Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 14:21:03 -0800 From: Terry Lambert <terry@whistle.com> To: small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Unified Configuration Interface Message-ID: <3634F5CF.373F@whistle.com> References: <Pine.BSI.3.95.981025165740.4377A-200000@chaco.whistle.com>
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> Attached is a draft of the Unified Configuration Interface > project, partialy based on our discussions on freebsd-small. > Please read it, think of it, and make any suggestions you > seem appropriate (I'd prefer you send them to freebsd-small, > instead of only me directly). > > I hope this will help to coordinate our efforts, and give us > some initial framework... I have a number of comments; most of them have to do with organizational policy, and not the particular management implementation technology. Here is my one comment on the management implementation technology: It should be transactional, such that you can engage in all-or-nothing commits, doing inter-record field validation to deny/allow a commit as a whole, and it should be possible to expose via a standard protocol, such as LDAP or SNMPv2, and less desirable, ACAP. Here are my comments on the organizational policy: 1) Do not reinvent the wheel. There are existing MIB standards for organization of configuration data; leverage them to reduce the size of the task: RFC 1902, which defines the SMI, the mechanisms used for describing and naming objects for the purpose of management. RFC 2248, the Network Services Monitoring MIB RFC 2249, the Mail Monitoring MIB RFC 2233, the Interfaces Group MIB using SMIv2 RFC 2096, the IP Forwarding Table MIB RFC 2047, the Remote Network Monitoring MIB Protocol Identifiers RFC 2039, the Applicability of Standards Track MIBs to Management of World Wide Web Servers RFC 2037, the ntity MIB using SMIv2 RFC 1749, the Printer MIB RFC 1697, the Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) Management Information Base (MIB) using SMIv2 RFC 1696, the Modem Management Information Base (MIB) using SMIv2 RFC 1612, the DNS Resolver MIB Extensions RFC 1611, the DNS Server MIB Extensions RFC 1514, the Host Resources MIB RFC 1414, the Identification MIB RFC 1369, the Implementation Notes and Experience for the Internet Ethernet MIB RFC 1354, the IP Forwarding Table MIB In particular, RFC 2248 defines a framework for exposing controls for all network aware applications/servers. 2) I understand that this is supposed to be "lightweight", an thus will most likely contain a subset of the above MIB configuration data. Let me request that if a subset is to be used, that it be a true logical subset, i.e., for managed items, they must conform to the MIB items, such that a full implementation set at some later date for FreeBSD proper dill not have a conflicting arrangement for the same data. 3) If the intent is small, standalone servers/devices (one of the stated intents of the freebsd-small list is to explore embedded systems, so this is appropriate), it is probably worth while to consider an implementation of SLP (Service Location Protocol, RFC 2165) for peer discovery and integration. FYI: SLP is the basis for peer integration in the SunSoft "JINI" framework. A reference implementation is available on request, and operates on FreeBSD with minor patches to avoid certain Linux'isms. The code is available under Sun public license (standard "hold harmless", NOT GPL). Also, although currently classed "experimental", consideration should be given to RFC 2307, An Approach for Using LDAP as a Network Information Service, since it addresses most NIS+ configuration information, including bootp and machine information. -- Terry Lambert -- Whistle Communications, Inc. -- terry@whistle.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message
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