[netmod] Differentiating the types of Mount

["Eric Voit (evoit)" <[e-mail]>]

To help differentiate between concepts and drafts, below are strawman definitions for the various types of Mount which we have been discussing over the last year in Netmod.   Thoughts/suggestions?

YANG Mount
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Definition: An abstracted term for a mechanism that a parent YANG model can use to link in YANG information defined or located elsewhere.  
Purpose: Provides model flexibility by enabling the growth of YANG trees via an explicit reference to other YANG information and structures. 

Schema Mount
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Definition: A type of YANG Mount where a new YANG Schema is constructed by inserting any existing YANG schema under a parent model within a local datastore.   Objects populated into the mounted schema are only instantiated as part of the parent's hierarchy.  
Purpose: This allows reuse of existing model definitions to facilitate implementation of alternative model structures in multiple contexts.  In effect, it allows to define models which reuse other model definitions as if they had been defined as a special kind of grouping.  

Alias Mount
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Definition: A type of YANG Mount which allows to provide an alternative path to local objects of YANG data.  
Purpose: Enables multiple concurrent context specific object models without replicating instance data.  This allows programmers access common objects via the hierarchies that best make sense to them. (E.g. Symbolic link in a file system.)

Peer Mount
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Definition: A type of YANG Mount which enables access to remote objects as if they were contained within a local datastore dynamically.
Purpose: Provides an on-demand virtual federated datastore that provides visibility and location transparency of YANG-data across device boundaries.  Retains clear authoritative ownership.  Eliminates many tasks otherwise needed to synchronize, reconcile aggregate, validate information replicated across these devices. (E.g. File share to remote host in a file system.)

Thanks, 
Eric