Hello all of you, As you might know there is an IETF in Dublin this month and I was wondering if NML related activities will be there? Let me know (might be a reason to go). All the best, Victor Victor Reijs (work) wrote:
Hello all of you,
Evangelos Chaniotakis wrote:
I think both approaches have value, and are in fact very close but maybe we would like to to differentiate between them?
Related to this, is a point I try to make more explicit. In some case entities should have data for the actually configurated values and in some cases one needs to provide the alternative values a parameter can have (which could be provisioned). Perhaps one needs to distinguish here in different class or attrbiute: configuredValue possibleValue
Remember in some cases the existing network topology is not very handy to determine a possible other network configuration. E.g. in the GLIF environment most links were made by adding new physical entities (interfaces, hops, etc.)...
So this is the difference between provisioning and configuration management.
In most cases (but not always) provisioning is a human activity and I think we will need to start realizing that such alternatives are possible.
An example; multiple Ethernet tagging method can sometimes be configured through an interface (like for most switches: 802.3, 802.1Q, 802.1ad). So these options exist in that 'node'/'hop'. And the choice is sometimes depending on the type of service one needs to provide (e.g. one needs to do 802.1ad on a trunk if one wants to provide 802.1Q to clients).
Another example; a network might advertise already its willingness that it can do more functions. But these will need human interventation (like an NREN is willing to change the interface to add the 802.1ah feature).
Perhaps people see the above as futuristic (real SF), but I think that the NML should be able to cater for that idea which is part of the SF (so in some way it should allow multi-value fields).
Hope I did not complicate things too much;-)
All the best,
Victor
-- Victor Reijs, Network Development Manager HEAnet Limited, Ireland's Education and Research Network 1st Floor, 5 George's Dock, IFSC, Dublin 1 Registered in Ireland, no 275301 tel: +353-1-660 9040 fax: +353-1-660 3666 web: http://www.heanet.ie/