RE: Further discussion about IANA Considerations for MIBs

["C. M. Heard" <heard@pobox.com>]

On Wed, 5 May 2004, Wijnen, Bert (Bert) wrote:
> [added Mike, who is editor for MIB review guidelines]
...
> > From: Michelle S. Cotton [mailto:cotton@icann.org]
> > Sent: donderdag 29 april 2004 18:12
> > To: Bert Wijnen (Bert); Steve Conte
> > Subject: Further discussion about IANA Considerations for MIBs
... 
> > Steve and I both agree (Steve tell me if that is
> > not correct), we think for the future, it is 
> > -really- helpful for there to be an IANA Considerations
> > section stating exactly what we are to do.
> > In the case of MIBs, it could be a removable
> > section that says something like:
> > 
> > *******************************************************
> > 
> > IANA Considerations section:
> > 
> > In section xx, the IANA is requested to assign a
> > transmission number for xxxxx.  Please remove this
> > section upon publication of this document.
> > 
> > 
> > *******************************************************

Michelle, Steve, RFC Editor, and MIB Doctors:

Bert suggested that it would probably be best to leave the IANA
Considerations section in the final RFC in order to document the
assignments that are made.  Here are the changes to
<draft-ietf-ops-mib-review-guidelines-02.txt> that I propose to
make.  Please let me know whether or not this will be satisfactory.

In Section 3.7:

OLD:
   Note that an IANA Considerations section is NOT required if the only
   IANA action needed is the assignment of the object identifier for the
   MIB module's MODULE-IDENTITY value.  A note in the form of an ASN.1
   comment requesting such an assignment is sufficient for this;  see
   Section 4.5 for an example.

NEW:
   Note that an IANA Considerations section MUST also be present in any
   specification that requires the IANA to update an existing registry.
   Documents containing the initial version of a MIB module will
   generally require that the IANA assign an OBJECT IDENTIFIER value for
   the MIB module's MODULE-IDENTITY value (and possibly to make other
   assignments as well) and so will generally be subject to this
   requirement.  The IANA Considerations section that requests such an
   assignment MUST specify the registries that are to be updated, the
   descriptors to which OBJECT IDENTIFIER values are being assigned, and
   the subtrees under which the values are to be allocated.  The text
   SHOULD be crafted so that after publication it will serve to document
   the OBJECT IDENTIFIER assignment.  Something along the following
   lines would be appropriate for a document containing a single MIB
   module with MODULE-IDENTITY descriptor xyzMIB that is to be assigned
   a value under the 'mib-2' subtree:

      The MIB module in this document uses the following IANA-assigned
      OBJECT IDENTIFIER values recorded in the SMI Numbers registry:

      Descriptor        OBJECT IDENTIFIER value
      ----------        -----------------------

      xyzMIB            { mib-2 XXX }

      Editor's Note (to be removed prior to publication):  the IANA is
      requested to assign a value for "XXX" under the 'mib-2'
      subtree and to record the assignment in the SMI Numbers registry.
      When the assignment has been made, the RFC Editor is asked to
      replace "XXX" (here and in the MIB module) with the assigned
      value and to remove this note.

   Note well:  prior to official assignment by the IANA, a draft
   document MUST use placeholders (such as "XXX" above) rather than
   actual numbers.  See Section 4.5 for an example of how this is done
   in a draft MIB module.

In Appendix A:

OLD:
   7.) IANA Considerations Section -- if the draft contains the initial
   version of an IANA-maintained module, verify that the MODULE-IDENTITY
   invocation contains maintenance instructions that comply with RFC
   2434.  Note that the IANA Considerations section that will appear in
   the RFC MUST contain a pointer to the actual IANA-maintained module.

NEW:
   7.) IANA Considerations Section -- if the draft requires an OID
   value to be assigned, ensure that an IANA Considerations section is
   present and that it contains the required information.  If the draft
   contains the initial version of an IANA-maintained module, verify
   that the MODULE-IDENTITY invocation contains maintenance instructions
   that comply with the requirements in RFC 2434.  In the latted case
   the IANA Considerations section that will appear in the RFC MUST
   contain a pointer to the actual IANA-maintained module.

Thanks,

Mike Heard