encoded in little- endian [4] order. Port Assignment SNMP packets will always set the Packet Type field in the IPX header to 4 (i.e., Packet Exchange Packet). SNMP protocol entities will receive GetRequest-PDU, GetNextRequest-PDU, and SetRequest-PDU messages on socket 36879 (Destination Socket field set to hexadecimal 900F), and Trap-PDU messages on socket 36880 (Destination Socket field set to hexadecimal 9010). The Destination Socket field in the IPX header is at offset 16. Maximum Packet Length Although SNMP does not require conformant implementations to accept messages whose length exceed 484 bytes, it is recommended that DRAFT SNMP Over IPX August 1990 implementations support a maximum SNMP message size of 546 bytes (the maximum size allowed under IPX). Network Addressing The address of a node on an IPX network is specified by a 4-byte network number and a 6-byte node number. As some SNMP PDUs may contain an Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) [6] [7] encoded network address (NetworkAddress [2]), the following mapping will be performed. A new ASN.1 application-wide type (defined below) will be added to the NetworkAddress type for this purpose, called IpxAddress. An IpxAddress will be the concatenation of the Network number followed by the Node number, comprising a 10-byte application-wide definition. The order of both components of the IpxAddress will be big endian (i.e., the same order as is found in the IPX header). As IPX can run over a variety of subnet architectures, the physical network address [5] (node address) may not require 6 bytes. As specified in [5], the physical network address will occupy the least significant portion of the node address, and the remaining bits will be set to zero. IpxAddress ::= -- 4 octets net num, 6 octets of node num OCTET STRING (SIZE (10)) Document Procurement This section provides contact points for procurement of selected documents. A complete description of IPX may be secured at the following address: Novell, Inc. 122 East 1700 South P. O. Box 5900 Provo, Utah 84601 USA (800) 526-5463 Novell Part # 100-000405-001 The specification for IDP (part of XNS) may be ordered from: Xerox System Institute 475 Oakmead Parkway Sunnyvale, CA 94086 Attn: Fonda Pallone (408)737-4652 Wormley [Page 2] DRAFT SNMP Over IPX August 1990 References [1] Case J., Fedor M., Schoffstall M., and J. Davin, "A Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)", RFC 1157, SNMP Research, Performance Systems International, Performance Systems International, and MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, May 1990. [2] Rose M., and K. McCloghrie, "Structure and Identification of Management Information for TCP/IP-based Internets:, RFC 1155, Performance Systems International, Hughes LAN Systems, May 1990. [3] McCloghrie K., and M. Rose, "Management Information Base for Network Management of TCP/IP-based Internets", RFC 1156, Hughes LAN Systems, Performance Systems International, May 1990. [4] Cohen D., "On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace", Computer, IEEE, October 1981 [5] Novell, Inc., "Netware V2.1 Internetwork Packet Exchange Protocol (IPX) With Asynchronous Event Scheduler (AES)", February 1988 [6] Information processing systems - Open Systems Interconnection, "Specification of Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1)", International Organization for Standardization, International Standard 8824, December 1987. [7] Information processing systems - Open Systems Interconnection, "Specification of Basic Encoding Rules for Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1)", International Organization for Standardization , International Standard 8825, December 1987. [8] Xerox System Integration Standard, "Internet Transport Protocols", XSIS 028112, Xerox Corporation, December 1981. Author's Address Raymond Brett Wormley Novell, Inc. 2180 Fortune Drive Mail Stop NWC-31 San Jose, CA 95131 Phone: (408) 473-8208 EMail: bwormley@novell.com Wormley [Page 3]