Re: [netmod] Last Call: <draft-ietf-netmod-revised-datastores-09.txt> (Network Management Datastore Architecture) to Proposed Standard configuration

["tom p." <[e-mail]>]

This I-D re-arranges the tectonic plates which underly the IETF's
management technology and is likely to affect all such work for some
years to come.  As such, I want it to be clear and unambiguous but do
not find it so.  I find it unclear as to the meaning of the word
'configuration'.

Netconf (and latterly YANG) were instigated to facilitate configuration,
which was narrowly defined as the values that a user might want to
change to get a box from its initial state to its desired state.  What
might have been thought as configuration historically - values learnt
from hardware or the interactions of protocols - was not configuration
but state, latterly referred to as operational state.  This narrow
definition of configuration is reflected in this I-D.

However, working through the 24 definitions that appear under
'Terminology', while the early ones use this narrow definition, by the
time
we get to

"learned configuration: Configuration that has been learned via protocol
interactions "
or

"system configuration: Configuration that is supplied by the device
itself."
the meaning has clearly changed to encompass all the different ways in
which a device can learn a value i.e 'learned configuration' and 'system
configuration' are not configuration as has been understood up until now
in this work.

I think it hard to follow this I-D when this key term seems to have a
variable meaning. I am uncertain what meaning to attribute the word when
it appears in the later text.

Tom Petch

----- Original Message -----
From: "The IESG" <[e-mail]>
Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2017 7:23 PM

> The IESG has received a request from the Network Modeling WG (netmod)
to
> consider the following document: - 'Network Management Datastore
Architecture'
>   <draft-ietf-netmod-revised-datastores-09.txt> as Proposed Standard
>
> The IESG plans to make a decision in the next few weeks, and solicits
final
> comments on this action. Please send substantive comments to the
> [e-mail] mailing lists by 2018-01-10. Exceptionally, comments may
be
> sent to [e-mail] instead. In either case, please retain the
beginning of
> the Subject line to allow automated sorting.
>
> Abstract
>
>
>    Datastores are a fundamental concept binding the data models
written
>    in the YANG data modeling language to network management protocols
>    such as NETCONF and RESTCONF.  This document defines an
architectural
>    framework for datastores based on the experience gained with the
>    initial simpler model, addressing requirements that were not well
>    supported in the initial model.  This document updates RFC 7950.
>
>
>
>
> The file can be obtained via
> https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-netmod-revised-datastores/
>
> IESG discussion can be tracked via
>
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-netmod-revised-datastores/ba
llot/
>
>
> No IPR declarations have been submitted directly on this I-D.
>
>
>
>