PMA-MIB

MIB Reference — IPNetwork Monitor · Updated October 06, 2026

All MIBs › PMA-MIB

Organization: IETF IP Over IB (IPOIB) Working Group

Last Updated: 2005-09-01

Category: Server/Systems Management

Description: Monitors IETF IP-over-InfiniBand (IPoIB) Performance Management Agent objects, tracking IB port counters and fabric statistics.

Start monitoring vendor-neutral, standards-based MIB, any SNMPv3-capable network device (SNMP engine identity/boot/clock status) with a free 30-day trial of IPNetwork Monitor. Import MIBs, browse SNMP OIDs, create custom SNMP monitors, configure alerts, and monitor any SNMP-enabled network device from a single console.

What Is PMA-MIB?

PMA-MIB is an IETF MIB module defining managed objects for the Performance Management Agent (PMA) instrumentation of an InfiniBand fabric, part of the standard IP-over-InfiniBand (IPoIB) management MIB family. It exposes a per-port counters table capturing InfiniBand link-layer error and discard statistics for each fabric port. It is used to monitor the hardware/link-layer health of InfiniBand ports, including symbol errors, link error recovery and link-down counts, and various receive/transmit discard and constraint error counters, which together reveal physical-layer signal quality and congestion problems on the fabric. It is a vendor-neutral standards-based MIB built directly on IETF InfiniBand management conventions and is intended to be used alongside other InfiniBand-related IETF MIBs. It is deployed on InfiniBand host channel adapters and switches in high-performance computing and storage fabric environments. Engineers implementing or auditing this functionality typically reference the PMA-MIB RFC/standard documentation for the authoritative specification.

IPNetwork Monitor allows you to monitor SNMP objects defined in PMA-MIB. Use the built-in SNMP Monitoring Browser to explore available variables, view their current values and descriptions, and select the objects you want to monitor. You can then create SNMP monitors, configure thresholds, and receive alerts when monitored values change.

Supported Devices

  • vendor-neutral, standards-based MIB, not tied to a specific manufacturer
  • InfiniBand host channel adapter
  • InfiniBand switch

Monitoring Examples

An administrator would poll ibPmaPortCntrsTable/Entry, indexed by ibPmaPortCntrsIndex, checking ibPmaSymbolErrCounter and ibPmaLinkErrRecoveryCntr for rising counts that indicate a degrading physical link, and ibPmaLinkDownedCntr for repeated link flaps on a port. Elevated ibPmaPortRcvErr or ibPmaPortXmitDiscard values would point to signal integrity or congestion issues on that specific InfiniBand port. Comparing ibPmaPortRcvConstraintErr and ibPmaPortXmitConstraintErr across ports helps isolate whether a fabric-wide problem is localized to one link or switch.

What Can Be Monitored

  • InfiniBand symbol error count
  • link error recovery count
  • link down count
  • receive/transmit discard and constraint errors
Imported Objects

From IB-TC-MIB

IbDataPort
infinibandMIBOBJECT-IDENTITY

From SNMPv2-CONF

MODULE-COMPLIANCE
OBJECT-GROUP

From SNMPv2-SMI

Counter32
MODULE-IDENTITY
NOTIFICATION-TYPE
OBJECT-TYPE
Unsigned32

How to Use in IPNetwork Monitor

Example using ibPmaPortOpCodeRcvCntrsRcvPkts OID:

Select a device implementing PMA-MIB as the target host to create a monitor — the SNMP service should be up and running on it. Click New Monitor, then check SNMP Custom on the Favorites tab, click Next, and confirm the host. On the next page, click Select... to open the built-in SNMP MIB Browser and type ibPmaPortOpCodeRcvCntrsRcvPkts into the Find box to locate it in the OID tree, selecting the specific row/instance you want to monitor since this is a table column, then select it and click OK. It reports the total number of packets received without error on this port for this InfiniBand op code. On the monitor's Main parameters page you can set the target's SNMP port (default 161), credentials, polling interval, and other settings — see the SNMP Monitor help for details. On the State conditions and Alerting tabs, configure when the monitor should change state and trigger an alert; since this is a Counter32-type OID, Value bounds is the most useful condition here — trigger an alert if the counter's growth rate drops noticeably relative to expected traffic, since a stall often means packets for this op code are no longer arriving cleanly. Click Finish to create the monitor; you can adjust any parameter later.
OIDs

RFC description

Performance Management Agent instrumentation for InfiniBand port counters and statistics.

Start monitoring vendor-neutral, standards-based MIB, InfiniBand host channel adapter/switch (Performance Management Agent) with a free 30-day trial of IPNetwork Monitor. Import MIBs, browse SNMP OIDs, create custom SNMP monitors, configure alerts, and monitor any SNMP-enabled network device from a single console.

Download PMA-MIB