Network Working Group E. Lear
Internet-Draft K. Crozier
Expires: January 30, 2004 Cisco Systems
R. Enns
Juniper Networks
August 2003
NETCONF Transport over BEEP
draft-lear-netconfbeep-00
Status of this Memo
This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that
other groups may also distribute working documents as
Internet-Drafts.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://
www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt.
The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.
This Internet-Draft will expire on January 30, 2004.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This document specifies a transport mapping for the NETCONF protocol
over the Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol (BEEP).
Lear, et al. Expires January 30, 2004 [Page 1]
Internet-Draft NETCONF over BEEP August 2003
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. BEEP Transport Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1 NETCONF Session Initiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2 NETCONF RPC Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3 NETCONF <rpc-abort> and <rpc-progress> . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.4 NETCONF Session Teardown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.5 BEEP Profiles for NETCONF Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.5.1 Management Channel Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.5.2 Operations Channel Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.5.3 Notification Channel Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . 13
Lear, et al. Expires January 30, 2004 [Page 2]
Internet-Draft NETCONF over BEEP August 2003
1. Introduction
The NETCONF protocol [1] defines a simple mechanism through which a
network device can be managed. NETCONF is designed to be usable over
a variety of transport protocols. This document specifies a
transport mapping over the Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol (BEEP)
[2] .
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [3].
Lear, et al. Expires January 30, 2004 [Page 3]
Internet-Draft NETCONF over BEEP August 2003
2. BEEP Transport Mapping
All NETCONF over BEEP implementations MUST implement the profile and
functional mapping between NETCONF and BEEP as described below.
2.1 NETCONF Session Initiation
Managers may be either BEEP listeners or initiators. Similarly,
agents may be either listeners or initiators. Thus the initial
exchange takes place without regard to whether a manager or the agent
is the initiator. After the transport connection is established, as
greetings are exchanged, they should each announce their support for
TLS [5] and optionally SASL [4] (see below), as well as for the
SYSLOG profile [6]. Once greetings are exchanged, if TLS is to be
used and available by both parties, the listener STARTs a channel
with the TLS profile.
Once TLS has been started, a new greeting is sent by both initiator
and listener, as required by the BEEP RFC.
At this point, if SASL is desired, the initiator starts BEEP channel
1 to perform a SASL exchange to authenticate itself. When SASL is
completed, the channel MUST be closed.
Once authentication has occurred, there is no need to distinguish
between initiator and listener. We now distinguish between manager
and agent.
The manager now establishes an NETCONF management channel for the
purpose of exchanging capabilities, monitoring progress, and aborting
remote procedure calls. As initiators assign odd channels and
listeners assign even channels, the management channel is BEEP
channel 1 or 2, depending on whether the manager is the initiator or
the listener.
The manager next establishes the NETCONF operational channel for the
purpose of issuing RPC requests. This channel is BEEP channel 3 or
4.
Finally, if either manager or agent wishes to send or receive
notifications, it may issue a start on the next available channel if
the other side has sent the send or receive NETCONF capability.
At this point, the NETCONF session is established.
2.2 NETCONF RPC Execution
To issue an RPC, the manager transmits on the operational channel a
Lear, et al. Expires January 30, 2004 [Page 4]
Internet-Draft NETCONF over BEEP August 2003
BEEP MSG containing the RPC and its arguments. In accordance with
the BEEP standard, RPC requests may be split across multiple BEEP
frames.
Once received and processed, the agent responds with BEEP RPYs on the
same channel with the response to the RPC. In accordance with the
BEEP standard, responses may be split across multiple BEEP frames.
2.3 NETCONF <rpc-abort> and <rpc-progress>
<rpc-abort> and <rpc-progress> requests are issued by the manager on
the NETCONF management channel, and the agent responds with BEEP RPYs
on that same channel.
2.4 NETCONF Session Teardown
Either side may initiate the termination of an NETCONF session. In
This is done by issuing a BEEP close on the operational channel after
the current RPC has completed. The same is done with any
notification channels by the end that transmits notifications.
Finally, BEEP channel 0 is closed.
