SNMP_White_Paper

WHITE PAPER

New Work Style for maintenance of
Professional AV/IT Equipment with the

MMStation™ Application

March 6, 2003
Shin Tsuda

eSP Department
BSNC B&P Company

Sony Corporation

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Table of Contents

1 Introduction.............................................................................................................. 3
2 SNMP Overview ...................................................................................................... 4

2.1 What is SNMP? ................................................................................................ 4
2.2 What is MIB? .................................................................................................... 6
2.3 What is MIB-II?................................................................................................. 7

2.3.1 system group............................................................................................. 7
2.3.2 interface group .......................................................................................... 7
2.3.3 ip group ..................................................................................................... 8
2.3.4 tcp group ................................................................................................... 8
2.4 Pro-AV MIB ...................................................................................................... 8
2.4.1 Pro-AV MIB Structure................................................................................ 8
3 System..................................................................................................................... 9
3.1 Pro-AV MIB Equipped Sony Product List ......................................................... 9
3.2 Sony ISR Equipped Product List .............................................................. 10910
3.3 System Configurations ................................................................................... 11
3.3.1 ISR Stand-alone Systems for up to 64 Devices ...................................... 11
3.3.2 ISR/MMStation Integrated System for up to 500 Devices ....................... 12
4 MMStation Features .............................................................................................. 14
4.1 System Monitoring and Management............................................................. 14
4.1.1 Web-Based Server and Client Operation ................................................ 14
4.1.2 User Management................................................................................... 14
4.1.3 Network Mapping .................................................................................... 14
4.1.4 Auto Discovery for Pro-AV MIB Equipped Product ................................. 14
4.1.5 3rd Party MIB/Trap Reception .................................................................. 14
4.1.6 Integrated Operations with ISR Proxy ..................................................... 15
4.1.7 Notification .............................................................................................. 15
4.1.8 Trend Analysis ........................................................................................ 15
4.1.9 System Log Collection ............................................................................ 15
4.2 Maintenance Functions .................................................................................. 16
4.2.1 Device Setup........................................................................................... 16
4.2.2 Centralized Operations ........................................................................... 16
4.2.3 Integrated Operations with Other Protocols ............................................ 16
4.2.4 Rotation Scheduling ................................................................................ 16
4.2.5 Periodic Reporting................................................................................... 16
5 New Supports and Services .................................................................................. 17
5.1 Remote Monitoring Service ............................................................................ 17
5.2 Customer’s Benefit ......................................................................................... 17
6 Pro-AV MIB Standardization at SMPTE ................................................................ 18
List of references .......................................................................................................... 19

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1 Introduction

Digitalization of Broadcast and Professional equipment in the 90's brought higher
quality picture and audio. Following that development, Sony is now taking another
step forward with Pro-AV networking. New generation technologies, such as MXF
formatted file asynchronous transferring, will offer customers efficient and faster
operations and will contribute to "Workflow Innovation".

On the other hand, such advancements also create network-specific problems. Some
examples could be:

Transfer speeds slower than expected, even though there is enough
bandwidth.
Slow system performance on certain days or at certain times.

System maintenance and administrative personnel often spend many hours chasing
down the "gremlins" in the system.

In order to help trouble shoot and maintain the new generation of systems, Sony is
proud to announce development of the MMStation application. It is an IT standard
SNMP-based monitoring and maintenance application. It offers not only equipment
and network status/failure monitoring, but enables preventative actions to be initiated
before systems go down. Preventing downtime improves system availability, and
ultimately improves operating efficiency.

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2 SNMP Overview

2.1 What is SNMP?

Simple Network Management Protocol, or SNMP, is a standard protocol used by
the IT industry to monitor and manage network-capable devices such as PC’s,
routers and switches. It allows for the monitoring of device status from remote
locations via the network. It is one of many standard protocols such as SMTP,
POP, FTP, Telnet and HTTP and is supported by virtually all operating systems and
network devices.

Windows®2000 SNMP Service

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The main utilization of this protocol is to communicate status information between
devices (nodes) and one or more SNMP monitoring tools, called SNMP managers.

