CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_
Reported by Steve Hardcastle-Kille/UCL and Tim Howes/UMICH
OSIDS Minutes
Agenda
Introduction and Welcome
Chair Steve Hardcastle-Kille called the meeting to order after some
furniture moving at 9:42am.
Previous Minutes
The Minutes from the February meeting at SRI and the May video
conference were accepted without change.
Liaison Reports
o RARE WG3 (Erik Huizer - RARE)
RARE WG3 has had one meeting since the last OSI-DS meeting. Erik
reported the following:
- PARADISE has now taken over operation of the COSINE X.500 pilot
project.
- The next RARE WG3 meeting will be in Zurich from 9/30 to 10/2.
The meeting will include demos of lots of X.500 DUAs (for Macs,
Unix, VMS, etc). Others are encouraged to attend and to
contact Erik about bringing a DUA to demo. Erik also mentioned
that there is the possibility of making funds available to
someone from the US for the trip.
o ISO/CCITT (Steve Hardcastle-Kille in lieu of a representative)
There will be one more meeting before the 1992 white book comes
out. This meeting will be in Berlin.
o OIW (Russ Wright - LBL)
Russ reported that at the OSI Implementors Workshop the following
agreements had been reached:
- Change the maximum APDU size to 256K (up from 32K),
- Up the 6 line by 30 character postaladdress limit to 6 lines by
60 characters (see mtr's report below).
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o NADF (Marshall Rose - unaffiliated)
Marshall passed out a revised copy of the US Naming Scheme document
now known as NADF 175 and reported the following:
- NADF 175 will be submitted as an RFC soon.
- NADF naming documents can be obtained from tymer@mcimail.com
- NADF naming documents can be obtained from tymer@mcimail.com
- NADF naming documents can be obtained from tymer@mcimail.com
- The NADF expects to sponsor a pilot to test its agreements
sometime in first quarter 1992.
- The NADF was not pleased to hear about the OIW agreement about
a postaladdress. Apparently, postaladdress limits are
determined by a separate international agreement and cannot
simply be changed to suit X.500. After some discussion, it was
decided that OSI-DS should support the standard (i.e., 6 by 30)
definition.
o FOX (Steve Hotz - ISI)
Steve reported the following FOX activities:
- Approximately 85K NIC WHOIS entries are now online in SRI's
DSA.
- SRI is also working on a lightweight application to access this
information in X.500.
- SRI and Merit will work together to provide replication of the
WHOIS information.
- There are now RFC and FYI document subtrees under o=Internet.
- Merit has put a Site Contacts database online under o=Internet,
which the NSFNet network operations center is using.
- Merit has also begun to put NIC profile information online.
o PSI White Pages (Wengyik Yeong - PSI)
Weng reported that the PSI WPP would be focusing on four areas in
the near future:
- Increasing reliability (through probing, e.g.)
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- Transition to NADF naming scheme
- Transition to the OSI-DS DSA naming scheme
- Upgrading all pilot members to ISODE/QUIPU 7.0
o PARADISE (Steve Hardcastle-Kille - UCL)
Steve reported that the PARADISE project was doing the following:
- Running the world-wide root DSA at ULCC (Giant Tortoise)
- Running a DUA service at ULCC for European organizations
- Producing a glossy report <how can people get a copy of
this???>
- Helping other implementations, in particular Pizarro, join the
pilot
o AARN (Steve Hardcastle-Kille in lieu of a representative)
Steve reported that there is a funded directory service pilot
started in the Australian Academic Research Network and that they
will be sending a representative to future OSI-DS meetings. Graham
Rees at the University of Queensland is the AARN contact person.
o NORDUNET (Geir Pedersen - NORDUNET)
Geir reported that a directory services group is operating within
NORDUNET. The group focuses on promotion of the directory within
the Nordic countries.
o CNI (George Brett - CNI)
Coalition for Networked Information:
- Members include Association for Research Libraries, CAUSE
(administrative computing) and EDUCOM (academic computing).
