Subject: WG Review: Network Configuration (netconf)

From: The IESG <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 07 Feb 2014 09:34:02 -0800

The Network Configuration (netconf) working group in the Operations and
Management Area of the IETF is undergoing rechartering. The IESG has not
made any determination yet. The following draft charter was submitted,
and is provided for informational purposes only. Please send your
comments to the IESG mailing list (iesg at ietf.org) by 2014-02-17.

Network Configuration (netconf)
------------------------------------------------
Current Status: Active WG

Chairs:
  Bert Wijnen <[email-masked]>
  Mehmet Ersue <[email-masked]>

Assigned Area Director:
  Benoit Claise <[email-masked]>

Mailing list
  Address: [email-masked]
  To Subscribe: https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/netconf
  Archive: http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/netconf/

Charter:

Configuration of networks of devices has become a critical requirement
for operators in today's highly interconnected networks. Large and small
operators alike have developed their own mechanisms or have used vendor
specific mechanisms to transfer configuration data to and from a device
and to examine 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 protocol (RFC 6241) provides mechanisms to install,
manipulate, and delete the configuration of network devices. NETCONF is
based on the secure transport (SSH is mandatory to implement while TLS is
an optional transport) and uses an XML-based data representation. The
NETCONF protocol is data modeling language independent, but YANG (RFC
6020) is the recommended NETCONF modeling language, which introduces
advanced
language features for configuration management.
 
Based on the implementation, deployment experience and interoperability
testing, the WG aims to produce a NETCONF status report in a later stage.
The result may be clarifications for RFC6241 and RFC6242 and addressing
any reported errata.
 
In the current phase of NETCONF's incremental development the workgroup
will focus on following items:
 
  1. Develop the call home mechanism for the mandatory SSH binding
(Reverse SSH) providing a server-initiated session establishment.

  2. Develop a zero touch configuration document (a technique to
establish a secure network management relationship between a newly
delivered network device configured with just its factory default
settings, and the Network Management System), specific to the NETCONF use
case.
 
  3. Advance NETCONF over TLS to be in-line with NETCONF 1.1 (i.e.,
update RFC 5539) and add the call home mechanism to provide a
server-initiated session establishment.
 
  4. Combine the server configuration data models from Reverse SSH and
RFC5539bis drafts in a separate call home YANG module.
 
  5. Develop RESTCONF, a protocol based on NETCONF in terms of
capabilities, but over HTTP and with some REST characteristics, for
accessing YANG data using the datastores defined in NETCONF. An "ordered
edit list" approach is needed (the YANG patch) to provide client
developers with a simpler edit request format that can be more efficient
and also allow more precise client control of the transaction procedure
than existing mechanisms. The YANG patch operation, based on the  HTTP
PATCH method, will be prepared in a separate draft. RESTCONF should not
deviate from the NETCONF capabilities unless proper justification is
provided and documented. The RESTCONF work will consider requirements
suggested by the other working groups (for example I2RS).

Milestones:
  Feb 2014 - Submit initial WG draft for call home YANG module as WG item
  Feb 2014 - Submit initial WG draft for zero touch configuration as WG
item
  Feb 2014 - Submit initial WG drafts for RESTCONF and patch operation as
WG items
  Apr 2014 - WGLC for Reverse SSH
  Apr 2014 - WGLC for NETCONF server configuration data model
  Apr 2014 - WGLC for zero touch configuration
  Apr 2014 - WGLC for call home YANG module
  Apr 2014 - WGLC for RFC5539bis
  May 2014 - Submit call home YANG module to AD/IESG for consideration as
Proposed Standard
  May 2014 - Submit zero touch configuration to AD/IESG for consideration
as Proposed Standard
  May 2014 - Submit RFC5539bis to AD/IESG for consideration as Proposed
Standard
  May 2014 - Submit Reverse SSH and and zero touch configuration to
AD/IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard
  Jun 2014 - WGLC for RESTCONF and patch operation drafts
  Aug 2014 - Submit RESTCONF to AD/IESG for consideration as Proposed
Standard