Service Applications Area

Director:


   o David Crocker:  dcrocker@sgi.com


Area Summary reported by David Crocker/Silicon Graphics

The Service Applications Area encompasses support capabilities for
system configuration and query and for structured inter-process
communication.


DNS Future Work BOF (DNSFUTUR)

The DNS Future Work BOF met on 1 April 1994 to read the ``last will and
testament'' of the DNS Working Group.  A major conclusion was that two
new working groups should be formed:  the first, chaired by Ed King, to
write the ``DNS Requirements'' document, and the second, chaired by
Randy Bush and to work in coordination with the DNS Security Working
Group chaired by Jim Galvin, to work on three inter-related technical
issues (incremental zone transfer, dynamic RR updates, and updates to
intermittently connected nameservers).  Ruediger Volk volunteered to
write an ``Operational Guidelines'' document to supplement the existing
literature.  Another big open issue from the DNS Working Group was the
``big zone'' discussion, which was encouraged and directed towards the
bigz@rice.edu mailing list.  Remaining DNS Working Group issues (MIB,
IDPR, SDRP, Load Balancing) are either complete or nearly so, and in any
case do not appear to need further working group sign-off.  A general
DNS oversight task was held to be a good matter for discussion with the
new IETF Chair, but outside the proper scope as determined by the old
IESG.

Having thus disposed of, passed on, or punted our responsibilities, they
declared victory and went home.


Remote Account Maintenance Protocol BOF (RAMP)

This BOF was tasked with discussing interest in developing a protocol to
enable quick, automatic setup of application-layer software on servers
and clients.  The current implementation is an authenticated
connection-oriented protocol in which the client populates a
server-based template with client information, which causes the server
to create an account and return configuration information to the client.
The group heard a presentation from Jeffrey Payne who has developed the
current RAMP draft specification and working clients and servers.
Discussion included possible duplication of effort by the DMTF Working
Group, multiple language support, security issues and whether the
template-based design is sufficiently extensible.  The Service
Applications Area Director, Dave Crocker, thought more e-mail discussion
was in order prior to the formation of a working group.  The discussion
group participants were charged with defining the requirements for new
network access and server registration/client configuration; e-mail
registration/configuration; netnews service registration/configuration;
fax and printing registration/configuration; mbone
registration/configuration; file service registration/configuration;
commercial database registration.


DNS Security Working Group (DNSSEC)

The DNS Security Working Group met to review the proposed security
enhancements drafted by Charlie Kaufman and Don Eastlake.  The desired
requirements specified at the Houston meeting were reviewed, followed by
a presentation and discussion of the proposal.  A number of issues were
identified, with a disposition proposed for each.  In particular,
resolution on a few was deferred until after implementation experience
was available.  Jim Galvin indicated that TIS would be implementing the
proposal.  This group expects to meet in Toronto.


MHS-DS Working Group (MHSDS)

The MHS-DS Working Group reviewed the status of its documents.  Its four
principal documents will be ready for submission to the standards track
after minor editorial changes.  The working group spent most of its time
discussing and resolving issues related to its Long Bud pilot project.
The current status of the project was reviewed, specific problems were
shown, and solutions were proposed.  The most significant problem
currently effecting the project is that reliability of the C=US
root-level Internet DSAs is deficient.  This problem will be resolved by
establishing a specific set of core DSAs for the project, and ensuring
that these core DSAs hold full copies of the top levels of the X.500
Open Community Routing Tree, thereby minimizing dependence upon the US
root DSAs.  The MHS-DS Internet-Draft ``Introduction to Project Long
Bud'' will be updated to reflect this solution and to clarify how
interested organizations can participate in the pilot project.  The
updated Internet-Draft will be circulated by the end of April.


ONC Remote Procedure Call Working Group (ONCRPC)

The ONCRPC Working Group held two sessions on 28 March.  The members
agreed with the ONCRPC Working Group charter and proceeded to review the
RPC and XDR drafts.  Due to limited time, only sections which had
changed significantly from RFCs 1014 and 1057 were reviewed.  A number
of editorial comments were made.  It was suggested that the sections
dealing with Diffie-Hellman and Kerberos based authentication be removed
from the RPC draft and be made into a new document, so that the RPC
draft deals only with the ``mandatory'' aspects of the RPC protocol.  A
number of suggestions for the follow-on working group were made.


Service Location Protocol Working Group (SVRLOC)

The meeting began with a brief overview of the protocol:  what is the
goal, why is it trying to be accomplished and how is it going to be
accomplished.  The major additions to the current draft of the protocol
specification were reviewed.  Discussion focussed on how the protocol
scales and how far it is designed to scale.  Recommendations for
additions to the protocol were also discussed.