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Network Configuration
charter-ietf-netconf-15-01

The information below is for an older proposed charter
Document Proposed charter Network Configuration WG (netconf) Snapshot
Title Network Configuration
Last updated 2014-01-10
State Draft Charter Rechartering
WG State Active
IESG Responsible AD Mahesh Jethanandani
Charter edit AD Benoît Claise
Send notices to (None)

charter-ietf-netconf-15-01

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 has the following characteristics:

- Provides retrieval mechanisms which can differentiate between
configuration data and non-configuration data
- Is extensible enough so that vendors can provide access to all
configuration data on the device using a single protocol
- Has a programmatic interface (avoids screen scraping and formatting-
related changes between releases)
- Uses an XML-based data representation, that can be easily manipulated
using non-specialized XML manipulation tools.
- Supports integration with existing user authentication methods
- Supports integration with existing configuration database systems
- Supports multiple (e.g. candidate and running) data-stores to optimize
configuration preparation and activation
- Supports network wide configuration transactions (with features such
as locking and rollback capability)
  • Runs over a secure transport; SSH is mandatory to implement while TLS is an optional transport.
    • Provides support for asynchronous notifications.
    • Supports an Access Control Model and a YANG module for configuring the
      Access Control parameters.
    • Supports a YANG module for System Notifications

The NETCONF protocol is data modeling language independent, but YANG 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. 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.

  3. Combine the server configuration data models from Reverse SSH and
    RFC5539bis drafts in a separate YANG module.

  4. Develop a RESTful interface (RESTCONF) for accessing YANG data using
    the datastores defined in NETCONF. The YANG patch operation will be prepared
    in a separate draft.

Goals and Milestones:
Jan 2014 - Submit initial WG drafts for RESTCONF as WG item
Apr 2014 - WGLC for RFC5539bis
Apr 2014 - WGLC for Reverse SSH
Apr 2014 - WGLC for NETCONF server configuration data model
May 2014 - Submit Reverse SSH to AD/IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard
May 2014 - Submit RFC5539bis to AD/IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard
Jun 2014 - WGLC for RESTCONF drafts
Aug 2014 - Submit RESTCONF to AD/IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard