RE: iSCSI boot

["Douglas Otis" <dotis@sanlight.net>]

David,

If there already is a means of discovering either LDAP or SLP in conjunction
with DCHP together will some security features defined within the PXE
specification, then adding iSCSI specific information is not really
required.  If you assume there is security present within LDAP and there is
a defined schema, the ability to retrieve information related to things like
ISID, Initiator Name, Target Name, mount point, etc can be made available
through those standard services with security providing the initial filter.
LDAP can store state as it is commonly used to keep password counts and the
like. It is not a direct property of LDAP, but a well structured schema
should make this task easier.  I know that I will hear, "Send in the Draft"
but until there is consensus as to what is needed and how it is to be used,
it would be a likely futile venture.

Doug

> Somewhere buried in my "to-do" list is to provide some
> guidance to the iSCSI boot draft authors about what
> to do next.  What follows are more of suggestions than
> instructions and comments are welcome.
>
> - The draft will need to be split into two pieces,
> 	an informational draft describing the overall
> 	boot process and a standards-track document
> 	that standardizes the DHCP option.  The
> 	informational draft might benefit from being
> 	merged into the corresponding portion of the
> 	naming and discovery draft, since much of what
> 	it covers is how to discover the boot device.
>
> - The DHCP option draft would need to be coordinated
> 	with the DHC WG.  This need for a new DHCP option
> 	may be a problem, as there aren't may option codes left:
> 	(http://www.iana.org/assignments/bootp-dhcp-parameters).
> 	Using DHCP to find SLP to find the boot device seems
> 	both clumsy and an invitation to problems (one more
> 	thing that can break and prevent booting), but I wonder
> 	if there's a way to [ab]use existing DHCP option 17
> 	(Root Path) for this purpose.
>
> In any case, the use of DHCP will need to be pursued
> with the DHCP WG via a document that describes only the
> DHCP option to be standardized.  This probably shouldn't
> be undertaken until the iSCSI naming and discovery draft
> is relatively stable so that we're certain about naming
> formats and mechanisms (e.g., is "Send Targets" involved
> in boot? - this has implications for the information passed
> through DHCP).
>
> Comments?
> --David
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
> David L. Black, Senior Technologist
> EMC Corporation, 42 South St., Hopkinton, MA  01748
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