2.5 BEEP Profiles for NETCONF Channels
There are two profiles, the management channel profile and the
operations channel profile. These are not to be confused with the
BEEP control channel.
The operations channel will have two commands, <rpc> and <rpc-reply>.
The management channel will have one additional operation with
<rpc-progress>.
2.5.1 Management Channel Profile
<!-- DTD for netconf management over BEEP
Refer to this DTD as:
<!ENTITY % NETCONF PUBLIC "netconf/management/1.0" "">
%NETCONF;
-->
<!-- Contents
Overview
Includes
Profile Summaries
Lear, et al. Expires January 30, 2004 [Page 5]
Internet-Draft NETCONF over BEEP August 2003
Entity Definitions
Operations
rpc
rpc-reply
rpc-progress
-->
<!-- Overview NETCONF Management channel -->
<!-- Includes -->
<!ENTITY % BEEP PUBLIC "-//Blocks//DTD BEEP//EN"
"">
%BEEP;
<!-- Profile summaries
BEEP profile NETCONF-MANAGEMENT
role MSG RPY ERR
==== === === ===
I or L rpc ok error
I or L rpc-reply ok error
I or L rpc-progress ok error
-->
<!--
Entity Definitions
entity syntax/reference example
====== ================ =======
a PRC
RPC-DATA Alpha
a RPC reply number
RPC-REPLY 1*3DIGIT
a RPC progress number
RPC-PROGRESS 1*3DIGIT
-->
<!ENTITY % RPC-REPLY "CDATA">
<!ENTITY % RPC-DATA "CDATA">
<!ENTITY % RPC-PROGRESS "CDATA">
-->
Lear, et al. Expires January 30, 2004 [Page 6]
Internet-Draft NETCONF over BEEP August 2003
<!--
RPC command
-->
<!ELEMENT rpc (#PCDATA)>
<!ATTLIST rpc
rpc-data %RPC_DATA; #REQUIRED>
<!--
Result of RPC.
-->
<!ELEMENT rpc-reply (#PCDATA)>
<!ATTLIST rpc-reply
rpc-reply %RPC-REPLY; #REQUIRED
rpc-data %rpc-data #REQUIRED>
<!--
Progress of RPC operation.
-->
<!ELEMENT rpc-progress (#PCDATA)>
<!ATTLIST rpc-progress
rpc-progress %RPC-PROGRESS; #REQUIRED>
<!-- End of DTD -->
2.5.2 Operations Channel Profile
<!-- DTD for netconf operations over BEEP
Refer to this DTD as:
<!ENTITY % NETCONF PUBLIC "netconf/Operation/1.0" "">
%NETCONF;
-->
<!-- Contents
Overview
Includes
Profile Summaries
Entity Definitions
Operations
Lear, et al. Expires January 30, 2004 [Page 7]
Internet-Draft NETCONF over BEEP August 2003
rpc
rpc-reply
-->
<!-- Overview NETCONF operation channel -->
<!-- Includes -->
<!ENTITY % BEEP PUBLIC "-//Blocks//DTD BEEP//EN"
"">
%BEEP;
<!-- Profile summaries
BEEP profile NETCONF-MANAGEMENT
role MSG RPY ERR
==== === === ===
I or L rpc ok error
I or L rpc-reply ok error
-->
<!--
Entity Definitions
entity syntax/reference example
====== ================ =======
a PRC
RPC-DATA Alpha
a RPC reply number
RPC-REPLY 1*3DIGIT
-->
<!ENTITY % RPC-REPLY "CDATA">
<!ENTITY % RPC-DATA "CDATA">
-->
<!--
RPC command
-->
<!ELEMENT RPC (#PCDATA)>
<!ATTLIST RPC
Lear, et al. Expires January 30, 2004 [Page 8]
Internet-Draft NETCONF over BEEP August 2003
RPC-DATA %RPC_DATA; #REQUIRED>
<!--
Result of RPC.
-->
<!ELEMENT RPC-REPLY (#PCDATA)>
<!ATTLIST RPC-REPLY
RPC-REPLY %RPC-REPLY; #REQUIRED
RPC-DATA %RPC-DATA #REQUIRED>
<!-- End of DTD -->
2.5.3 Notification Channel Profile
The NETCONF notification channel profile is defined in RFC 3195 [6].
