Re: [dhcwg] dhc WG last call on draft-ietf-dhc-relay-id-suboption-00.txt

["Bernie Volz (volz)" <volz at cisco.com>]

While I would like to see this document advance, the "administratively
configured" "string" concerns me as there is no way to distinguish these
values from the DUID formatted values? Perhaps it doesn't matter as an
id is an id, but this could result in unintended collisions (though of
course not if an ASCII readable string is used as ascii octet 0 would
not be used and all of the existing DUIDs would have a 0 value octet).
And, while it is difficult to believe we'd ever have that many DUID
formats, we never know what the future holds.

I'm also surprised with this as it wasn't considered in
draft-ietf-dhc-dhcpv6-bulk-leasequery-03.txt which defines the DHCPv6
Relay-ID option.

I guess solutions to this are:
- Don't care about it.
- Use a flag byte that identifies the identifier type (1=DUID,
2=administratively configured string, ...).
- Use two different options (not desireable, IMHO).

Also, no motivation is given for this "administratively configured"
string. I do understand why it may be desireable, I just think it needs
to be considered a bit more carefully.

One motivation/explaination of WHY relay agents do not necessarily need
UNIQUE identifiers (ie, DUID) is that they are "controlled" devices in
the administrative domain. This is unlike clients - where any client
could be connected to a network. And somewhat unlike servers, where we
want a unique identifier to avoid issues for mobile clients that might
connect to another network and so a message to a server identifier of
"server1" could easily end up with the wrong server. Relay agents aren't
[yet] mobile like this and aren't identified end-points of the
communication.

Anyway, if others in the DHC WG are comfortable with this, you can
ignore my comments and consider my support for the document.

- Bernie

-----Original Message-----
From: dhcwg-bounces at ietf.org [mailto:dhcwg-bounces at ietf.org] On Behalf
Of Ralph Droms (rdroms)
Sent: Monday, September 08, 2008 3:48 PM
To: DHC WG
Subject: [dhcwg] dhc WG last call on
draft-ietf-dhc-relay-id-suboption-00.txt

This message announces a WG last call on "The DHCPv4 Relay Agent
Identifier Suboption" <draft-ietf-dhc-relay-id-suboption-00.txt>.
The last call will conclude at 1700PDT on September 29, 2008.  This
document is intended for publication as a Proposed Standard.

Please respond to this WG last call.  If you support acceptance of the
document without change, respond with a simple acknowledgment, so that
support for the document can be assessed.  Lack of discussion does not
represent positive support.  If there is no expression of support for
acceptance during the WG last call, the document will not be advanced
to the IESG.

draft-ietf-dhc-relay-id-suboption-00.txt defines a new Relay Agent
Identifier suboption for the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol's
(DHCP) Relay Agent Information option.  The suboption carries a unique
identifier configured or generated at the relay agent.  The suboption
allows a DHCP relay agent to include the unique identifier in the DHCP
messages it sends.  This draft is available as
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-dhc-relay-id-suboption-00
.txt

- John Brzozowski, Ralph Droms
   dhc WG chairs

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