1. What specifically is the proposal that we are reviewing? - What is the technical content of the project? The RBridges project has three main components: - IS-IS routing - TRILL encapsulation and forwarding - Ethernet bridging See the rbridges-arch.png drawing for an overview of RBridge architecture. In this drawing, the grey elements are existing parts of OpenSolaris. The green parts are the new components being added by this project. The yellow parts are the pieces that will be donated upstream to the Quagga repository. The blue part is a future project. The goal of the project is to provide a robust set of bridging features in OpenSolaris, including traditional Ethernet bridging and the new TRILL-based "RBridging" support. RBridges use IS-IS instead of Spanning Tree (STP) and differ from traditional bridges in many ways, including: 1. Ability to use multiple, diverse, load-spreading paths through the network. 2. "Fail-safe" operation; lack of signaling means no forwarding allowed, unlike Spanning Tree. 3. Forwarding with hop-count protection against transient loops. 4. Optimal forwarding for all frames; no nodes are disadvantaged on the "wrong" side of a cut, as with Spanning Tree. - Is this a new product, or a change to a pre-existing one? If it is a change, would you consider it a "major", "minor", or "micro" change? See the Release Taxonomy in: Project consists of Minor release compatible changes. - If your project is an evolution of a previous project, what changed from one version to another? A previous OpenSolaris project aimed at traditional Ethernet bridging alone was not staffed and didn't gain traction. - What is the motivation for it, in general as well as specific terms? (Note that not everyone on the ARC will be an expert in the area.) This provides a feature that is standard in most other operating systems, and opens the door to a number of different possible usages, including: - Transparent firewalling between networks - Bridging between xVM instances and with external entities - Use of OpenSolaris distributions in appliance-like configurations, such as embedded routers and access points - What are the expected benefits for Sun? The three subcomponents of this project are each valuable in different areas: - The IS-IS component will include porting this software to OpenSolaris and testing in normal IPv4 (and IPv6, if possible) routing mode. This means that users will have the option of selecting among IS-IS, OSPF, and RIP for interior routing. - The Ethernet bridging component will be tested as delivered as a separate feature. This will allow OpenSolaris-based distributions to do traditional bridging. - The full RBridge functionality will be delivered last, and will build on the other two components. - By what criteria will you judge its success? 1. External testing for compliance with relevant standards 2. Reuse within other OpenSolaris projects 3. Demonstrated interoperability with other implementations now in development by other IETF participants 2. Describe how your project changes the user experience, upon installation and during normal operation. - What does the user perceive when the system is upgraded from a previous release? No change on install or upgrade. The user will be able to create bridge instances (interface TBD), administer them, assign physical and virtual connections to them, and configure forwarding areas and rules. 3. What is its plan? - What is its current status? Has a design review been done? Are there multiple delivery phases? The project work has just started. There is no design as yet. The IETF work is incomplete but moving quickly. We're planning for as many as three delivery phases. One phase involves getting plain IS-IS routing into Solaris. The second will be traditional bridging. The third will be the full RBridges functionality. This case covers the full RBridge architecture. There will likely be two future cases filed to flesh out the independent details of the other two intermediate deliveries. 4. Are there related projects in Sun? - If so, what is the proposal's relationship to their work? Which not-yet- delivered Sun (or non-Sun) projects (libraries, hardware, etc.) does this project depend upon? What other projects, if any, depend on this one? This project has relationships to at least the following projects: - Clearview (PSARC 2005/132) Clearview is changing the way network interfaces are named and administered. The changes to the Nemo implementation are in the same areas that we need to alter. We are also dependent on Clearview's DLPI shim layer, as we will not be delivering a DLPI-using bridge, but instead integrating with Nemo. - Crossbow (PSARC 2006/357) Crossbow includes local bridge-like functionality that allows local exclusive-stack zones and xVM instances to communicate with each other. This is a functional subset of the full bridging that this project will deliver. In particular, unlike Crossbow, this project will listen promiscuously for packets on bridge interfaces and forward those packets onto the interfaces where they belong based on learned forwarding tables and L2 entries computed by IS-IS. - xVM (PSARC 2006/260) xVM should be able to set up more complex networks and configurations using bridging. This part hasn't been explored in depth yet. - L2 Packet Filtering (PSARC 2007/XXX) This is a future project that may enhance the features of IP Filter so that (among other things) it can filter packets being forwarded within a bridge instance. At least part of that functionality would be dependent on this project. - Are you updating, copying or changing functional areas maintained by other groups? How are you coordinating and communicating with them? Do they "approve" of what you propose? If not, please explain the areas of disagreement. The bridging component of this project is based in part on work originally done independently and enhanced by the xVM project team. That work was abandoned. The Crossbow internal bridging functionality is closely related to (but not quite overlapping with) regular Ethernet bridging; both touch parts of DLS. We're in touch with the Clearview, Crossbow, and xVM teams and will be coordinating more closely as our design is worked out. 5. How is the project delivered into the system? - Identify packages, directories, libraries, databases, etc. SUNWquaggau /usr/sbin/isisd SUNWbridge TBD; should be part of SUNWCall and SUNWCXall. 