An SNMP manager communicates with a device's SNMP agent. Each device
supporting the SNMP protocol has an SNMP agent installed. The capabilities of
the SNMP agent vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and are defined by its
MIBs (Management Information data Base); information on network devices.
Further details about MIB will be covered later.
When an SNMP manager wants to know something about a particular device, it
sends out a request for information. It makes these requests periodically (i.e.
every 5 minutes). This is called polling. The figure below shows an example of
an SNMP Manager polling a device's SNMP agent and the agent responding.

While useful for gathering trend data, such as the network load every minute,
polling has a few drawbacks. One drawback is that as the number of devices
being monitored increases, the amount of polling required also increases. For
very large systems, this can become an unacceptable burden on the network. To
relieve the network load, the polling period can be extended (i.e. every 10 minutes
instead of every 5 minutes). However, this leads to a second drawback. The
SNMP manager can only be as responsive as the polling period. For example, if a
device is being polled every 10 minutes, then a failure may go undetected for up to
10 minutes.

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To address the drawbacks of polling, SNMP also supports the concept of traps. A
trap is an unsolicited notification from a device to an SNMP manager of a significant
event (i.e. disk failure). The device immediately, upon detection of an internal
problem, sends a trap. The traps that a device is capable of sending are also
manufacturer-dependent and are defined in its MIB. The figure above illustrates a
device’s SNMP agent sending an SNMP trap to the SNMP manager notifying it of
an important event.

Both polling and traps are utilized for SNMP monitoring.

2.2 What is MIB?

The Management Information Base or MIB is the definition of what information a
device's SNMP agent is capable of reporting. It is a list of all the types of
information an SNMP manager can poll a device for as well as the SNMP traps that
a device may send to an SNMP manager. Each manufacturer publishes a MIB
definition that corresponds to their SNMP agent’s capabilities.

SNMP managers import MIB definitions, usually referred to as the MIB database, in
order to become aware of what information they can request from devices
supporting that MIB. They also prepare to receive SNMP traps defined in the MIB
should such devices send out SNMP traps as a result of events within the device.

While MIB definitions are different by vendors and by products, MIB-II is defined for
all devices that implement TCP/IP transport functions. It is now commonly used
for monitoring various network devices and equipment as standard.

Besides MIB-II, there are various MIB defined and used by product, interface or
transfer mode type, such as hub/bridge/switch, FDDI or ATM. These are defined
by RFC (Request For Comment document of the IETF) and called standard MIB.
On the other hand, MIBs that hold vendor unique management information are also
available and called "Extended MIB" or "Private MIB". They are defined as
more product specific and optimized to supply further information for monitoring
operations.

Sony has developed an extended MIB for Broadcast and Professional A/V products,
named Pro-AV MIB and has submitted it to SMPTE for standardization.

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2.3 What is MIB-II?

MIB-II has been defined for more than ten (10) years. It was developed to
standardize the MIB definitions of typical network-capable devices and has been
widely adopted in TCP/IP based network equipment. It is comprised of the
following functional groups

As listed above, there are a significant number of items in MIB-II to support network
monitoring. Some details about the functional groups are as follows.

2.3.1 System Group

Name of product, installed location and point of contact information are defined
in the system group. The sysUpTime (system up time) can also be used to
determine if a system was recently rebooted.

2.3.2 Interface Group

The interface group provides information about the installed network interfaces
(i.e. network cards). For example, ifOperStatus (interface operating status)
provides information about the present status of the NIC, up or down. The
number of received and transmitted network packets can be monitored via
ifInOctets (interface in octets) and ifOutOctets (interface out octets).

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2.3.3 IP group

The IP group provides for monitoring IP network conditions, such as MAC
addresses and IP addresses translation table via ipNetToMediaTable, and IP
routing table via ipRoutingTable. An interface’s IP address can be
determined via ipAddrTable (IP address table).

2.3.4 TCP group

The TCP group provides information about TCP connections and their status.

2.4 Pro-AV MIB

As described previously, MIB-II is defined for monitoring network functions.
However, there was no professional A/V products related MIB available. The
Pro-AV MIB was defined in 2001 and has been proposed as a standard MIB
definition for professional A/V products.

