WG ACTION: Network File System Version 4 (nfsv4)

[The IESG <iesg-secretary at ietf.org>]

A new working group has been formed in the Transport Area of 
the IETF. Please contact the Area Directors or Working Group Chair for
more information.

Network File System Version 4 (nfsv4)
-------------------------------------
 
 Current Status: Active Working Group
 
 Chair(s):
     Brent Callaghan <brent at erg.sun.com>
     B. Pawlowski <beepy at netapp.com>
 
 Transport Area Director(s): 
     Scott Bradner  <sob at harvard.edu>
     Vern Paxson  <vern at ee.lbl.gov>
 
 Transport Area Advisor: 
     Vern Paxson  <vern at ee.lbl.gov>
 
 Mailing Lists: 
     General Discussion:nfsv4-wg at sunroof.eng.sun.com
     To Subscribe:      nfsv4-wg-request at sunroof.eng.sun.com
     Archive:           http://playground.sun.com/pub/nfsv4/nfsv4-wg-archive
 
Description of Working Group:
 
The objective of this working group is to advance the state of NFS 
technology by producing a specification for NFS version 4 which will be 
submitted as an Internet standards track RFC.  The first phase of the 
working group activity will produce a requirements document describing 
the limitations and deficiencies of NFS version 3, potential solutions 
for addressing these, and a cost/benefit analysis of the different
solutions.  Input for the development of this document will include 
experiences with other distributed file systems such as DCE/DFS and 
Coda.  Following the publication of this document, the charter of the 
working group will be reassessed; however, it is anticipated that NFS 
version 4 will emphasize the following core features:

o Improved access and good performance on the Internet.

  The protocol will be designed to perform well where latency is high 
  and bandwidth is low, to adapt to the presence of congestion, to scale 
  to very large numbers of clients per  server, and to transit firewalls 
  easily.

o Strong security with negotiation built into the protocol.

  The protocol may build on the work of the ONCRPC working group in 
  supporting the RPCSEC_GSS protocol.  The permission model needs to 
  scale beyond the current flat integer UID space.

  Additionally NFS version 4 will provide a mechanism to allow clients
  and servers to negotiate security and require clients and servers to 
  support a minimal set of security schemes.

o Better cross-platform interoperability.

  The protocol will feature a filesystem model that provides a useful, 
  common set of features that does not unduly favor one filesystem or
  operating system over another.

o Designed for protocol extensions.

  The protocol will be designed to accept standard extensions that do
  not compromise backward compatibility.

 Goals and Milestones: 
 
   Jul 98       Issue strawman Internet-Draft for v4                           

   Aug 98       Submit Initial Internet-Draft of requirements document         

   Sep 98       Submit Final Internet-Draft of requirements document           

   Oct 98       AD reassesses WG charter                                       

   Dec 98       Submit v4 Internet-Draft sufficient to begin prototype 
                implementations                                                

   Mar 99       Begin Interoperability testing of prototype implementations    

   Apr 99       Submit NFS version 4 to IESG for consideration as a Proposed 
                Standard.                                                      

   Sep 99       Conduct final Interoperability tests                           

   Oct 99       Submit NFS version 4 to IESG for consideration as a Draft 
                Standard.