[Netconf] comments on draft-wu-netconf-restconf-factory-restore-03

[Andy Bierman <[e-mail]>]

Hi,

I have comments and questions on the functional requirements and
scope of the problem(s) to be solved. Scope seem to be:
   G1) reset device to factory config
   G2) set any datastore to contents of the factory config with
<copy-config>
   G3) retrieve contents of factory-config with <get-data>

Q1) what is the factory datastore?

The concept of a factory default config is universal but the implementation
is not.
This needs to be precisely defined in the draft.

There is actually a factory-startup (--> running) and factory-intended.
By default the factory-startup is likely an empty config (i.e. just the
YANG defaults
supported by the server).  The factory-intended is implementation-specific.

So what is standardized? factory-startup or factory-intended? both?

Q2) leaf-list of datastores to reset

Setting specific datastores to factory default is complex and dangerous.
It is unlikely a server will support all possible combinations.
A simple RPC to return the entire server to factory default is much easier
to use
and implement. Vendors can add input parameters to support their variants.

Q3) filtered retrieval of the factory settings

If a real datastore is used as proposed, then is subtree and XPath
filtering required?
It seems all operations except edit have to be supported by the server.

Q4) why no retrieval without NMDA, factory-default-as-datastore feature?

It would be useful to know what will happen if <reset-datastore> is invoked
by retrieving the contents of the factory config. This is not possible if
the datastore feature is not supported. I suggest another RPC

   rpc get-factory-defaults {
      if-feature "not factory-default-as-datastore";
      output {
        anydata data;
      }
   }


Andy