2.4.1 Pro-AV MIB Structure

As shown above, the Pro-AV MIB is defined as a three (3) layered structure.
Common MIB: Common information for all Professional products
Category MIB: Product category (i.e. VTR, camera, switcher)
Product MIB: Product-specific information

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3 System

3.1 Pro-AV MIB Equipped Sony Product List

The products listed below currently and/or are planned to be available to support
the Pro-AV MIB definition allowing MMStation to monitor them.

This chart is made as of
February 26, 2003
Within each product, the MMStation application provides access to the SNMP
information while other functions are provided via a web interface to the product
itself. MMStation provides a simple gateway to the web-based information.

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3.2 Sony ISR Equipped Product List

The ISR Protocol was developed by Sony BSNC B&P in the mid 90's and is now in
more than 120,000 ISR-equipped units in the field (such as VTRs and monitors).
Unfortunately, adoption of the ISR protocol was limited at the time due to its
RS-232 interface and the lack of a TCP/IP-based network infrastructure. While
networking has advanced over the last decade, ISR products have been left
behind.
The ISR Proxy software developed by Sony converts ISR to SNMP protocol.
While it can operate as a stand-alone monitoring system suitable for an ISR-only
environment, it has been designed to seamlessly integrate with the MMStation
application. This capability enables the MMStation application to monitor not only
SNMP-enabled devices but also the large installed base of ISR-equipped devices.
This capability is unique to Sony’s monitoring system.
The ISR Proxy software is loaded in the products listed below.

This chart is made as of
February 26, 2003

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3.3 System Configurations

Sony's monitoring systems are available in different configurations according to the
quantity and types of devices to be monitored.

3.3.1 ISR Stand-alone Systems for up to 64 Devices

For installations monitoring only ISR equipped devices, Sony’s ISR Proxy
product is a good choice. Utilizing terminal servers, the ISR Proxy application
can monitor up to 64 devices located anywhere within the customer's facility.

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3.3.2 ISR Proxy and MMStation Application Integrated System for up to
500 Devices

For larger installations and those monitoring SNMP in addition to ISR equipped
devices, a combination of Sony’s MMStation and ISR Proxy is the logical
choice. Each group of 64 ISR equipped devices is monitored via a dedicated
ISR Proxy. MMStation integrates the individual ISR Proxy systems along with
SNMP monitoring of other devices to provide a centralized monitoring station.

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An example of a large-scale system monitoring environment

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4 MMStation Features

4.1 System Monitoring and Management

4.1.1 Web-Based Server and Client Operation

The MMStation application works as a server and client combination. The
MMStation web server module supports client connections from remote
locations to facilitate monitoring of equipment and network status from
anywhere. The client module utilizes Internet Explorer to display equipment
and network status.

4.1.2 User Management

The MMStation application supports user authentication and access control via
roles such as administrator, user and Sony service.

4.1.3 Network Mapping

The MMStation application automatically generates and maintains a network
topology mapping. As new equipment is added to the network, The
MMStation application automatically identifies it and adds it to the existing
network map.

The MMStation application also allows grouping of devices according to their
function. For example, all devices utilized in each of three editing rooms can
be grouped into separate groups, one for each room.

4.1.4 Auto Discovery for Pro-AV MIB Equipped Product

The MMStation application is optimized to monitor and manage Pro-AV MIB
equipped devices, which Sony is now implementing to "network ready"
Broadcast and Professional products. Along with a new Pro-AV MIB
equipped product release, a "pattern file" is also provided. By loading the
pattern file, the MMStation application automatically recognizes newly released
products and displays them in the network mapping with a customized icon.
This is one of the biggest advantages to using the MMStation application for
Pro-AV MIB equipped products.

The MMStation application can also talk to MIB-II, IT standard, equipment,
such as PC’s, printers, network routers, switches and hubs. Along with Sony
products, those commonly used IT devices can be monitored seamlessly.

4.1.5 3rd Party MIB/Trap Reception

In addition, the MMStation application can monitor 3rd party network products

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by importing their MIB definition files. Polling and traps of 3rd party products
can be configured through the MMStation application providing monitoring
capability for those products.

