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: Mahesh Jethanandani <mjethanandani@gmail.com> Mehmet Ersue <mehmet.ersue@nokia.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: https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/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. In the current phase of NETCONF's incremental development the workgroup will focus on following items: 1. Provide a Server Configuration YANG module for both NETCONF and RESTCONF. 2. Develop RESTCONF, a protocol based on NETCONF in terms of capabilities, but over HTTPs and with some REST characteristics, for accessing YANG data in NETCONF datastores. 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. In addition develop a YANG library, which identifies the information about all YANG modules used by a server. Furthermore develop a collection resource for the RESTCONF protocol to provide enhanced filtering features for the retrieval of data nodes with the GET method. 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). 3. 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. 4. Develop a subscription and push mechanism that allows client applications to request notifications for changes in the datastore. These updates will be pushed by the server to the client based on a subscription policy. 5. Update RFC 6536 (NETCONF Access Control Model) to introduce access control rights associated with actions. 6. Enhance RFC 5277 with the ability to delete subscriptions without closing the client session, to modify existing subscriptions, and to have multiple subscriptions on a established client session. These changes should not affect older clients that do not support these particular subscription requirements. The RPCs and the data models in RFC 5277 should be converted to YANG. 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. Milestones: Done - Submit RFC5539bis to AD/IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard Done - Submit NETCONF call home mechanism to AD/IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard Oct 2015 - WGLC for RESTCONF, YANG patch operation and YANG Library drafts Nov 2015 - Submit RESTCONF to AD/IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard Jan 2016 - WGLC for RFC5277bis draft Jan 2016 - Submit RFC5277bis to AD/IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard Jan 2016 - WGLC for YANG datastore push update draft Feb 2016 - Submit YANG datastore push update to AD/IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard Feb 2016 - WGLC for RFC6536bis draft Feb 2016 - Submit RFC6536bis to AD/IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard Feb 2016 - WGLC for zero touch configuration Feb 2016 - WGLC for RESTCONF Collection Resource draft Mar 2016 - Submit zero touch configuration to AD/IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard Mar 2016 - Submit RESTCONF Collection to AD/IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard Mar 2016 - WGLC for NETCONF server configuration data model Apr 2016 - Submit server configuration data model to AD/IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard
