3.4.2 Using the Board Identification Table to Monitor Board Status

The core of the Hardware MIB module is the Board Identification Table (dlgHiIdentTable), which contains a row for every board installed and configured on the managed node. Using this table, you can determine and verify which boards are configured on the node, and whether or not a board is working from a high-level point of view. Other MIB modules, such as the Intel Dialogic DS-1 MIB module and standard DS-1 MIB module, use the indices of the Board Identification Table to link subdevices, such as DS-1 trunk lines, to their host boards, such as an Intel NetStructure DM/V voice board.

An example of the output from the Board Identification Table follows:

dlgHiIdent- Index	dlgHiIdent- Model	...	dlgHiIdent- AdminStatus	dlgHiIdent- OperStatus
1	qs_t1	...	started(2)	ok(2)
2	qs_t1	...	stopped(3)	ok(2)
3	D/480JCT-2T1	...	started(2)	ok(2)
4	D/120JCT-LS	...	stopped(2)	failed(4)

In this example configuration, the managed node contains four boards indexed from 1 to 4, sequentially. The first three boards are operating normally, the second of which is an Intel NetStructure DM/V voice board in a stopped state. The fourth board is indicating that it has failed some operation and may need to be replaced.

The SNMP manager may poll this table periodically to determine if any board status changes have occurred and then notify the user accordingly, perhaps with a pop-up message or alert beep.

Suppose the user has stopped the second board and wishes to diagnose the board, check the results, and then restart the board after verifying the board is healthy. The following operations are performed to achieve this end:

1. An SNMP-get request is sent to the dlgHiIdentAdminStatus.2 object which returns stopped(3), matching what is seen in the example table. Note that the ".2" suffix is added to specify which row in the dlgHiIdentAdminStatus column the request is targeting. In this case, we are interested in the second board, which has an index of '2'.
2. An SNMP-set request is sent to dlgHiIdentAdminStatus.2 object with the value diagnose(5). The agent will invoke the dm3post tool, which begins running diagnostics on the board. (For more information on the dm3post tool, refer to the Diagnostics Guide for the system release software.)
3. The SNMP manager now polls dlgHiIdentAdminStatus.2 until it changes from diagnose(5) back to stopped(3). When this occurs, the POST diagnostics have completed.
4. To view the results of the diagnostics, the manager issues a SNMP-get request on dlgHiIdentErrorMsg.2. The manager again uses ".2" to indicate the second row in the table. When the error message is returned, it will contain a message detailing the results of the POST. If the diagnostic fails, the operational status is set to failed. When the diagnostic completes, a trap is always generated. If it completed in failure, the operational status in the trap will be failed. (For more information on the POST result messages, refer to the Diagnostics Guide for the system release software.)
5. Finally, the manager starts the board by issuing an SNMP-set request to dlgHiIdentAdminStatus.2 with the value start-pending(5). After starting, the dlgHiIdentAdminStatus.2 object will indicate started(2) or the dlgHiIdentOperStatus.2 object will return a failed status indicating the start attempt failed.

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