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Updating MIBs

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Oliver Gorwits edited this page Jul 22, 2024 · 23 revisions

1. Configure Git

You should decide whether to work on the netdisco-mibs project’s git repository directory, or fork it and work on your own. Either is fine! You can read more about the different collaborative development models if you’re unsure. Email the project mail-list or ask on IRC for netdisco-mibs repository access.

git config --global core.autocrlf input ①
git config --global push.default current ②
git config --global core.whitespace cr-at-eol ③
git clone https://github.com/netdisco/netdisco-mibs.git ④

① fix MIB line endings
② push and track new branches
③ make git-diff ignore windows line endings
④ replace Netdisco’s netdisco-mibs if you wish

Obviously, the git clone link should be your own fork, if that is what you have chosen.

2. Extract your MIBs

Unzip the bundle to /tmp/vendorname, where “vendorname” is the same as the vendor in netdisco-mibs (or a new one). If you are not sure about the official name for a vendor you can check the MIB where their enterprise oid is in defined, which looks either like this:

redlionram     OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= {enterprises 1890}

Here the name to use for the vendor would be redlionram.

If no OBJECT IDENTIFIER is present it will be defined via MODULE-IDENTITY instead, watchguard in the example below.

watchguard MODULE-IDENTITY
    LAST-UPDATED "200811100000Z"
    ORGANIZATION "WatchGuard Technologies, Inc."
    CONTACT-INFO
               "  WatchGuard Technologies, Inc.
               
                  505 Fifth Avenue South
                  Suite 500
                  Seattle, WA 98104
                  United States
                  
                  +1.206.613.6600 " 
         
    DESCRIPTION
            "The Structure of Management Information for 
            the WatchGuard enterprise."
    REVISION        "200811100000Z"
    DESCRIPTION
            "Initial version."
    ::= { enterprises 3097 }

3. Set MIBHOME

Usually this is the directory of the git clone created above, such as:

export MIBHOME=/home/oliver/git/netdisco-mibs

MIBHOME must not include spaces or wide characters (emoji, etc).

4. Create a branch for your work

This is only necessary if you are work on the project’s netdisco-mibs repository. If working on your own repository, skip this step (and work on the master branch).

cd $MIBHOME
git checkout -b initials-vendorname-description ①

① your initials, the vendor, a description

5. Enter the netdisco-mibs workspace

cd $MIBHOME
mkdir vendorname ①

① only if the vendor is new

6. Bootstrap a net-snmp commandline toolset

Run the following command to see if you have net-snmp 5.9 (required):

snmpstatus --version

If there is no snmpstatus or the version is less than 5.9, either set up your MacOS environment using brew, or install net-snmp locally using the following command:

EXTRAS/scripts/setmibdev

7. Scan and prepare your new MIBs for import

This is a script that looks through your new MIB bundle and tries to sort out the different types of files we see, identify and flag issues which you need to address, and let you know when things are ready for import to netdisco-mibs.

Also, several vendors have extra preparation steps for their mibs, do check the vendorname/README file if it exists.

EXTRAS/scripts/prepmibs /tmp/vendorname ①

① the directory where you unzipped your new MIB bundle, with of course the same vendor name as used in netdisco-mibs

💡
 The script will rename and organise files to help you.
💡
 If the MIB module name has illegal characters, simply edit the file to fix.
💡
 If the MIB file has multiple module definitions, use the splitmib script to fix.
💡
 Items marked ✘ need manually inspecting and will be in the "review" folder.
💡
 Items marked ⚠ will be put in the "skip" folder and skipped.
💡
 MIBs belonging to other vendors will be moved to the "other" folder.
💡
 If you run manual diffs make sure your line endings (lf, cr, crlf) are the same, we use lf.
⚠️
 MIBs in "other" may be dependencies. If so, run prepmibs on them too.
💡
 Use EXTRAS/scripts/compare <mibfile> to diff a MIB file against the netdisco-mibs version.
⚠️
 Watch out for new entries that could be bundled RFCs!

8. Import the MIBs

Once you are happy with the output of prepmibs, you can simply copy the files which are still in the directory where you unzipped your new MIB bundle.

The prepmibs script will have moved any files you do not want to copy into subfolders so just copying the files is good enough.

9. Test the new MIBs

This script will load the vendor’s MIBs in turn using net-snmp. It will report any loading errors, which you must address before continuing.

EXTRAS/scripts/testload vendorname
🔥
 Re-run until there are no errors reported in the output.
💡
 Use EXTRAS/scripts/compare <mibfile> to diff a MIB file against the netdisco-mibs version.
❗
 Also run this for each "other" vendor that you also imported.

10. Update netdisco-mibs snmptranslate reports

This script parses all MIBs and stores a translation report for all OIDs.

EXTRAS/scripts/genxlate
🔥
 Re-run until there are no errors reported in the output.

The genxlate output is a set of reports that clearly show what the new MIBs have introduced or changed. Use git diff to review these changes:

git diff EXTRAS/reports/vendorname
git diff EXTRAS/reports/all ①

① should look the same as the "vendorname" diff

🔥
 Sanity check that new entries are what you were expecting.
💡
 If EXTRAS/reports/all does not look correct, check your system and user snmp.conf files for interfering +mibdirs entries.

11. Add new vendor to template snmp.conf

Only if necessary, edit EXTRAS/contrib/snmp.conf to add the new vendor.

12. Return your Shell Environment

If you ran setmibdev (above), it created a new shell environment. Return to your previous shell environment by running the exit command.

13. Commit changes and submit for review

Commit your code in git and then push to github. Notify the netdisco-mibs developers of your new branch or fork, or submit a pull request.

git add .
git commit -m "a good comment"
git push

If you are a registered developer, you can run the Update OID Maps GitHub Action.

If you are a registered developer, you can merge this branch and publish a new release.

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