- 7 Working Groups: commercial publishing, non-commercial
publishing, standards and architecture, management and
professional education, K-20 education, directories and
networked research centers (user services people).
- George Brett and Peggy Seiden are involved in the directory
Working Group. They are interested in a top node or directory
of directories, and bibliography of bibliographies. They
currently have a flat file, and are now working on an X.500
implementation with Merit. Also looking at a WAIS database.
The Merit work involves a schema to represent the library of
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congress enhanced MARC record.
- Documentation on CNI's activities includes an article in Cause
& Effect, v14no2, summer 1991. The Minutes of their last
meeting can be made available to the list by George. There is
also a listserv list called cnidir-l.
- Art St. George of CNI is interested in K-12 use of networking.
Internet Resource Descriptions in X.500 Document (OSI-DS 17)
After much discussion, the general consensus on this document was that
it needs to be rewritten with a more object-oriented approach. The
feeling was that the object class for an Internet Resource should be
broken up more in line with the standard's description of auxiliary and
structural object classes.
Document Progression
Vint Cerf reported that all the technical RFCs were close to publication
and would be out in ``a matter of weeks''. Because of the general
importance to the Internet community of deploying a Directory Service,
the overview and strategy documents should be merged and their scope
widened. It was agreed that Steve H-K should revise the document, in
association with appropriate IESG and IAB members. Review should be
done via email, and that a separate subgroup not be formed.
The scope of the Working Group was also considered, and the group was
favourable to moving the activity out of the OSI area and into the
Applications area.
OID Assignment (OSI-DS 10, RFC 1239)
It was decided that the existing OIDs will stay. A small debate
followed about whether the current naming authority (under UCL) was ok,
or whether it should be changed to the IANA. It was agreed that OIDs are
just numbers, so the assignment authority is less important than
stability. Currently assigned OIDs should not be adjusted. This had
already been agreed between Steve H-K and Jon Postel. New OIDs would
probably be assigned under an IANA subtree, subject to consensus with
non-Internet users of this schema. It was agreed that this document
could and should progress rapidly to RFC.
Requirements Specification Document (OSI-DS 18)
This document had been drafted after an agreement at the
videoconference. After some discussion, it was agreed that a document
of this nature would be important in the future, but was premature. It
should be put on ice for now.
More Resources Description Document Discussion
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Mark Knopper of Merit said he was interested in putting NSAPs in the DIT
and doing reverse lookups. Along with Chris Weider, he volunteered to
write something up by mid-September on how to do this.
NIC Profile Information Document (OSI-DS 16)
After some discussion, it was agreed that Chris Weider should rewrite
this document along the same object-oriented lines as discussed
previously. There was also some discussion about how this information
should be organized in the DIT, since some NICs are real organizations,
others aren't, some are listed in other parts of the tree, others
aren't. Steve H-K drew a diagram describing a structure that could
accommodate both situations, and it was generally approved.
K-12 Schema Document
It was agreed that this document suffered from the same object-oriented
concerns as the others and should be rewritten. Also, it was decided
that a companion document addressing DIT structure for these objects
should be produced. Chris Weider and Mark Knopper were elected for both
tasks.
Network Infrastructure Information in X.500
This document is already being rewritten and was not discussed.
Pictures in the Directory
Russ Wright presented a brief overview of the problem (summary: the
g3fax format is bad), and a potential new format that is better (JPEG).
It was agreed that JPEG is a step forward, but more study is needed on
the transition path, potential size limits, etc. Russ Wright, Peter
Yee, Tim Howes, and Mark Smith (in absentia) volunteered to look into
these issues.
Quality of Service (OSI-DS 15)
The QOS definitions were generally accepted, and the next step is to
start making use of these attributes now that the syntax handlers are
available in QUIPU 7.0. Russ Wright, Erik Huizer, and Tim Howes
volunteered to try incorporating QOS into some DUAs to gain some
experience with its use. All of the represented pilots agreed to
install the appropriate attributes into their DITs. Both efforts were
needed to make an effective test of the Internet Draft. The Internet
Draft should not be submitted as an RFC until results of this piloting,
and probable modifications to the Internet Draft, had been done.
