Re: [netmod] Inventory YANG model (entity-MIB)

["Dongjie (Jimmy)" <[e-mail]>]

Hi Juergen, 

Thanks a lot for your comments. Please see some replies inline:

> -----Original Message-----
> From: netmod [mailto:[e-mail]] On Behalf Of Juergen
> Schoenwaelder
> Sent: Friday, March 06, 2015 7:06 PM
> To: Benoit Claise
> Cc: [e-mail];
> [e-mail]; NETMOD Working Group
> Subject: Re: [netmod] Inventory YANG model (entity-MIB)
> 
> On Fri, Mar 06, 2015 at 11:48:02AM +0100, Benoit Claise wrote:
> > Dear all,
> >
> > The I2RS interim meeting yesterday focused on topology.
> > Let me cut/paste a high level slide, with pointers to the relevant drafts.
> >
> >
> > If interested, the meeting minutes are at
> > http://etherpad.tools.ietf.org:9000/p/i2rs-interim-march-5-2015-v-blue
> > sheets
> >
> > Part of the inventory draft
> > (http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-dong-i2rs-network-inventory/)
> > discussion, the overlap with the ENTITY-MIB RFC 6933 was discussed
> > (and RFC 7223 btw).
> >
> >
> > The message was that I2RS should not re-invent something similar to
> > the ENTITY-MIB So, are you aware of any initiatives to "YANGify" the
> > ENTITY-MIB?
> > It's true that there is a way to translate MIB into YANG with RFC 6643.
> > This could be a good start. However, I wonder if a hand-written YANG
> > model that closely follows the entPhysical would not be more beneficial.
> > Is this something we should take on board in NETMOD?
> >
> > What do you think?
> >
> > Note: As commented by the I2RS people, indexing is appropriate in the
> > MIB module for its original purpose, but may not be for the topology.
> > I'm not sure we want to change the indexing just for the topology, but
> > the integration within the topology draft should be thought of.
> >
> 
> My first question is (perhaps not surprising) whether inventory falls
> into the I2RS charter, I2RS = interface to the routing system. That
> said, RFC 6643 gives you a read-only translation. There are not many
> read-write objects in the ENTITY-MIB so perhaps this is good enough
> for now. I guess it would help what I2RS needs to know in order to
> make the interface to the routing system work.
> 
> Anyway, if YANG models overlapping the ENTITY-MIB are done, they they
> should at least allow implementation of both in a predictable manner.

We will take a look at the ENTITY-MIB and see how to re-use and possibly update the materials in that MIB.

> Looking at draft-dong-i2rs-network-inventory-00, it seems the whole
> interface list is already covered by RFC 7223 and interfaces should be
> references not repeated (this is what the ENTITY-MIB does). 

Agreed, reference or augment the interface module is reasonable and will be considered in next revision.

> So what is
> left is essentially a (not yet hierarchy) of 'cards' that seem to more
> or less match the entPhysicalTable of the ENTITY-MIB (but then the
> ENTITY-MIB has a more flexible model that distinguishes between
> different kind of hardware components). 

Agree we can make this more generic for different types of network equipments/components.

> I also notice that the model
> in draft-dong-i2rs-network-inventory-00 is config true - so I am not
> sure how this is supposed to use. Is the idea that this model is an
> interface to an inventory database where I configure what I have
> instead of a model sitting on a device where I can query what the
> device actually has?

The idea is that the inventory model not only can be used to query the information and status of the device/components, but also can be used/augmented to configure some generic and protocol-independent functions on the device/components. 

Best regards,
Jie

> 
> /js
> 
> PS: I personally would have preferred if generic topology and perhaps
>     inventory would have split off into a short-lived targeted WG
>     instead of doing all of this in I2RS but it seems leadership has
>     already decided that I2RS is the home for all of this.
> 
> --
> Juergen Schoenwaelder           Jacobs University Bremen gGmbH
> Phone: [phone]         Campus Ring 1 | 28759 Bremen | Germany
> Fax:   [phone]         <http://www.jacobs-university.de/>
> 
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