As reported in RFC 1052, IAB Recommendations for the Development of Internet Network Management Standards [1], a two-prong strategy for network management of TCP/IP-based internets was undertaken. In the short-term, the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) was to be used to manage nodes in the Internet community. In the long-term, the use of the OSI network management framework was to be examined. Two documents were produced to define the management information: RFC 1065, which defined the Structure of Management Information (SMI) [2], and RFC 1066, which defined the Management Information Base (MIB) [3]. Both of these documents were designed so as to be compatible with both the SNMP and the OSI network management framework.
This strategy was quite successful in the short-term: Internet-based network management technology was fielded, by both the research and commercial communities, within a few months. As a result of this, portions of the Internet community became network manageable in a timely fashion.
As reported in RFC 1109, Report of the Second Ad Hoc Network Management Review Group [4], the requirements of the SNMP and the OSI network management frameworks were more different than anticipated. As such, the requirement for compatibility between the SMI/MIB and both frameworks was suspended. This action permitted the operational network management framework, the SNMP, to respond to new operational needs in the Internet community by producing this document.
As such, the current network management framework for TCP/IP- based internets consists of: Structure and Identification of Management Information for TCP/IP-based internets, RFC 1155 [12], which describes how managed objects contained in the MIB are defined; Management Information Base for Network Management of TCP/IP-based internets: MIB-II, this memo, which describes the managed objects contained in the MIB (and supercedes RFC 1156 [13]); and, the Simple Network Management Protocol, RFC 1098 [5], which defines the protocol used to manage these objects.