Network Configuration (netconf)
-------------------------------

 Charter
 Last Modified: 2011-08-18

 Current Status: Active Working Group

 Chair(s):
     Bert Wijnen  <bertietf@bwijnen.net>
     Mehmet Ersue  <mehmet.ersue@nsn.com>

 Operations and Management Area Director(s):
     Dan Romascanu  <dromasca@avaya.com>
     Ronald Bonica  <rbonica@juniper.net>

 Operations and Management Area Advisor:
     Dan Romascanu  <dromasca@avaya.com>

 Technical Advisor(s):
     Tim Polk  <tim.polk@nist.gov>

 Mailing Lists: 
     General Discussion:netconf@ietf.org
     To Subscribe:      netconf-request@ietf.org
         In Body:       in msg body: subscribe
     Archive:           http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/netconf/

Description of Working Group:

 Configuration of networks of devices has become a critical requirement
 for operators in today's highly interoperable networks. Operators from
 large to small have developed their own mechanisms or used vendor
 specific mechanisms to transfer configuration data to and from a
 device, and for examining 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 Working Group has produced a protocol suitable for
 network configuration, with 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, BEEP, and SOAP are optional transports.
 - Provides support for asynchronous notifications.

 The NETCONF protocol has been designed independent of the data 
 modeling language.  The IETF recommends to use YANG as the NETCONF  
 modeling language, which introduces advanced language features for 
 configuration management.

 In the current phase of the incremental development of NETCONF the
 workgroup will focus on following items:

 1. Netconf Access Control Model (NACM) Requirements and Solution.

    There is a need for standard mechanisms to restrict 
    NETCONF protocol access for particular users to a pre-  
    configured (by operator) subset of all available NETCONF
    operations and content. 

    The WG will produce a document which identifies the access 
    control requirements specific to the NETCONF protocol, as 
    defined in [4741bis].  This document will also provide a 
    standard YANG data model which addresses these 
    requirements. 

    It is possible that the WG will not reach solution consensus
    on every possible requirement identified in the document.
    In this case, it is expected that the solution will evolve
    over time to meet the the remaining unmet requirements.

 2. The NETCONF server may want to notify interested clients about
    particular NETCONF protocol/server events.  The WG will work on
    a NETCONF specific YANG module(s) to define suitable
    notifications.

 3. As implementation and deployment experience gained with the
    NETCONF monitoring data model, the WG may revise the NETCONF
    monitoring data model to add additional objects that can be used
    to check the status of the server and to discover additional
    information about the server implementation. The WG may choose
    to revise the NETCONF monitoring data model.

 Goals and Milestones:

   Done         Working Group formed 

   Done         Submit initial Netconf Protocol draft 

   Done         Submit initial Netconf over (transport-TBD) draft 

   Done         Begin Working Group Last Call for the Netconf Protocol draft 

   Done         Begin Working Group Last Call for the Netconf over 
                (transport-TBD) draft 

   Done         Submit final version of the Netconf Protocol draft to the IESG 

   Done         Submit final version of the Netconf over SOAP draft to the IESG 

   Done         Submit final version of the Netconf over BEEP draft to the IESG 

   Done         Submit final version of the Netconf over SSH draft to the IESG 

   Done         Update charter 

   Done         Submit first version of NETCONF Notifications document 

   Done         Begin WGLC of NETCONF Notifications document 

   Done         Submit final version of NETCONF Notifications document to IESG 
                for consideration as Proposed Standard 

   Done         -00 draft for NETCONF Monitoring 

   Done         -00 draft for Fine Grain Locking 

   Done         -00 draft for NETCONF over TLS 

   Done         -00 draft for Schema Advertisement 

   Done         Early Review of client authentication approach (for NETCONF 
                over TLS) with the security community at IETF 71 

   Done         WG Last Call on NETCONF Monitoring after IETF72 

   Done         WG Last Call on NETCONF over TLS after IETF72 

   Done         WG Last Call on Fine Grain Locking after IETF72 

   Done         Send Partial Locking to IESG for consideration as Proposed 
                Standards 

   Done         Initial WG draft for with-defaults capability 

   Done         Initial WG draft for rfc4741bis 

   Done         WG Last Call on NETCONF Monitoring after IETF73 

   Done         Submit first WG draft for rfc4742bis 

   Done         WG Last Call on rfc4741bis 

   Done         Send with-defaults to IESG for consideration as Proposed 
                Standard 

   Done         first WG draft (rev 00) on NACM posted 

   Done         rfc4741bis to IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard 

   Done         Send rfc4742bis to IESG for consideration as proposed Standard 

   Done         first WG draft (rev 00) on NETCONF specific YANG modules posted 

   Jul 2011       WGLC for NACM document 

   Jul 2011       WGLC for NETCONF specific notifications document 

   Sep 2011       (if needed last) WGLC for NACM document 

   Sep 2011       (if needed last) WGLC for NETCONF specific notifications 
                document 

   Oct 2011       submit NACM document to IESG for consideration as Proposed 
                Standard 

   Oct 2011       submit NETCONF specific notifications document to IESG for 
                consideration as Proposed Standard 


 Internet-Drafts:

Posted Revised         I-D Title   <Filename>
------ ------- --------------------------------------------
Sep 2010 Oct 2011   <draft-ietf-netconf-access-control-05.txt>
                Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF) Access Control Model 

Sep 2010 Aug 2011   <draft-ietf-netconf-system-notifications-05.txt>
                Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF) Base Notifications 

 Request For Comments:

  RFC   Stat Published     Title
------- -- ----------- ------------------------------------
RFC4741 PS   Dec 2006    NETCONF Configuration Protocol 

RFC4742 PS   Dec 2006    Using the NETCONF Configuration Protocol over Secure 
                       Shell (SSH) 

RFC4744 PS   Dec 2006    Using the NETCONF Protocol over Blocks Extensible 
                       Exchange Protocol (BEEP) 

RFC4743 PS   Dec 2006    Using the Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF) Over 
                       the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) 

RFC5277 PS   Jul 2008    NETCONF Event Notifications 

RFC5539 PS   May 2009    NETCONF Over Transport Layer Security (TLS) 

RFC5717 PS   Dec 2009    Partial Lock Remote Procedure Call (RPC) for NETCONF 

RFC6022 PS   Oct 2010    YANG Module for NETCONF Monitoring 

RFC6241 PS   Jun 2011    Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF) 

RFC6242 PS   Jun 2011    Using the NETCONF Configuration Protocol over Secure 
                       Shell (SSH) 

RFC6243 PS   Jun 2011    With-defaults Capability for NETCONF