This read-only enumerated value (other, ok, degraded, failed) reports the aggregate condition across all external, non-Compaq-enterprise MIBs that this agent monitors through the external-status polling mechanism. An administrator polls this single object as a top-level check on any third-party device or subsystem being watched via this external-MIB bridging feature. A degraded reading here would send an admin into the cpqExExternalStatusTable to find which specific externally-polled variable is behind the problem.