Subject: [Netconf] 4741bis - validate

From: Martin Bjorklund <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:57:07 +0200 (CEST)

Hi,

This is the first of a couple of emails identifying some open issues
for 4741 bis.  I will do more some other day.

The problem is that it is unclear if <validate> with inline config
must be a complete config or some kind of "partial" config.  As has
been discussed earlier on the list and most recently in S.F., the way
it is defined, it must be a complete config.

A related problem is that inline validation of a complete config is
not very useful in real life (see
e.g. http://ops.ietf.org/lists/netconf/netconf.2006/msg01229.html).

Because of this, some implementations support a 'test-only' option to
edit-config
(http://ops.ietf.org/lists/netconf/netconf.2006/msg01206.html), which
can be used to validate partial edits to a given data store.

There are a couple of alternatives:

  1.  Keep :validate 1.0 as it is, and clarify that inline config must be
      a complete config.

  2.  As 1 + add a :validate 1.1 which adds the 'test-only' option.
      A server can advertise both 1.0 and 1.1 if it wants to.

  3.  Just describe a :validate 1.1 which adds the 'test-only' option
      and removes the inline config option.

If 1 is choosen, 'test-only' could be added in a separate capability
in another document.

Comments?

/martin

---

From: Andy Bierman <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2009 08:16:28 -0700

> If 1 is choosen, 'test-only' could be added in a separate capability

I think (2) is needed so new managers can work with old agents.

> /martin

Andy