RE: iSCSI: Last call comments

[Michael Smith <msmith@corp.iready.com>]

Title: RE: iSCSI: Last call comments

I support David's suggested clarification and his suggested wording. I struggled for a while understanding this issue and the suggested changes make things much clearer.

Mike Smith
CTO, iReady

-----Original Message-----
From: Black_David@emc.com [mailto:Black_David@emc.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 03, 2002 2:54 PM
To: mbakke@cisco.com; ips@ece.cmu.edu
Subject: RE: iSCSI: Last call comments

Mark,

> There are a few sections in iSCSI (and ips-security) that discuss
> IPsec requirements for "compliant/conformant implementations".  I
> recall that this meant a target implementation could either be a
> single device with both iSCSI and IPsec, or a combination of two
> devices, one that handles iSCSI; the other handling IPsec.

In the two device combination, only the combination is compliant,
and only at the interface(s) that provide(s) both iSCSI and IPsec.
The iSCSI device in the combination is not compliant by itself
because it does not provide IPsec.

> As there are many cases where it makes a lot of sense to provide
> the solution in two pieces (iSCSI in one or more devices, with one or
> more IPsec front-end devices, I'd like to clarify this.
>
> How about (somewhere in section 7) adding something like:
>
>    An iSCSI compliant initiator or target may provide the required
>    IPsec support either by itself, or in conjunction with an IPsec
>    front-end device.
>
> Any thoughts?

It would need to have the word "compliant" removed and a sentence
added to spell out what is compliant, along the lines of:

    An iSCSI initiator or target may provide the required
    IPsec support either by itself, or in conjunction with an IPsec
    front-end device.  In the latter case only the combination
    complies with the requirements of this specification; the
    individual iSCSI initiator or target would not comply with
    the requirements of this specification due to the lack of IPsec
    support.

It's probably a good idea to put this in.

Thanks,
--David
---------------------------------------------------
David L. Black, Senior Technologist
EMC Corporation, 42 South St., Hopkinton, MA  01748
+1 (508) 249-6449            FAX: +1 (508) 497-8018
black_david@emc.com       Mobile: +1 (978) 394-7754
---------------------------------------------------

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Bakke [mailto:mbakke@cisco.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 03, 2002 5:48 PM
> To: IPS
> Subject: iSCSI: Last call comments
>
>
>
> The iSCSI draft is looking pretty good.  I only have one last-call
> comment left:
>
> There are a few sections in iSCSI (and ips-security) that discuss
> IPsec requirements for "compliant/conformant implementations".  I
> recall that this meant a target implementation could either be a
> single device with both iSCSI and IPsec, or a combination of two
> devices, one that handles iSCSI; the other handling IPsec.  However,
> I couldn't find anywhere in the spec that spells this out either
> way, other than a hint at it in item [3] on page 31 of
> ips-security-13:
>
> > [3]  IPsec is provided by a device external to the actual
> iSCSI device.
> >      Here the iSCSI header and data CRCs can be kept across
> the part of
> >      the connection that is not protected by IPsec. For
> instance, the
> >      iSCSI connection could traverse an extra bus, interface card,
> >      network, interface card, and bus between the iSCSI
> device and the
> >      device providing IPsec. In this case, the iSCSI CRC is
> desirable,
> >      and the iSCSI implementation behind the IPsec device
> may request
> >      it.
>
> As there are many cases where it makes a lot of sense to provide
> the solution in two pieces (iSCSI in one or more devices, with one or
> more IPsec front-end devices, I'd like to clarify this.
>
> How about (somewhere in section 7) adding something like:
>
>    An iSCSI compliant initiator or target may provide the required
>    IPsec support either by itself, or in conjunction with an IPsec
>    front-end device.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> --
> Mark
>
>
> For reference, here are a few of the statements that would be
> helped out by the above.
>
> iscsi-14 Section 7.3.1:
>
>    An iSCSI compliant initiator or target MUST provide data integrity
>    and authentication by implementing IPsec [RFC2401] with
> ESP [RFC2406]
>    in tunnel mode and MAY provide data integrity and
> authentication by
>    implementing IPsec with ESP in transport mode. The IPsec
> implementa-
>    tion MUST fulfill the following iSCSI specific requirements:
>
> iscsi-14 Section 7.3.2:
>
>    An iSCSI compliant initiator or target MUST provide
> confidentiality
>    by implementing IPsec [RFC2401] with ESP [RFC2406] in
> tunnel mode and
>    MAY provide confidentiality by implementing IPsec with ESP
> in trans-
>    port mode. with the following iSCSI specific requirements:
>
> iscsi-14 Section 7.3.3:
>
>      - Conformant iSCSI implementations MUST support IKE Main Mode
>            and SHOULD support Aggressive Mode.
>
> ---
> ips-security-13 Section 2.3.1:
>
> All IP block storage security compliant implementations MUST support
> IPsec ESP [RFC2406] to provide security for both control packets and
> data packets, as well as the replay protection mechanisms of IPsec.
> When ESP is utilized, per-packet data origin authentication, integrity
> and replay protection MUST be used.
>
>
> --
> Mark A. Bakke
> Cisco Systems
> mbakke@cisco.com
> 763.398.1054
>