EPIC Product Details

The EMANATE® Protocol Interface Component (EPIC™) Subsystem is used to develop unified SNMP, XML, CLI, and Web-based management for EMANATE and EMANATE/Lite easily, with possibly other protocols. The EPIC CLI (Command Line Interface) and EPIC XML are two ready-to-use EPIC extensions, available separately.

Overview
Features
Usage
Security
Architecture
Integration
Availability

Overview

EPIC includes two components: EPIC, and the EPIC Adaptation Layer (EAL). The entire EPIC Subsystem is made up of EPICs and the EPIC Adaptation Layer (EAL).

An EPIC allows one foreign management protocol to submit get and set requests into the SNMP Agent without the use of SNMP or UDP. These requests are first routed through the USM and VACM security and view-access subsystems to provide consistent access control with SNMP requests.

The EAL allows for multiple foreign protocol transactions, including XML, etc., and is the layer at which an EPIC integrates into various SNMP Research products. The EPIC API is consistent across all products, and operating system-specific instrumentation (such as the transport interface) is handled at the EAL level. The EAL is compiled into the SNMP Agent to support API access.

Using the EAL, the EPIC subsystem integrates the foreign management protocol engine with the EMANATE or EMANATE/Lite Agent using some interprocess communication mechanisms. Two examples are listed below.

On most UNIX-like operating systems, EPIC uses UNIX Domain Sockets.
On some embedded operating systems, EPIC uses TCP.

Regardless of which protocols are used, the application programmer is generally insulated from these concerns by the EAL.

EPIC Features

Uses asynchronous callback paradigm.
Communicates using proprietary protocol with EMANATE Master Agent over local protocol.
Can be connection oriented (UDS, TCP).
Uses shared memory depending on capability of target.

Usage

Use openEpicSession() to start a session
Use epicSendRequest() to send request to agent
Include a callback routine address and optional argument to callback routine to be invoked when data is available
Use closeEpicSession() to close session
May use multiple sessions.

Security

Community-, EPIC-, and SNMPv3(USM)-based security models available at the discretion of the application programmer.
SNMP Community Name, USM User Name, or EPIC Security Name is passed as an argument (used for access control only).
Does not cause SNMP traffic on the network, so encryption is not an issue.
If using TCP, the port is limited to local connections only.

EPIC Subsystem Architecture

The entry point into the SNMP Agent is carefully designed between the User-based Security Model(USM) and the View-based Access Control Model (VACM) layers. This allows authentication by Transport Layer Security mechanisms, while preserving the VACM mechanism implemented as part of SNMPv3.

EPIC Subsystem for EMANATE®/Lite

EPIC Subsystem for EMANATE®

Integration

Some of our partners currently implement projects that integrate the EPIC Subsystem with third-party Web servers, such as Apache.

Availability

EPIC is currently available on the platforms listed below. EPIC can also be extended by using the EPIC CLI (command-line interface) and EPIC XML (XML interface).

Linux
Windows
HP-UX
Solaris
AIX
FreeBSD
GHS Integrity
NetBSD
OSE
QNX
SunOS
VxWorks

If a particular system is not listed, please contact Sales. We are happy to work with customers to port our products to new systems.

Please note: When a product is licensed, the product will support one platform of your choosing. If you need a product to run on two or more platforms, then a separate license must be acquired for each platform.

Sales Inquiries

For more information, please call +1 865 579-3311, or send email to info@snmp.com. You can also fill out a Sales Query and one of our sales people will respond to your request quickly.

Licensing terms are available from info@snmp.com.

SNMP Research International, Inc.

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