RE: RESOLVED: [NV-L] MIB Loading Error

Senny,

Let's think for a moment about what you are asking for. You are looking for an automated way to fix MIB syntax which is incorrect?

If we knew how to interpret the broken syntax, then we would not issue an error message and force the user to deal with it. We would just load it. The problem with bad or broken syntax is that it is not always broken in the same way; it's unpredictable. And as I said before, a MIB compiler is just like a C/C++ compiler. When it finds something it cannot make sense of, it flags the error for the user to fix. As long as program code, and MIBs, are written by humans, there will be syntax errors that the compiler cannot deal with. At some point even the most sophisticated compiler is going to give up. And that is why IBM provides this forum and IBM Support to assist you if you cannot figure out what the correct syntax ought to be.

And I'm going to disagree that NetView has any more significant issues with MIB syntax than any other network management product. There are literally thousands of vendors with tens of thousands of published MIBs and NetView's compilers will load the vast majority of them just fine. The issues come up with vendors like netBotz, who for no clear reason at all, put something strange in one of their MIBs and then never issue a corrected version. Issuing new versions to correct errors is something lots of vendors do, as you can see in the comments and MODULE IDENTITY clauses of other MIBs. So IMHO, the real question should be directed at vendors who publish weird stuff. Perhaps you should open a problem to netBotz support and ask them why their MIB syntax is so odd. They only do it in two places in that MIB, so why did they do it at all?

James Shanks
Level 3 Support for Tivoli NetView for UNIX and Windows
Network Availability Management
Network Management - Development
Tivoli Software, IBM Corp

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