NADF Naming Document
NADF 175 is now considered Stable and a Good Thing by NADF, and will be
released as an RFC Real Soon Now.
Naming Guidelines Document (OSI-DS 12)
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After some discussion about multi-national organization naming, it was
agreed that this document should be progressed to RFC status pending
ironing out of some minor issues which will be done via email.
AOB
Erik Huizer made a request for someone from the US to look into issues
involving security/privacy laws in the US that might relate to X.500.
This is something that has come up several times in Europe.
Next Meeting
Steve would like to have the next OSI-DS meeting around Interop.
Summary of Action Items
o George Brett: Find out how to get CNI documents and send this
information to the osi-ds list.
o Mark Knopper, Chris Weider: Write a paper describing how to store
NSAP information in the DIT (mid-September).
o Chris Weider: Rewrite Resource Description paper.
o Chris Weider: Rewrite NIC Profile paper.
o Mark Knopper, Chris Weider: Rewrite K-12 Schema paper.
o Mark Knopper, Chris Weider: Write a companion paper to the K-12
Schema paper describing the suggested DIT structure.
o Russ Wright, Peter Yee, Tim Howes: Experiment with JPEG photos in
the Directory.
o Russ Wright, Erik Huizer, Tim Howes, others: Incorporate QOS into
DUAs and pilot exercises.
o Steve Hardcastle-Kille/Paul Barker: Initiate an email discussion
on the Naming Guidelines document and progress it to an RFC when
all concerns have been addressed.
o Steve Hardcastle-Kille: Schedule the next OSI-DS meeting at or
around Interop.
o Steve Hardcastle-Kille: Produce new strategy/overview document.
Attendees
Claudio Allocchio claudio.allocchio@cosine-gw.infn.it
William Biagi bbiagi@cos.com
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Peter Boos peterb@bnr.ca
David Brent brent@CDNnet.ca
George Brett pls@psulias
Ross Callon callon@bigfut.enet.dec.com
Vinton Cerf vcerf@nri.reston.va.us
Richard Cherry rcherry@novell.com
Chi Chu chi@sparta.com
Richard Colella colella@osi3.ncsl.nist.gov
Curtis Cox ccox@wnyose.nctsw.navy.mil
Ralph Droms droms@bucknell.edu
Urs Eppenberger eppenberger@switch.ch
Arlene Getchell getchell@nersc.gov
Jack Hahn hahn@sura.net
Steve Hardcastle-Kille S.Kille@cs.ucl.ac.uk
Susan Hares skh@merit.edu
Ittai Hershman ittai@nis.ans.net
Russ Hobby rdhobby@ucdavis.edu
Steven Hotz hotz@isi.edu
Tim Howes Tim.Howes@umich.edu.
Erik Huizer huizer@surfnet.nl
Holly Knight holly@apple.com
Mark Knopper mak@merit.edu
Christopher Kolb kolb@psi.com
Ruth Lang rlang@nisc.sri.com
Anthony Lauck lauck@tl.enet.dec.com
Louis Leon osll@emuvm1.cc.emory.edu
Peter Liebscher plieb@sura.net
Carl Malamud carl@malamud.com
Bill Manning bmanning@rice.edu
John McGuthry mcguthry@gateway.mitre.org
Joe Peck peck@ms1.pa.dec.com
Geir Pedersen geir.pedersen@use.uio.no
Mel Pleasant pleasant@hardees.rutgers.edu
Marshall Rose mrose@dbc.mtview.ca.us
A. Minick Rushton rushton@stsci.edu
Harvey Shapiro shapiro@wnyose.nctsw.navy.mil
Keld Simonsen keld.simonsen@dkuug.dk
Subu Subramanian subu@qsun.att.com
Jesse Walker walker@eider.enet@decpa.dec.com
Chris Weider clw@merit.edu
Brian Wheeler wheeler@mbunix.mitre.org
Linda Winkler lwinkler@anl.gov
Russ Wright wright@lbl.gov
Peter Yee yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Wengyik Yeong yeongw@psi.com
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