Experience of Designing Network Management System
draft-teramoto-experience-network-management-00

Network Working Group                                        Y. Teramoto
Internet-Draft                                          Kyoto University
Intended status: Informational                               R. Atarashi
Expires: August 22, 2013                         IIJ Research Laboratory
                                                             Y. Atarashi
                                                  Alaxala Networks Corp.
                                                                Y. Okabe
                                                        Kyoto University
                                                            Feb 18, 2013

           Experience of Designing Network Management System
            draft-teramoto-experience-network-management-00

Abstract

   This document describes our experiences from designing and
   implementing a large-scale local area network management system using
   mainly NETCONF.  We designed the data models for device
   configurations and implemented NETCONF client to centrally control
   multiple devices of various vendors.  The document provides insight
   on strong and weak points of current NETCONF approach.  The document
   also makes some recommendations about NETCONF and future network
   management protocols.

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   Copyright (c) 2013 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

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   2.  Implementing NETCONF Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
     2.1.  Transport protocol  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
     2.2.  Exchanging hello message  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
     2.3.  lock and commit mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   3.  Designing Data Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
     3.1.  YANG  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
     3.2.  RPC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   4.  conclusion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   6.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   7.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

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1.  Introduction

   This document discuss our experiences from designing and implementing
   a large-scale local area network management system.  In this
   document, the large-scale local area network is supposed to be
   composed by multiple network intelligent network devices of several
   vendors.

   We mainly used NETCONF[RFC6020][RFC6241][RFC6242] to get and edit
   configurations of network devices.  NETCONF, however, is a developing
   protocol on model layer, therefore there are several data model
   designs by vendors.  We designed the unified data models for device
   configurations to manage multiple devices of various vendors.
   Furthermore we implemented NETCONF client to control multiple devices
   asynchronously.

   This document evaluates the NETCONF protocol design and makes some
   recommendations about NETCONF and future network management protocols
   to support large-scale network management.

2.  Implementing NETCONF Client

2.1.  Transport protocol

   * The tune of transport layer is often required on large scale
   systems

   * NETCONF requires SSH implementation; however this protocol makes it
   difficult to create high-performance implementation

2.2.  Exchanging hello message

   * NETCONF does not define procedure to invoke errors on hello message
   exchange.

   * The error handling is different between vendors.

   * NETCONF should support hello fail message.

2.3.  lock and commit mechanism

   Lock mechanism of NETCONF is useful on control multiple devices
   safely.

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3.  Designing Data Models

3.1.  YANG

   The approach of YANG is to express various configuration format;
   however it makes the issue of complexity of data model schema.

3.2.  RPC

   Some bad patterns in XML schema.

4.  conclusion

5.  Security Considerations

6.  IANA Considerations

7.  Normative References

   [RFC6020]  Bjorklund, M., "YANG - A Data Modeling Language for the
              Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF)", RFC 6020,
              October 2010.

   [RFC6241]  Enns, R., Bjorklund, M., Schoenwaelder, J., and A.
              Bierman, "Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF)",
              RFC 6241, June 2011.

   [RFC6242]  Wasserman, M., "Using the NETCONF Protocol over Secure
              Shell (SSH)", RFC 6242, June 2011.

Authors' Addresses

   Yasuhiro Teramoto
   Graduate School of Informatics Kyoto University
   Yoshida-Hommachi
   Sakyo-ku, Kyoto  606-8501
   Japan

   Phone: +81-75-753-7417
   Fax:   +81-75-753-7440
   Email: teramoto@net.ist.i.kyoto-u.ac.jp

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   Ray S. Atarashi
   IIJ Research Laboratory
   Jinbocho Mitsui Bldg., 1-105 Kanda Jinbo-cho
   Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo  101-0051
   Japan

   Phone: +81-3-5205-6464
   Fax:   +81-3-5205-6466
   Email: ray@iijlab.net

   Yoshifumi Atarashi
   Alaxala Networks Corp.
   Shin-Kawasaki Mitsui Bldg.
   890 Saiwai-ku Kashimada
   Kawasaki, Kanagawa  212-0058
   Japan

   Phone: +81-44-549-1735
   Fax:   +81-44-549-1272
   Email: atarashi@alaxala.net

   Yasuo Okabe
   Academic Center for Computing and Media Studies Kyoto-University
   Yoshida-Hommachi
   Sakyo-ku, Kyoto  606-8501
   Japan

   Phone: +81-44-549-1735
   Fax:   +81-44-549-1272
   Email: okabe@i.kyoto-u.ac.jp

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