BRASS™ FAQ
This page contains the answers to the frequently
asked questions about SNMP Research's SNMP Manager software, named
BRASS™.
If you have questions about this FAQ, please send comments or questions to
info@snmp.com.
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- What does BRASS stand for?
- BRASS stands for "Bilingual Request and Security Subsystem".
The name of this product shows how long SNMP Research has been around (that is,
since the beginning of SNMP). BRASS was invented when there were only two
versions of the SNMP Protocol. The BRASS product would more accurately be
called "Trilingual" today.
- What is the BRASS architecture?
- BRASS™ provides a server process which has exclusive
access to security configuration information, and a library and API which management applications
can use to access services provided by the server. These services include performing SNMP requests,
sending Manager-to-Manager Inform requests, listening for and filtering traps, and obtaining
information about MIB variables. Management applications may be developed using the C language or the Java language.
- How does BRASS™ simplify administration and security
configuration of an SNMP management station?
- BRASS provides extensible manager technology. BRASS allows multiple management applications residing
on the same platform to share a single SNMP stack, SNMPv3 security datastore, and OID name resolution
database, while avoiding conflicts between the applications. The BRASS architecture is more
efficient and easier to maintain than an architecture that duplicates these features in each application.
- What is the Management Application Development Toolkit?
- The Management Application Development Toolkit includes libraries and header files for
development of BRASS™ applications, and documentation.
Toolkits can be licensed for the C language or the Java language.
- How does BRASS™ relate to EMANATE? Are they compatible?
- BRASS™ and EMANATE®
are completely compatible, although you do not need one to use the
other. If you are using both BRASS™ and EMANATE®, you can run the BRASS Server as an
EMANATE® Subagent. This allows you to use SNMP set requests to remotely modify the BRASS
Server's security configuration datastore. This provides the capability to enable SNMP
communications between a remote management station and remote agents.
- What does it mean to make the BRASS Server an EMANATE® Subagent?
- Making the BRASS Server be an EMANATE®
Subagent means that you put agent instrumentation
into the BRASS Server to allow SNMP requests to get at information stored in the BRASS Server.
The EMANATE®
Master Agent and the BRASS Server each have their own security configuration
datastore. Normally, you can use SNMP to examine and modify the agent's configuration (i.e. the
Master Agent's configuration). By making the BRASS Server be a Subagent, you can also use
SNMP to examine and modify the manager's configuration.
- When running the BRASS Server as a Subagent, does the EMANATE® Master Agent have
to run on the same node as the BRASS Server/Subagent?
-
Generally yes, the BRASS Server (as a subagent) and
EMANATE® Master Agent should run on
the same device. You can run the Master Agent and a Subagent on
separate devices, but TCP is used for communication, and this is not secure.
It would be a serious security hole for the BRASS Server to run
remotely unless Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is used.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protected connections
can be enabled between cooperating processes such as between BRASS Servers and BRASS Clients, or between EMANATE Master Agents and Remotely-Coupled
Subagents that run on separate machines.
- How does the BRASS Server communicate with the EMANATE® Master Agent?
- There is a message passing protocol between the Master Agent and Subagent which is somewhat
similar to the protocol between BRASS Server and clients.
- Do we need additional configuration information?
- You need to have a security configuration datastore for the agent as well as for the manager.
