Subject: Re: SLP iSCSI: Rationale behind the SLP draft (long)

From: James Kempf <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2001 09:08:06 -0800 (PST)

Mark,

>The drafts are all referenced, however, I don't think that they
>are required reading for this.  The biggest weakness we see in
>SLP right now is the fact that it does not have a way to
>propagate changes in certain attributes, such as if we add a 
>new initiator to a target's access list, it would be nice to notify
>the initiator to go discover the target.
>

This is addressed in the SLP notification RFC (RFC 3082). I don't
know whether this has made it into the RFC directory yet or not. It
describes a notification protocol that would do exactly what you want.
The RFC is experimental, but if there is enough interest, we can
look about moving it to standards track.

>iSNS is another protocol that appears to have been created using
>SLP's message structure and authentication blocks as a base.  It
>does not do simple multicast discovery; it provides more of a
>centralized management system for initiators and targets.  It is
>quite feasible that simpler implementations would need only SLP,
>and a larger setup might use iSNS to manage anything, so this
>was an attempt to put some perspective on the similarities and
>differences between the two, and where they might be used.
>

What is iSNS? Is it an IETF standard?

		jak

---

From: Mark Bakke <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2001 11:42:10 -0600

James-

I have not seen RFC 3082; it is not available from either the
ietf.org or networksorcery.com.  Do you have a copy you could
sent me?

iSNS is a draft proposed by a storage networking startup called
Nishan Systems.  I am listed as an author as well, but all I
did was help with the iSCSI data model several months back.
Its intent is to provide centralized management of storage;
however, I want to use SLP for environments that need only
discovery.

The draft is at:

http://search.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-ips-isns-01.txt

--
Mark

-- 
Mark A. Bakke
Cisco Systems
[email-masked]
763.398.1054