Hi folks, Wednesday (4 September 2002)
The topic of a new Web Services Device Management standard interface was
raised in the PWG Plenary last week (see the excerpt from Bill Wagner's
minutes below).
Important related work is the following paper, written by Randy Presuhn
(SNMPv3 revisions editor):
ftp://ftp.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-presuhn-nmwebdav-00.txt
- "Applying WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning)
to Network Configuration Management Problems" (31 May 2002)
Note that WebDAV has distinct advantages over new-from-scratch solutions
(like a Web Services SOAP-based approach):
a) WebDAV supports very powerful version control and distributed
authoring (i.e., keeping track of who made the last changes);
b) WebDAV is content-neutral (i.e., it will store and manage network
configuration information in any format) - WebDAV is NOT locked into
one single device management schema (e.g., DMTF CIM schema);
c) WebDAV is widely deployed and widely supported (including by various
Microsoft tools).
Cheers,
- Ira McDonald
High North Inc
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Excerpts from "Applying WebDAV to Network Configuration Mgmt Problems"]
Abstract
This memo examines the potential of using WWW Distributed Authoring
and Versioning (WebDAV) technologies to address the problems of
network configuration management. It reviews requirements and issues
that have been identified in IETF network configuration management
and operator requirements discussions, matching these requirements
and issues with various WebDAV facilities. It concludes by
identifying areas for further exploration.
Comments are welcomed, both from the Operations and Management Area
in general, and from participants in the webdav and deltav working
groups in particular. Please send comments to the author at
randy_presuhn at bmc.com.
1. Introduction
Since the appearance of [OpsReq], there has been considerable debate
in the Operations and Management Area about how to address these
operator requirements, particularly for the configuration of network
equipment.
Although [ConfBcp] work does a good job of describing current
practices, there is clearly a significant disconnect between this
work, the requirements in [OpsReq], and the current state of the art
of configuration management in other domains, such as software
engineering or technical publications.
This document does not attempt to solve all the interesting problems
described in [OpsReq] and [ConfBcp]. It focuses on the "distributed
database" aspects of the problem, and shows how existing IETF
specifications can be used to address this problem.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Excerpt from PWG Plenary minutes from Santa Fe (27 August 2002)]
6.1 WEB Services Device Management
Harry Lewis suggested that there should be a standardization effort to
define improved device management based upon Web services. The
advantage of this approach over SNMP is the ability to use a common
protocol for platform-independent management applications, both intra
and extra enterprise. Further, device management via the Internet would
allow:
- Central management services by the manufacturer or supplier
- Well-established equipment leasing services to support small and
distributed resource environments as well as large centralized
enterprise installations
- Corporate MIS groups to support small branch offices
- Follow the sun support services - 24 hour help desk manned by agents
around the globe, each working normal hours Management includes both
monitoring and setting equipment parameters, and potentially providing
for firmware updates.
The first task of the groups would be to investigate what other groups
have done in the area, including:
- IETF XML- config group
- Progress of an IETF BOF to find a better equipment management
approach than the command line interface with home grown parsing tools
that appears to be the norm
- W3C activity - device management effort
- OASIS & CIM
Who would be interested?
- Elliott Bradshaw
- Harry Lewis and
- Bill Wagner
offered to do initial work in the area. Initial discussion would be on
the PWG reflector. A new mailing list for this effort would be setup
and identified on the PWG Announce list.