Subject: [nfsv4] [FedFS] root fileset attribute requirements

From: James Lentini <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 10:20:30 -0400 (EDT)

After looking over our NFSv4 specific attributes text and the language 
in the requirements document, I've separated the root fileset 
attribute requirements text into two pieces. The first piece is for 
the requirements draft and is intended to be general in nature. The 
second is for the future root fileset I-D and deals with the specifics 
of rendering the root fileset over NFSv4.

My goal is to reach closure on the first piece of text for the 
requirements document by the end of our meeting tomorrow.

For the draft-ietf-nfsv4-federated-fs-reqts document:

 R15:

   g.  If a root fileset is defined it SHOULD be stored using a compact
       representation that is compatible with heterogeneous fileserver 
       implementations. The root fileset's internal format SHOULD 
       contain enough information to generate any attributes, including
       referrals, required by the standard filesystem access protocols 
       in R9.

In the future root fileset document, the specific attributes 
exposed in NFSv4 would be enumerated:

   Rendering the Root Fileset via NFSv4[.x]
   ----------------------------------------

   When the root fileset is accessed by an NFSv4[.x] client, the client 
   SHOULD observe the same directory hierarchy and object attributes 
   regardless of which root fileserver is accessed. The supported 
   object attribute types are intentionally limited for two reasons:

   o The root fileset is designed to be exported by a variety of 
     fileserver implementations. In a heterogeneous fileserver 
     environment, it is necessary to limit the attributes to those
     that are supported across all fileservers. 

     Without this restriction, the client might interpret the root 
     fileset differently depending on the root fileserver being 
     accessed. This would increase the likelihood of a client being 
     incompatible with or dependent on a specific root fileserver. 
     These problems would be difficult to diagnose and limit the 
     client's ability to fail-over to a different root fileserver 

   o The root fileset's internal NSDB format is replicated.
     A compact internal representation of the root fileset aids 
     replication and storage in the NSDB.

  When accessed over NFSv4[.x], the root fileset's NFSv4[.x] 
  representation MUST support the following attributes:

  o fs_locations

  o fs_locations_info

  o fs_status

  The root fileset's NFSv4[.x] representation MUST NOT include any other 
  optional or named attributes. The root fileset's NFSv4[.x] representation 
  MUST conform to all other attribute requirements defined by the given 
  NFSv4[.x] specification (e.g. for NFSv4.1 the requirements are described 
  in Section 5.6 of [NFSv4.1]).