Subject: [netmod] Last Call: <draft-ietf-netmod-nmda-diff-09.txt> (Comparison of NMDA datastores) to Proposed Standard

From: The IESG <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2021 06:36:25 -0700

The IESG has received a request from the Network Modeling WG (netmod) to
consider the following document: - 'Comparison of NMDA datastores'
  <draft-ietf-netmod-nmda-diff-09.txt> as Proposed Standard

The IESG plans to make a decision in the next few weeks, and solicits final
comments on this action. Please send substantive comments to the
[email-masked] mailing lists by 2021-07-02. Exceptionally, comments may
be sent to [email-masked] instead. In either case, please retain the beginning
of the Subject line to allow automated sorting.

Abstract

   This document defines an RPC operation to compare management
   datastores that comply with the NMDA architecture.

The file can be obtained via
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-netmod-nmda-diff/

The following IPR Declarations may be related to this I-D:

   https://datatracker.ietf.org/ipr/3084/

---

From: Andy Bierman <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2021 13:48:27 -0700

Hi,

I tried to get a couple companies interested in this draft but it did not
really work for them.
There is low demand for an NMDA diff but high demand for a more general
"YANG data compare" operation.

The main issues raised were:

1) can only compare 2 datastores
    Want to compare a datastore to a backup (or more generally a URI, ala
copy-config)

2) The output is only YANG Patch
    Want a "config" container that can be used with the "edit-config"
operation.
    NETCONF clients cannot use the YANG patch format to edit a datastore
with the differences

3) Not interested in the complex filtering and "origin" attributes
    Not applicable to the use-case.

The main use-case:

  1) make a backup of a server (or already have a common baseline shared
across servers)
  2) make config changes to the server and test them out
  3) get a diff that can be used as a "patch" to the backup
  4) apply the patch to different servers (that are running a compatible
config as the backup or baseline)

I realize there are no standard "backup" and "restore" operations so I am
not suggesting
that the draft be redone to support this use-case.

Andy