RE: Why are we doing netconf?

["Sharon Chisholm" <schishol@nortel.com>]

hi

<Juergen>

On Wed, Mar 29, 2006 at 10:08:33AM -0500, Sharon Chisholm wrote:
> Here are some of the requirements .
> 
> - Netconf content (without mapping )
> - Filtering
> - Subscription
> - Event classification

What are the classes you have in mind? Can you elaborate a bit more?
</Juergen>

This is like the event class concept in the draft. The idea that we
define a set of big buckets that both allow intelligent filtering as
well serve as a predictor of the content of the notification. So,
examples are configuration, audit, security, etc.


<Juergen>
> - Structured content
> - Predictable content

What is predictable content?
</Juergen>

Predictable is that the consumer of the message based only on the
protocol definition and a definition of the data model associated with
the notification (XML Schema, for example) are able to predict what
information will be in the notification and how it will be formatted.

<Juergen>
> - reliable delivery (or ability to detect when things go wrong)
> - event replay

Why is that a requirement? What is this good for in operational
environments?
</Juergen>

I should mention that I consider event replay something we can add
later. We did not include it in the draft. Event replay is a mechanism
that allows you when you first start talking to a device to learn about
interesting events that have happened to it within the immediate past.
Ideally, this information will be in the same format as it would have
been if you had actually been there it hear it.

<Juergen>
> - Ability to support different types of events (alarms, logs, 
> configuration snippets, etc)

Is "configuration snippets" and event type? Is logs == syslog messages?
</Juergen>

A configuration snippet would be part of a configuration either as part
of an audit trial or a configuration mirroring thing. I think
configuration might be the actual event class. Logs could be the same
sort of information that is currently done in syslog, yes. 

<Juergen>
> - XML encoding (not a big driver, but certainly a major industry
> direction)

If XML encoding is a requirement, is then not structured content
superfluous? Since netconf content is XML, is even the XML requirement
superfluous?
</Juergen>

Well, it is a way to do structured data, so perhaps it is a
sub-requirement? I listed them separately as a nod to that fact that
there are other ways to structure data but also to acknowledge the fact
that there are people who very much want XML explicitly.

Sharon

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