Subject: WG Action: RECHARTER: Network Configuration WG (netconf)

From: IESG Secretary <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 12:15:01 -0500

The Network Configuration (netconf) working group in the Operations and
Management Area of the IETF has been rechartered. For additional
information, please contact the Area Directors or the working group 
Chairs.

+++

Network Configuration (netconf) 
================================ 

Current Status: Active Working Group 

Chair(s): 
Andy Bierman <[email-masked]> 
Simon Linen <[email-masked]> 

Operations and Management Area Director(s): 
Dan Romascanu <[email-masked]> 
Ronald Bonica <[email-masked]> 

Operations and Management Area Advisor: 
Dan Romascanu <[email-masked]> 

Technical Advisor(s): 
Wesley Hardaker <[email-masked]> 

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Description of Working Group: 
Wes Hardaker is Technical Advisor for Security Matters 

Configuration of networks of devices has become a critical requirement 
for operators in today's highly interoperable networks. Operators from 
large to small have developed their own mechanisms or used vendor 
specific mechanisms to transfer configuration data to and from a device, 
and for examining device state information which may impact the 
configuration. Each of these mechanisms may be different in various 
aspects, such as session establishment, user authentication, 
configuration data exchange, and error responses. 

The NETCONF Working Group is chartered to produce a protocol suitable 
for network configuration, with the following characteristics: 

- Provides retrieval mechanisms which can differentiate between 
configuration data and non-configuration data 
- Is extensible enough that vendors will provide access to all 
configuration data on the device using a single protocol 
- Has a programmatic interface (avoids screen scraping and 
formatting-related changes between releases) 
- Uses a textual data representation, that can be easily manipulated 
using non-specialized text manipulation tools. 
- Supports integration with existing user authentication methods 
- Supports integration with existing configuration database systems 
- Supports network wide configuration transactions (with features such 
as locking and rollback capability) 
- Is as transport-independent as possible 
- Provides the following support for asynchronous notifications: 
- Specify the <hello> message (capability exchange) details to support 
notifications. 
- Specify the application mapping details to support notifications. 
- Specify the protocol syntax and semantics of a notification message. 
- Specify or select a notification content information model. 
- Specify a mechanism for controlling the delivery (turn on/off) of 
notifications during a session. 
- Specify a mechanism for selectively receiving a configurable subset of 
all possible notification types. 

The NETCONF protocol will use XML for data encoding purposes, because 
XML is a widely deployed standard which is supported by a large number 
of applications. XML also supports hierarchical data structures. 

The NETCONF protocol should be independent of the data definition 
language and data models used to describe configuration and state data. 

However, the authorization model used in the protocol is dependent on 
the data model. Although these issues must be fully addressed to develop 
standard data models, only a small part of this work will be initially 
addressed. This group will specify requirements for standard data models 
in order to fully support the NETCONF protocol, such as: 

- identification of principals, such as user names or distinguished 
names 
- mechanism to distinguish configuration from non-configuration data 
- XML namespace conventions 
- XML usage guidelines 

It should be possible to transport the NETCONF protocol using several 
different protocols. The group will select at least one suitable 
transport mechanism, and define a mapping for the selected protocol(s). 

The initial work (has completed) and was restricted to the following 
items: 

- NETCONF Protocol Specification, which defines the operational model, 
protocol operations, transaction model, data model requirements, 
security requirements, and transport layer requirements. 

- NETCONF over SSH Specification: Implementation Mandatory; NETCONF over
BEEP Specification: Implementation Optional; NETCONF over SOAP 
Specification: Implementation Optional; These documents define how the 
NETCONF protocol is used with each transport protocol selected by the 
working group, and how it meets the security and transport layer 
requirements of the NETCONF Protocol Specification. 

Additional Notification work (as described above) will now be addressed 
since the initial work has been completed. 

An individual submission Internet Draft has been proposed to the WG as 
the starting point for the Notification work. The WG shall adopt the 
document identified as 'draft-chisholm-NETCONF-event-01.txt' as the 
starting point for this work. 

A second phase of incremental development of NETCONF will include the 
following items: 

1. Fine-grain locking: The base NETCONF protocol only provides a lock 
for the entire configuration datastore, which is not deemed to meet 
important operational and security requirements. The NETCONF working 
group will produce a standards-track RFC specifying a mechanism for 
fine-grain locking of the NETCONF configuration datastore. 

(The initial draft will be based on 
draft-lengyel-ngo-partial-lock-00.txt barring additional contributions 
from the community.) 

2. NETCONF monitoring: It is considered best practice for IETF working 
groups to include management of their protocols within the scope of the 
solution they are providing. NETCONF does not provide this capability. 
The NETCONF working group will produce a standards-track RFC with 
mechanisms allowing NETCONF itself to be used to monitor some aspects of 
NETCONF operation. 

(The initial draft will be based on 
draft-chisholm-netconf-monitoring-00.txt barring additional 
contributions from the community.) 

3. Schema advertisement: Currently the NETCONF protocol is able to 
advertise which protocol features are supported on a particular 
netconf-capable device. However, there is currently no way to discover 
which XML Schema are supported on the device. The NETCONF working group 
will produce a standards-track RFC with mechanisms making this discovery 
possible. 

This item may be merged with "NETCONF monitoring" into a single 
document. 

(The initial draft will be based on 
draft-scott-netconf-schema-query-00.txt barring additional contributions 
from the community.) 

4. NETCONF over TLS - based on implementation experience there is a need
for a standards track document to define NETCONF over TLS as an optional 
transport for NETCONF 

(The initial draft will be based on 
draft-badra-tls-netconf-04.txt barring additional contributions from the 
community.) 

The following are currently not considered in scope for re-chartering at 
this time, but may be candidates for work when there is community 
consensus to take them on. Individual submissions are being encouraged. 

o Access Control requirements 
o General improvements to the base protocol o NETCONF access to 
SMI-based MIB data o The Bill Fenner problem: Address real or perceived 
issue that "giving SSH for NETCONF gives full SSH access to the box" 

Goals and Milestones: 

Done Working Group formed 

Done Submit initial NETCONF Protocol draft 

Done Submit initial NETCONF over (transport-TBD) draft 

Done Begin Working Group Last Call for the NETCONF Protocol draft 

Done Begin Working Group Last Call for the NETCONF over 
(transport-TBD) draft 

Done Submit final version of the NETCONF Protocol draft to the IESG 

Done Submit final version of the NETCONF over SOAP draft to the IESG 

Done Submit final version of the NETCONF over BEEP draft to the IESG 

Done Submit final version of the NETCONF over SSH draft to the IESG 

Done Update charter Done Submit first version of NETCONF Notifications 
document 

Done Begin WGLC of NETCONF Notifications document 

Dec 2006 Submit final version of NETCONF Notifications document to IESG 
for consideration as Proposed Standard 

December 2007 -00 draft for NETCONF Monitoring December 2007 -00 draft 
for Schema Advertisement 

December 2007 -00 draft for Fine Grain Locking 

December 2007 -00 draft for NETCONF over TLS 

March 2008 - Early Review of client authentication approach (for NETCONF
over TLS) with the security community at IETF 71 

August 2008 - WG Last Call on NETCONF Monitoring after IETF72 

August 2008 - WG Last Call on Schema Advertisement after IETF72 

August 2008 - WG Last Call on Fine Grain Locking after IETF72 

August 2008 - WG Last Call on NETCONF over TLS after IETF72 

October 2008 Send four documents to the IESG for consideration as 
proposed standards

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