Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) A. Farrel
Request for Comments: 6123 Old Dog Consulting
Category: Historic February 2011
ISSN: 2070-1721
Inclusion of Manageability Sections in
Path Computation Element (PCE) Working Group Drafts
Abstract
It has often been the case that manageability considerations have
been retrofitted to protocols after they have been specified,
standardized, implemented, or deployed. This is sub-optimal.
Similarly, new protocols or protocol extensions are frequently
designed without due consideration of manageability requirements.
The Operations Area has developed "Guidelines for Considering
Operations and Management of New Protocols and Protocol Extensions"
(RFC 5706), and those guidelines have been adopted by the Path
Computation Element (PCE) Working Group.
Previously, the PCE Working Group used the recommendations contained
in this document to guide authors of Internet-Drafts on the contents
of "Manageability Considerations" sections in their work. This
document is retained for historic reference.
Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
published for the historical record.
This document defines a Historic Document for the Internet community.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not all documents
approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6123.
Farrel Historic [Page 1]
RFC 6123 Manageability Sections in PCE Drafts February 2011
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
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publication of this document. Please review these documents
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to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
1. Introduction
This document is produced for historic reference.
When new protocols or protocol extensions are developed, it is often
the case that not enough consideration is given to the manageability
of the protocols or to the way in which they will be operated in the
network. The result is that manageability considerations are only
understood once the protocols have been implemented and sometimes not
until after they have been deployed.
The resultant attempts to retrofit manageability mechanisms are not
always easy or architecturally pleasant. Furthermore, it is possible
that certain protocol designs make manageability particularly hard to
achieve.
Recognizing that manageability is fundamental to the utility and
success of protocols designed within the IETF, and that simply
defining a MIB module does not necessarily provide adequate
manageability, this document was developed to define recommendations
for the inclusion of Manageability Considerations sections in all
Internet-Drafts produced within the PCE Working Group. It was the
intention that meeting these recommendations would ensure that proper
consideration was given to the support of manageability at all stages
of the protocol development process from Requirements and
Architecture through Specification and Applicability.
It is clear that the presence of such a section in an Internet-Draft
does not guarantee that the protocol will be well-designed or
manageable. However, the inclusion of this section will ensure that
the authors have the opportunity to consider the issues, and, by
reading the material in this document, they will gain some guidance.
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RFC 6123 Manageability Sections in PCE Drafts February 2011
This document was developed within the PCE Working Group and was used
to help guide the authors and editors within the working group to
datatracker.ietf.org