What is MIB

[Kuldeep singh]

Hello,

1. What is MIB in networking devices and how it differ from SNMP.

2. Both (MIB and SNMP) are same or Different ? Plz explain with simple example

3. Where i can use MIB ?

KS

[Kuldeep singh]

Please Help

[daniel.dib · Accepted solution]

From Wikipedia:

SNMP itself does not define which information (which variables) a managed system should offer. Rather, SNMP uses an extensible design, where the available information is defined by

management information bases

(MIBs). MIBs describe the structure of the management data of a device subsystem; they use a

hierarchical namespace

containing

object identifiers

(OID). Each OID identifies a variable that can be read or set via SNMP. MIBs use the notation defined by Structure of Management Information Version 2 (SMIv2,

RFC 2578

), a subset of

ASN.1

.

So the MIB is used to define what variables can be read from the device. There can be a MIB for a Cisco switch, a MIB for a HP switch and so on. With OID you can read a specific variable from the device, one example being to look at counters for an interface.

SNMP is the standard and MIBs are part of that.

I recommend that you read through the Wikipedia article on SNMP. It's a good start.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Network_Management_Protocol

Daniel Dib
CCIE #37149

[Joseph W. Doherty · Accepted solution]

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Posting

A MIB (management information base) is a database structure of device stats, the device keeps on (or about) itself.  Parts of the MIB are defined by RFC standards, other parts are vendor (optional) extensions (the structure for the latter, but not the content, is still part of the RFC standards).

SNMP (simplified network management protocol) is a network protocol that is used for device management between a management station and the managed device.

Think SNMP is (somewhat conceptionally) like HTTP (a network protocol) and a MIB is (somewhat conceptionally) like HTML (a web page data structure).

A MIB is often accessed, remotely, via SNMP.  For example, SNMP might be used to query the MIB stats for the number of frames/packets that a particular interface has transmitted and/or received.  If a management station routinely "polls" for such data, it might then provide a utilization history (often graphic) of an interface's utilization.

[adelacruz]

thanks, the analogy really helped me with my confusion.