Patent ID: 7548965

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving by a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent, executing on a network device, a first request from a first software entity, the first request requesting that a first object identifier (ID) be added to a first management information base (MIB) corresponding to the first software entity; responsive to receiving the first request, adding by the SNMP agent, executing on said network device, the first object ID to the first MIB; receiving by the SNMP agent, executing on said network device, a second request from a second software entity, the second request requesting that a second object ID be added to a second MIB corresponding to the second software entity; and responsive to receiving the second request, adding by the SNMP agent, executing on said network device, the second object ID to the second MIB; receiving by the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent, executing on said network device, a third request from said first software entity, the third request requesting that said first object identifier (ID) be deleted from said first management information base (MIB) corresponding to the first software entity; responsive to receiving the third request, deleting by the SNMP agent, executing on said network device, said first object ID from the first MIB; receiving by the SNMP agent, executing on said network device, a fourth request from said second software entity, the fourth request requesting that said second object identifier (ID) be deleted from said second management information base (MIB) corresponding to the second software entity; responsive to receiving the fourth request, deleting by the SNMP agent, executing on said network device, said second object ID from the second MIB; wherein the first software entity, the second software entity, and the SNMP agent are part of a software stack; wherein the first software entity was developed by a first vendor and the second software entity was developed by a second vendor; wherein the first MIB was developed by said first vendor and the second MIB was developed by said second vendor; wherein the SNMP agent was developed by a third vendor; wherein the first object ID is added under a first enterprise ID corresponding to said first vendor and the second object ID is added under a second enterprise ID corresponding to said second vendor; wherein the first object ID is deleted from under said first enterprise ID corresponding to said first vendor, and the second object ID is deleted from under said second enterprise ID corresponding to said second vendor.