The Network Configuration (netconf) working group in the Operations and Management Area of the IETF has been rechartered. For additional information please contact the Area Directors or the WG Chairs. Network Configuration (netconf) ------------------------------------------------ Current Status: Active WG Chairs: Bert Wijnen <bertietf@bwijnen.net> Mehmet Ersue <mehmet.ersue@nsn.com> Assigned Area Director: Benoit Claise <bclaise@cisco.com> Mailing list Address: netconf@ietf.org 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 has the following characteristics: - Provides retrieval mechanisms which can differentiate between configuration data and non-configuration data - Is extensible enough so that vendors can 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 an XML-based data representation, that can be easily manipulated using non-specialized XML manipulation tools. - Supports integration with existing user authentication methods - Supports integration with existing configuration database systems - Supports multiple (e.g. candidate and running) data-stores to optimize configuration preparation and activation - Supports network wide configuration transactions (with features such as locking and rollback capability) - Runs over a secure transport; SSH is mandatory to implement while TLS is an optional transport. - Provides support for asynchronous notifications. - Supports an Access Control Model and a YANG module for configuring the Access Control parameters. - Supports a YANG module for System Notifications The NETCONF protocol is data modeling language independent, but YANG 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. Add call home mechanism for the mandatory SSH binding providing a server-initiated session establishment. 2. 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. Milestones: May 2013 - Submit initial WG document on Reverse SSH Jun 2013 - WGLC for rfc5539bis Jul 2013 - WGLC for Reverse SSH Aug 2013 - Submit rfc5539bis to AD/IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard Aug 2013 - Submit SSH binding to AD/IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard
