Subject: RE: IPv6 DNS Autoconfiguration

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 20:58:19 +0100

> I want a spec which is simple and clear, and less than 15-20 
> pages long.

That would certainly be nice, but I don't think we should base our decision
on the length of the specifications for the proposed solutions ;-)

Benefits of the RA approach I can see are:

 o no need to implement DHCP clients in all hosts
	- this could be important for very simple network devices
 o no need to solicit data explicitly
	- hosts will either hear an RA with the relevant data, or send an RS
and get the name server details as part of the RA response. I don't support
the idea of an 'active' mode whereby hosts can explictly request the DNS
data. If the router(s) is/are configured with the name server data and are
configured to advertise it then they will do so. Explicit requests only make
sense if we anticipate explicit requests for other types of data, and I
think this should be absolutely out-of-scope.

Mat.
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From: Pekka Savola <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 23:10:21 +0300 (EEST)

> 	- this could be important for very simple network devices

   o no need to run DHCP clients in all scenarios
        - I certainly would not have any need to run DHCPv6(lite) on IETF 
WLAN, discovering the recursive DNS is just enough.

If you roam a *lot* e.g. with a PDA and use Mobile IPv6, you may not 
desire all that many functions from your care-of networks.

> think this should be absolutely out-of-scope.

I'm not sure I'm 100% sure what's best myself, but there is one advantage 
to the "active" model (it seems): it may be easier to handle if your RA/RS 
processing happends in the kernel, but processing DNS info (including 
rewriting /etc/resolv.conf) would have to be in the userland.

-- 
Pekka Savola                 "You each name yourselves king, yet the
Netcore Oy                    kingdom bleeds."
Systems. Networks. Security. -- George R.R. Martin: A Clash of Kings