Alert Standard Format (ASF) Specification

Alert Standard Format (ASF) Specification v2.0 DMTF Document DSP0136
DSP0136 23 April 2003 Page 18 of 94
3.2 Remote Management and Control Protocol (RMCP)
The Remote Management and Control Protocol (RMCP) and its supporting security-related
protocols are used for client control functions when a managed client is in an OS-absent state. In
this environment, RMCP messages are exchanged between a management console and a
managed client. Typical client control functions include operations such as reset, power-up, and
power-down. The protocols are intentionally simple, to enable alert-sending devices’ firmware to
easily parse the information in the absence of OS-present drivers. The protocol stack for RMCP
and its supporting security-related protocols** is shown in the figure below.
A management console uses RMCP methods as part of a two-tiered approach to managing client
systems. The management console should always use OS-present methods as the primary
method to power down or reset a managed client, so that any shutdown operation is handled in
an orderly fashion. Management consoles should employ RMCP methods only
if the managed
client fails to respond to the OS-present methods, since the hardware-based RMCP methods
could result in loss of data on the client system.
ASF 2.0 introduces a set of security extensions that provide authentication and integrity services
for RMCP messages. While this specification defines the security extension protocols and
encapsulation formats, an actual implementation must also deal with a variety of security issues
that fall outside of the scope of this specification. For example, local storage and protection of
keying material configured and/or generated by the security extension protocols is a vendor-
specific implementation issue. While this and other security-related implementation issues are
not mandated by this specification, it is expected that vendors will follow security-industry-
accepted practices where appropriate.
An RMCP-aware management console determines a managed client’s RMCP capabilities by
issuing the following messages:
1) The management console issues an RMCP Presence Ping message directed to the
managed client; the RMCP-aware client then …
a) … acknowledges receipt of the RMCP message, so long as the RMCP version in the
message’s header is a version supported by the client.
b) … responds with an RMCP Presence Pong message, setting the Supported Entities field
(bits 3:0) to indicate its ASF version.
**RSP Session Protocol
(RSSP)
Remote Management
and Control Protocol (RMCP)
Internet Protocol
(IP)
**RSSP Authentication and Key-
Generation Protocol (RAKP)
**RMCP Security-Extensions
Protocol (RSP)
User Datagram Protocol
(UDP)
IEEE 802.3 / Ethernet
Protocol