INFORMATIONAL

Network Working Group A. Bressen Request for Comments: 2321 Cohesive Network Systems Category: Informational 1 April 1998 RITA -- The Reliable Internetwork Troubleshooting Agent Status of this Memo This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998). All Rights Reserved. Abstract A Description of the usage of Nondeterministic Troubleshooting and Diagnostic Methodologies as applied to today's complex nondeterministic networks and environments. 1 . Introduction Bressen Informational [Page 1]

RFC 2321 RITA 1 April 1998 1]). A typical RITA unit is depicted in Figure 1. comb neck body feet | | | | v v V V ,^/'/, ,______________________. , i' ' / / =========<- / <o> `---------/ \ ` .;__. ,__,--------. / , / ,/ vv \ =========<- '-' `-----------------------' ` ^ ^ ^ | | | beak wattles legs Figure 1. 2 . Specification 3 . Diagnostic Usage: Bressen Informational [Page 2]

RFC 2321 RITA 1 April 1998 5]) indicates that at least 90% of these results are accurate, and it is felt that a maximum 10% false positive result is within acceptable parameters. 3.2 The second method involves applications of traditional techniques of haruspication (see reference [3]) and to date has been practiced with much greater success using implements other than RITA. The absence of entrails in the RITA unit may contribute to this; future design enhancements may address this issue by the addition of artificial giblets. An alternative approach that has been discarded involved cleromantic principles (see reference [3]), and was known as "flipping the bird". 4 . Corrective Usage: Bressen Informational [Page 3]

RFC 2321 RITA 1 April 1998 5 . Further Work RFC 1149. Additionally, this tool has been used with some success for dealing with non-network problems, particularly in the debugging of SCSI bus malfunctions. Bressen Informational [Page 4]