4.1.6 Integrated Operations with the ISR Proxy Application

Another key feature of the MMStation application is its ability to monitor and
manage ISR equipped products via ISR Proxy software. This enables the
MMStation application to monitor an additional 120,000 ISR units out in the
field worldwide. Sony's well-established tape formats in Broadcast and
Professional market, Digital Betacam, Betacam SX, HDCAM and MPEG IMX
VTR’s, are all examples of ISR equipped products.

4.1.7 Notification

The MMStation application notifies operators by a pop-up message as well as
color box. A pop-up up message tells operator that something occurred and a
color box represents the severity.

The MMStation application provides not only a GUI based monitoring
environment, but has the ability to send system alerts via email and/or pager.
Additionally, it can execute custom programs such as lighting a patrol lamp
when an alert is detected. Both functions free up operators from having to
visually monitor the MMStation PC.

4.1.8 Trend Analysis

Graphing of trend data is provided showing changes over time of parameters
such as VTR drum running hours, HDD remaining free space, memory usage,
CPU load ratio, network traffic, etc. Based upon this information,
maintenance personnel are able to schedule preventative maintenance and/or
take action before a system becomes inoperative.

4.1.9 System Log Collection

Errors and alerts are logged as event lists with time stamps and severities by
the MMStation server PC. They are managed by a built-in database so that
either the customer or Sony (under a separate agreement) maintenance
personnel can look up past histories to assist in troubleshooting.

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4.2 Maintenance Functions

4.2.1 Device Setup

The MMStation/ISR Proxy applications facilitate remote device setup
maintenance. Depending on the product, the setup may be retrieved and/or
restored and firmware updates may be applied.

4.2.2 Centralized Operations

The MMStation/ISR Proxy applications enable setups to be applied across
multiple machines. For instance, a group of VTR’s can be configured with
exactly the same setup to ensure consistency. Previously, each device had to
be configured manually by either an operator or a maintenance engineer. The
MMStation/ISR Proxy applications changes maintenance from a one-by-one
manual operation to a centralized setup management, distribution and update
operation.

4.2.3 Integrated Operations with Other Protocols

Depending on the MIB definition file, other network protocols such as HTTP,
FTP, Telnet are automatically added to the maintenance submenu of the
device in the MMStation application. Connection to the service/sales web
sites via HTTP, system log download via FTP and remote terminal operations
via Telnet can also be performed.

4.2.4 Rotation Scheduling

Operators can balance product usage by utilizing the trend reporting
capabilities. For example, VTR usage can be scheduled to balance drum
hour accumulation by referring to the trend charts. Maintenance engineers
can also use trend charts to plan ahead for periodic checkout/maintenance.

4.2.5 Periodic Reporting

Trend charts showing changes each minute, day, week, month or year.
Depending on the customer's requirements, the MMStation application issues
summary reports to facilitate better maintenance scheduling.

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5 New Supports and Services

5.1 Remote Monitoring Service

Sony's MMStation and ISR Proxy monitoring application software are available as
"Packaged Software" to Broadcast and Professional customers allowing them to
manage their own systems. In addition, Sony BSSC Professional Services full
support package is available, which includes "Remote Monitoring and
Management" service.

5.2 Customer’s Benefit

Remote monitoring itself may not be enough, but Sony BSSC Professional
Services offers cutting-edge technology products, high quality front line
conventional services and network technology based remote monitoring and
management services. Sony is committed to combining these core competences
and delivering the following.

Confidence in operation
Minimize system down time by proactive maintenance
(Predict and prevent possible failures)
Optimize TCO (Total Cost of Ownership)

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6 Pro-AV MIB Standardization at SMPTE

As one of the Pro-AV MIB standardization activities, it has been proposed to SMPTE as
"Recommended Practice" to be widely utilized in the Broadcast and Professional AV
industry.

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List of references

1. Understanding SNMP MIBs
David Perkins, Evan McGinnis
Pearson Education

2. K. McCloghrie and M. Rose, "RFC 1213, Management Information Base for
Network Management of TCP/IP-based internets: MIB-II", RFC1213, Huges LAN
Systems Inc. and Performance Systems International Editors, March 1990

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