Lear, et al. Expires January 30, 2004 [Page 9]
Internet-Draft NETCONF over BEEP August 2003
3. Security Considerations
Configuration information is by its very nature sensitive. Its
transmission in the clear and without integrity checking leaves
devices open to classic so-called "person in the middle" attacks.
Configuration information often times contains passwords, user names,
service descriptions, and topological information, all of which are
sensitive. A NETCONF transport protocol, therefore, must minimally
support options for both confidentiality and authentication.
BEEP makes use of both transport layer security and SASL. We require
that TLS be used in BEEP as described by the BEEP standard.
Client-side certificates are strongly desirable, but an SASL
authentication is the bare minimum. SASL allows for the use of
protocols such as RADIUS [9], so that authentication can occur off
the box.
SASL authentication will occur on the first channel creation. No
further authentication may occur during the same session. This
avoids a situation where rights are different between different
channels. If an implementation wishes to support multiple accesses
by different individuals with different rights, then multiple
sessions are required.
Different environments may well allow different rights prior to and
then after authentication. Thus, an authorization model is not
specified in this document. When an operation is not properly
authorized then a simple "permission denied" is sufficient. Note
that authorization information may be exchanged in the form of
configuration information, which is all the more reason to ensure the
security of the connection.
Lear, et al. Expires January 30, 2004 [Page 10]
Internet-Draft NETCONF over BEEP August 2003
Normative References
[1] Enns, R., "NETCONF Configuration Protocol",
draft-ietf-netconf-prot-00 (work in progress), August 2003.
[2] Rose, M., "The Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol Core", RFC
3080, March 2001.
[3] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[4] Myers, J., "Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL)",
RFC 2222, October 1997.
[5] Dierks, T., Allen, C., Treese, W., Karlton, P., Freier, A. and
P. Kocher, "The TLS Protocol Version 1.0", RFC 2246, January
1999.
[6] New, D. and M. Rose, "Reliable Delivery for syslog", RFC 3195,
November 2001.
Lear, et al. Expires January 30, 2004 [Page 11]
Internet-Draft NETCONF over BEEP August 2003
Informative References
[7] Bray, T., Paoli, J., Sperberg-McQueen, C. and E. Maler,
"Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Second Edition)", W3C REC
REC-xml-20001006, October 2000.
[8] Hollenbeck, S., Rose, M. and L. Masinter, "Guidelines for the
Use of Extensible Markup Language (XML) within IETF Protocols",
BCP 70, RFC 3470, January 2003.
[9] Rigney, C., Willens, S., Rubens, A. and W. Simpson, "Remote
Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS)", RFC 2865, June
2000.
Authors' Addresses
Eliot Lear
Cisco Systems
170 W. Tasman Dr.
San Jose, CA 95134-1706
US
EMail: lear@cisco.com
Ken Crozier
Cisco Systems
170 W. Tasman Dr.
San Jose, CA 95134-1706
US
EMail: kcrozier@cisco.com
Rob Enns
Juniper Networks
1194 North Mathilda Ave
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
US
EMail: rpe@juniper.net
Lear, et al. Expires January 30, 2004 [Page 12]
Internet-Draft NETCONF over BEEP August 2003
Intellectual Property Statement
The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
intellectual property or other rights that might be claimed to
pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
might or might not be available; neither does it represent that it
has made any effort to identify any such rights. Information on the
IETF's procedures with respect to rights in standards-track and
standards-related documentation can be found in BCP-11. Copies of
claims of rights made available for publication and any assurances of
licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt made to
obtain a general license or permission for the use of such
proprietary rights by implementors or users of this specification can
be obtained from the IETF Secretariat.
The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
rights which may cover technology that may be required to practice
this standard. Please address the information to the IETF Executive
Director.
Full Copyright Statement
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.
This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
English.
The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assignees.
This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
"AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
Lear, et al. Expires January 30, 2004 [Page 13]
Internet-Draft NETCONF over BEEP August 2003
HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Acknowledgement
Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
Internet Society.
Lear, et al. Expires January 30, 2004 [Page 14]