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 <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 (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
