FW: NetCOnf WG Charter

["Wijnen, Bert (Bert)" <bwijnen@lucent.com>]

IESG,

This is the revised charter with the candidate WG chairs.
Changes are marked with a | bar in left margin. So nothing
fancy. We basically approved this WG at last Telechat 
(at the retreat). If anyone has comments on the chairs,
pls let me know.

Secrerariat,
Since I am still talking with the candidate chairs, this is
not yet ready to be announced. Hopefully we can finalize it
by the end of the week.

Thanks,
Bert 
------------------------------------------------------

  Network Configuration (netconf)
  -------------------------------

  Current Status: Proposed Working Group

  Chair(s):

  Andy Bierman <abierman@cisco.com>
  Simon Leinen <simon@limmat.switch.ch>

  Operations and Management Area Directors:

  Randy Bush  <randy@psg.com>
  Bert Wijnen <bwijnen@lucent.com>
 
  Operation and Management Area Advisor:

  Bert Wijnen <bwijnen@lucent.com> 

  Mailing Lists:

  General Discussion: netconf@ops.ietf.org
  To Subscribe:       netconf-request@ops.ietf.org
    in msg body:      subscribe
  Archive:            http://ops.ietf.org/lists/netconf

  Description of Working Group:

  Configuration of networks of devices has become a critical requirement for
  operators in today's highly interoperable networks. Operators from large
| to small have developed their own mechanims or used vendor specific
| mechanisms to transfer configuration data to and from a device, and for
| examining 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 Working Group is chartered to produce a protocol
  suitable for network configuration, with the following
  characteristics:

   - Provides retrieval mechanisms which can differentiate between
     configuration data and non-configuration data
   - Is extensible enough that vendors will provide access to all
     configuration data on the device using a single protocol
   - Has a programmatic interface (avoids screen scraping and
     formatting-related changes between releases)
   - Uses a textual data representation, that can be easily
     manipulated using non-specialized text manipulation tools.
   - Supports integration with existing user authentication methods
   - Supports integration with existing configuration database systems
   - Supports network wide configuration transactions (with features
     such as locking and rollback capability)
   - Is as transport-independent as possible
   - Provides support for asynchronous notifications

  The Netconf protocol will use XML for data encoding purposes,
  because XML is a widely deployed standard which is supported
  by a large number of applications. XML also supports
| hierarchical data structures.

  The Netconf protocol should be independent of the data definition
  language and data models used to describe configuration and
  state data. However, the authorization model used in the protocol
  is dependent on the data model. Although these issues must be
  fully addressed to develop standard data models, only a small part
  of this work will be initially addressed. This group will specify
  requirements for standard data models in order to fully support the
  Netconf protocol, such as:

   - identification of principals, such as user names or
     distinguished names
   - mechanism to distinguish configuration from non-configuration data
   - XML namespace conventions
   - XML usage guidelines

  It should be possible to transport the Netconf protocol using
  several different protocols. The group will select at least
  one suitable transport mechanism, and define a mapping for
  the selected protocol(s).

  The initial work will be restricted to the following items:

    - Netconf Protocol Specification, which defines the operational
      model, protocol operations, transaction model, data model
      requirements, security requirements, and transport layer
      requirements.

    - Netconf over <Transport-TBD> Specification, which defines how
      the Netconf protocol is used with the transport protocol
      selected by the group. There will be a document of this type
      for each selected transport protocol.

  The working group will take the XMLCONF Configuration Protocol
  <draft-enns-xmlconf-spec-00.txt> as a starting point.

  Goals and Milestones:

  MAY 03    Working Group formed
  JUL 03    Submit initial Netconf Protocol draft
  AUG 03    Submit initial Netconf over <transport-TBD> draft
  DEC 03    Begin Working Group Last Call for the Netconf Protocol
            draft
  JAN 04    Begin Working Group Last Call for the Netconf over
            <transport-TBD> draft
  MAR 04    Submit final version of the Netconf Protocol draft
            to the IESG
  APR 04    Submit final version of the Netconf over <transport-TBD>
            draft to the IESG

Internet Drafts

Request for Comments