OSI-DS Minutes

[Steve Kille <[e-mail]>]

Minutes of the 11th Meeting of OSI-DS
July 12, 1993
IETF Amsterdam

Joint meeting with RARE WG-NAP

Reported by Thomas Lenggenhager/SWITCH

Attendees: TBS

Minutes of the OSI Directory Services Working Group (OSIDS)

1. Introduction

   Review of the agenda and the minutes of the Columbus meeting
   (March 1993) with no comment, approved.

2. Liaison Reports

   - NADF (Marshall T. Rose)
     There was a demo at EMA (Atlanta, May 93). The public namespace is
     implemented. The CYN is run by Canada Post, 5 ADDMDs with DSP(88) and
     DAP(88), 2 participants with DAP only. The CAN has the knowledge of
     the PARADISE pilot, at the moment the CAN is not available from
     PARADISE.

   - AARNet (Mark Prior)
     At the moment internal coordination. Mark has implemented a WHOIS++
     server using LDAP.

   - PARADISE (Paul Barker)
     The usage of the central DUA has stableized, usage of the central
     DSA is still increasing.

     The IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) on the software developed
     at UCL under the PARADISE contract from COSINE have still to be
     solved. The chances seem good that UCL will have the right to
     distribute it freely.
     The idm and bulkload packages as well as the updated de with the
     browser mode will be announced as soon as the IPR are solved.

     The Open Interworking Forum & Platform (the part of the PARADISE
     Transition Phase contracted to INRIA) is still under preparation but
     will soon be ready to take off.

     David Goodman took the initiative for a European Directory Forum which
     shall be presented at the EEMA in Maastricht, NL (Sept. 1993).

   - ISO/ITU (Ken Rossen)
     The 1993 standards passed the ballot in June in Yokohama and will be
     published by October 1993.

     The ISO JTC1 has to accept the interworking with the IETF OSI-DS
     group. This is an activity following the cooperation between the
     Internet Society and ISO.

     ACTION: Ken Rossen to send information to the distribution list about
             the OIW archive and the availability of the standards.

     There is a paper in ISO about Management of the Directory with CMIP,
     a UK contribution. Another paper about Directory Schema Migration.
     Distributed Entries are a worktopic in ISO.

     The name CCITT disappeared and was replaced by ITU/TS (technical
     standards).

   - OIW (Ken Rossen)
     2 International Standard Profiles (ISP) will go into the next IGOS and
     GOSIP. One is for DAP on the side of the DSA.

     Use of 93 replication/shadowing for exchanging data with other
     databases.

   - IDS (Chris Weider)
     Please refer to the IDS minutes.

3. Progression of documents to RFC/standard (Erik Huizer)

   - LDAP was delayed due to comments on the lists. Tim Howes has fixed the
     document and submitted it directly to the RFC editer.

   - DN and UFN are on the top of the list of the RFC editor to publish.

   - DSA-Metrics was not on the agenda, but was sent to the list already
     some time ago. The document was revised by Paul Barker and Roland
     Hedberg based on the experience with the Siemens DSA at SURFnet.

     ACTION: Paul Barker to publish DSA-Metrics as informational RFC.

   - RFC 1278 needs some editorial changes, Steve Kille will do it.

     ACTION: Steve Kille to make editorial changes to RFC 1278.

4. Schema WG / RFC 1274 Update

   Sri Sataluri will take over the Scheme WG which will propose and
   implement a mechanism on how to maintain RFC 1274. Further volunteers
   are Tim Howes, Ken Rossen and Russ Wright (no European...).

5. Presentation of Internic Activity (Sri Sataluri)

   The Directory Services Part of Internic (contracted to AT&T) offers
   services on ds.internic.net.
   - Directory of Directories
   - Directory Services (info about users, institutions, organizations and
     resources)

   X.500 for White Pages. A position paper is available:
   ds.internic.net:/pub/internic-info/x500.position.paper
   - public DUA (with login name x500)
   - LDAP server
   - e-mail access via [e-mail]
   - WAIS server (people.src)
   - Gopher access is planned
   Up to 50 entries per organization for free by using the template
   ds.internic.net:/pub/internic-info/org.x500.form

6. OSI-DS-41: Guidelines for Directory Structure / RFC 1384 update
   (Thomas Lenggenhager)
   This draft document comes out of the RARE WG-NAP Task Force for Data
   Management. It tries to summarize all information necessary an
   organization needs when it wants to use X.500 as a White Pages service.

   - How to structure an organizational DIT
   - Naming of entries
   - Attribute Syntaxes, use of T.61
   - Languages (no support in the standard at all)
   - How to use selected attribute types for a White Pages service.

   Privary and data protection will be covered in a separate RFC by
   Erik Huizer (RARE WG-NAP TF-Legal and IDS).

   It was agreed that this kind of information shall be integrated into an
   update of RFC 1384.

   ACTION: Paul Barker, Steve Kille and Thomas Lenggenhager to update
           RFC 1384.

7. OSI-DS-40: X.500 based file archive searching (Paul Barker)
   It is something like Archie but based on X.500.

   The update since the last meeting dropped many of special syntaxes.
   A publicly accessible interface within 2 weeks available.
   A software package to be available within 3-4 weeks.

   ACTION: Steve Kille to add this topic the workplan to be progressed
           to an experimental RFC some time in the future.

8. Index DSAs (Paul Barker)
   He presented his ideas on specialized DSAs which replicate just the part
   of the data the DSA administrator is interested in. For the rest of the
   information the DN of the entry is available.
   Useful for Yellow Page services like finding all biologists in a
   country, all file archives or all organizations in the world etc.

   This method would allow subtree searching also near the top without
   excessive 'costs'. It is just another view to the same data. This would
   require the DUAs to 'know' where these special DSAs are.

   Alternative approach with a web of aliases. Query a special part of the
   DIT instead of special DSAs.

   Currently 3 special DSAs are implemented:
   - people in all UK computer departments
   - all British librarians
   - all companies worldwide

9. OSI-DS-38: Representing IP information in the DIT (Thomas Johannsen)
   There were some attempts before to introduce IP information into the
   DIT. This solution has been generalized and shall now get implemented
   for IP.

   ACTION: Thomas Johannsen to move OSI-DS-37 and 38 to experimental
           RFCs by September 1993.

10. Network Information in the Directory: Deployment Strategy
    (Thomas Johannsen)
    No migration plans. If the X.500 solution is useful, it will be used.
    Timescale is needed before it can be progressed.
    Special DUAs are needed for network and system managers.
    The White Pages tree shall be used instead of special trees.

11. Representing the DNS in the Directory / Revising RFC 1279
    (Thomas Johannsen)
    Changes: - more admin and tech aspects
             - distinction of DNS record types
             - linking DNS <-> Network info and DNS <-> White Pages

    ACTION: Steve Kille to add RFC 1279 update to the workplan.
    ACTION: Thomas Johannsen to publish the OID tables.

12. Multiple Service Providers and Distributed Entries (Paul-Andre Pays)
    There are only questions, no solutions yet.
    One real life object may have several sources of information. Either
    with more or less complete information each or with only a few
    attributes.

    Multiple Service Providers
    Proposals by NADF (naming links) and Bellcore (reference link with
    context and DN).

    Distributed Entries
    Attributes held in different databases for one real world object
    (e.g. phone number in a PABX).

    There were some doubts whether the NADF solution will scale - this has
    first to be shown. May collective attributes solve the problem?

    ACTION: RARE WG-NAP will prepare a document to state the problem.
            OSI-DS will follow up on it.

13. Date of next meeting
    Next meeting in Houston (November IETF), but to the end of the week.