Preface

This manual, Solaris System Management Agent Developer's Guide, describes how to develop MIB modules for use in extending the System Management Agent.

The manual also includes information about migrating existing modules that were developed for the Solstice Enterprise Agents.

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Note –

This Solaris^TM release supports systems that use the SPARC® and x86 families of processor architectures: UltraSPARC®, SPARC64, AMD64, Pentium, and Xeon EM64T. The supported systems appear in the Solaris 10 Hardware Compatibility List at http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl. This document cites any implementation differences between the platform types.

In this document these x86 related terms mean the following:

• “x86” refers to the larger family of 64-bit and 32-bit x86 compatible products.

• “x64” points out specific 64-bit information about AMD64 or EM64T systems.

• “32-bit x86” points out specific 32-bit information about x86 based systems.

For supported systems, see the Solaris 10 Hardware Compatibility List.

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Who Should Use This Book

This manual is intended for developers who want to add new management data to the System Management Agent. This data can then be manipulated through network management programs.

The manual assumes that you are familiar with the following technologies:

• C programming concepts

• SNMPv1, SNMPv2c, and SNMPv3 protocols

• Structure of Management Information (SMI) v1 and v2

• Management Information Base (MIB) structure

• Abstract Syntax Notation (ASN.1)

How This Book Is Organized

This manual contains the following chapters:

Chapter 1, Introduction to the System Management Agent provides an introduction to the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and the System Management Agent (SMA).

Chapter 2, Creating Modules provides basic guidelines for creating System Management Agent modules.

Chapter 3, Data Modeling discusses the handling of data in scalar form and in tables.

Chapter 4, Storing Module Data explains how to store module data that is preserved when the agent is restarted.

Chapter 5, Implementing Alarms explains how to implement alarms in modules.

Chapter 6, Deploying Modules discusses the ways to deploy your module, as a subagent or a dynamically loaded module.

Chapter 7, Multiple Instance Modules describes how to implement a module to allow more than one instance of the module to run on a host.

Chapter 8, Long–Running Data Collection discusses the ways that you can enable a module to collect data over a long period of time.

Chapter 9, Entity MIB describes the Entity MIB and its API functions.

Chapter 10, Migration of Solstice Enterprise Agents to the System Management Agent contains information for developers who want to migrate an SEA subagent from Solstice Enterprise Agents to use in the System Management Agent.

Appendix A, SMA Resources lists System Management Agent resources that you might find helpful.

Appendix B, MIBs Implemented in SMA lists the MIBs that are included in the System Management Agent.

Glossary contains definitions of terms that are used in this manual.

Related Reading

For general information on SNMP and writing MIBs, you might find the following books helpful:

• Essential SNMP by Douglas R. Mauro and Kevin J. Schmidt, published by O'Reilly and Associates.

• Understanding SNMP MIBs by David T. Perkins and Evan McGinnis, published by Prentice Hall.

If you intend to use the Entity MIB for the management of hardware, you should read the following RFC:

Internet Engineering Task Force RFC Number 2737 on the Entity MIB at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2737.txt.

Documentation, Support, and Training

The Sun web site provides information about the following additional resources:

• Documentation

• Support

• Training

Typographic Conventions

The following table describes the typographic conventions that are used in this book.

Table P–1 Typographic Conventions

Typeface	Meaning	Example
AaBbCc123	The names of commands, files, and directories, and onscreen computer output	Edit your .login file. Use ls -a to list all files. machine_name% you have mail.
AaBbCc123	What you type, contrasted with onscreen computer output	machine_name% su Password:
aabbcc123	Placeholder: replace with a real name or value	The command to remove a file is rm filename.
AaBbCc123	Book titles, new terms, and terms to be emphasized	Read Chapter 6 in the User's Guide. A cache is a copy that is stored locally. Do not save the file. Note: Some emphasized items appear bold online.

Shell Prompts in Command Examples

The following table shows the default UNIX® system prompt and superuser prompt for the C shell, Bourne shell, and Korn shell.

Table P–2 Shell Prompts

Shell	Prompt
C shell	machine_name%
C shell for superuser	machine_name#
Bourne shell and Korn shell	$
Bourne shell and Korn shell for superuser	#