Overflow Counters (was comments on draft-ietf-rmonmib-dsmon-mib-02.txt)

[Andy Bierman <abierman@cisco.com>]

[this was originally posted to the RMONMIB WG mailing list, but Bert asked
 me to move the thread to this list. Sorry for the X-post, but many RMON WG
 members are not on this list.]

Hi,

I would like to propose that it is time to stop duplicating Counter64
objects in MIBs with a "Counter32/Overflow32 pair". It is time to
require SNMPv2C support in applications to access 64-bit counters.

I would like to remove all of the "overflow counters" from the DSMON MIB,
(such as dsmonStatsInOvflPkts or dsmonStatsOutOvflOctets).  The 32-bit
versions should remain, because DSMON could obviously be implemented on 
a device that doesn't need 64-bit counters.  

For devices that implement the Counter64 version of a counter object, the 
corresponding Counter32 version must also be present, and should equal the 
lower 32 bits of the 64-bit version at all times.

Furthermore, it shall be the policy of the RMONMIB WG that no such
"overflow counters" will be published in any future work. 

Any objections to changing the DSMON MIB and/or establishing this policy
for the WG?

Andy