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| 1 | +Someone with energy to work on standard bodies should drive LLDP change in such |
| 2 | +way that it is actually consumable by vendor-agnostic code. |
| 3 | +Today working LLDP code would require per-vendor models to translate portID and |
| 4 | +chassisID into something consumable, often cases requiring heuristics. |
| 5 | +LLDP is extremely low value and with minor changes could be actually standard |
| 6 | +tool to discover network. |
| 7 | + |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +```email |
| 10 | +[802.1 - 9431] LLDP portID |
| 11 | + |
| 12 | +Subject: [802.1 - 9431] LLDP portID |
| 13 | +From: Saku Ytti <[email protected]> |
| 14 | +Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2013 15:03:08 +0200 |
| 15 | + |
| 16 | +Reply-to: Saku Ytti <[email protected]> |
| 17 | +"Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result." |
| 18 | +Before sending a duplicate post, see "Sending->retrying" at |
| 19 | +802.1 list help: www.ieee802.org/1/email-pages/zuwz1011.html |
| 20 | +----- |
| 21 | +
|
| 22 | +Hi, |
| 23 | +
|
| 24 | +Why is there no snmp ifIndex subtype for portID? |
| 25 | +
|
| 26 | +It seems like obvious choice, which vendors actually do use. Only |
| 27 | +problem is, you cannot know this programmatically as you must use |
| 28 | +locally defined subtype, which we have to hard-code, i.e. discovery |
| 29 | +needs to know each and every platform statically. |
| 30 | +
|
| 31 | +Today you can get LLDP implementation from vendor which is useless for |
| 32 | +automated discovery, as you cannot guarantee to get useful information |
| 33 | +how to connect to peer device nor useful information how to |
| 34 | +discriminate correct interface at peer. |
| 35 | +Wouldn't this be goal #1 for L2 discovery? That automated discovery is possible? |
| 36 | +
|
| 37 | +Would it be too complex to mandate that if system implements SNMP and |
| 38 | +IPv4 or IPv6, it must send networkAddress (and define it as address |
| 39 | +which responds to SNMP) and chassisID with |
| 40 | +new ifIndex subtype? This way all real-world IP devices could be |
| 41 | +programmatic discovered without vendor specific code to support it. |
| 42 | +You'd still not require things which might be hard to implement in |
| 43 | +some niche/embedded situations. |
| 44 | +
|
| 45 | +Why can't we have multiple subtypes advertised per chassisID and portID? |
| 46 | +
|
| 47 | +
|
| 48 | +Also I see that ifAlias is often offered, and two major vendors both |
| 49 | +have had bug in LLDP implementation where portID is ifAlias, which |
| 50 | +mean (against MIB) that they are sending port description (which is |
| 51 | +useful, as it typically only talks about the peer, not local names). |
| 52 | +And vendors happily accept it is bug (while according to standard it |
| 53 | +is not) and have fixed it. |
| 54 | +
|
| 55 | + MIB Real world |
| 56 | +Interface description ifDescr ifAlias |
| 57 | +Interface long name ifName ifDescr |
| 58 | +Interface short name ifAlias ifName |
| 59 | +
|
| 60 | +Consequently leaving ifDescr out as valid subtype means in real world |
| 61 | +you don't deliver what you intended to deliver. |
| 62 | +(It is must unfortunate real-world has 'wrong' values in them, but |
| 63 | +that historic problem probably won't be fixed ever, easier to fix MIB) |
| 64 | +
|
| 65 | +-- |
| 66 | + ++ytti |
| 67 | +
|
| 68 | +=== |
| 69 | +Unsubscribe link: mailto:[email protected] |
| 70 | +IEEE. Fostering technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity. |
| 71 | +``` |
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