6. Describe the project's hardware platform dependencies. - Explain any reasons why it would not work on both SPARC and Intel? No dependencies. 7. System administration - How will the project's deliverables be installed and (re)configured? pkgadd - How will the project's deliverables be uninstalled? pkgrm - Does it use inetd to start itself? No. - Does it need installation within any global system tables? TBD - Does it use a naming service such as NIS, NIS+ or LDAP? No. - What are its on-going maintenance requirements (e.g. Keeping global tables up to date, trimming files)? Internally, the bridging module needs to monitor MAC source addresses on every attached network to build a dynamic list of known destinations. This list is "unimportant" -- if a destination isn't known, the forwarding path simply sends the packet out every available interface. In other words, it's just a cache, and just a performance improvment. As such, the bridging module needs to age these entries away and be able to limit its kernel memory consumption. The mechanisms for this are TBD. - How does this project's administrative mechanisms fit into Sun's system administration strategies? E.g., how does it fit under the Solaris Management Console (SMC) and Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM), how does it make use of roles, authorizations and rights profiles? Additionally, how does it provide for administrative audit in support of the Solaris BSM configuration? The existing RBAC information will be used for the Quagga components. The new configuration tool (if any) will be part of the existing Network Management RBAC profile, and changes will be audited. The new daemons outside of Quagga will have no user serviceable parts. - What tunable parameters are exported? Can they be changed without rebooting the system? Examples include, but are not limited to, entries in /etc/system and ndd(8) parameters. What ranges are appropriate for each tunable? What are the commitment levels associated with each tunable (these are interfaces)? TBD (None planned as yet.) 8. Reliability, Availability, Serviceability (RAS) - Does the project make any material improvement to RAS? No. - How can users/administrators diagnose failures or determine operational state? (For example, how could a user tell the difference between a failure and very slow performance?) For the IS-IS component, the existing Quagga administrative and debug interfaces are available. Snoop and ethereal may be used to observe packets on the wire, including IS-IS and TRILL. Clearview's observability component should improve the state of monitoring for virtual interfaces. Daemons will be run from SMF; FMRIs are TBD. The kernel components will have kstats for performance and status monitoring; exact set is TBD. - What are the project's effects on boot time requirements? None. - How does the project handle dynamic reconfiguration (DR) events? TBD (Involves config tool) - What mechanisms are provided for continuous availability of service? N/A - Does the project call panic()? Explain why these panics cannot be avoided. No - How are significant administrative or error conditions transmitted? SNMP traps? Email notification? Quagga has existing hooks. Other mechanisms TBD, but likely to be log messages. - How does the project deal with failure and recovery? IS-IS automatically detects interface failure and recovery, and routes around broken paths in the network. - Does it ever require reboot? If so, explain why this situation cannot be avoided. No. - How does your project deal with network failures (including partition and re- integration)? How do you handle the failure of hardware that your project depends on? That's a key component of routing, and it's what IS-IS provides. IS-IS computes the shortest path to every destination, and the TRILL forwarding component relies on that to forward L2 frames -- avoiding failures. - Can it save/restore or checkpoint and recover? No. (The "nickname" feature may have save and restore for administrative purposes, but the rest does not have or need this feature.) - Can its files be corrupted by failures? Does it clean up any locks/files after crashes? No, and yes. 9. Observability - Does the project export status, either via observable output (e.g., netstat) or via internal data structures (kstats)? TBD - How would a user or administrator tell that this subsystem is or is not behaving as anticipated? Via administrative interfaces. (This looks like a duplicate of question 8.) - What statistics does the subsystem export, and by what mechanism? TBD (Likely kstats) - What state information is logged? TBD - In principle, would it be possible for a program to tune the activity of your project? Yes. 10. What are the security implications of this project? - What security issues do you address in your project? - The Solaris BSM configuration carries a Common Criteria (CC) Controlled Access Protection Profile (CAPP) -- Orange Book C2 -- and a Role Based Access Control Protection Profile (RBAC) -- rating, does the addition of your project effect this rating? E.g., does it introduce interfaces that make access or privilege decisions that are not audited, does it introduce removable media support that is not managed by the allocate subsystem, does it provide administration mechanisms that are not audited? - Is system or subsystem security compromised in any way if your project's configuration files are corrupt or missing? - Please justify the introduction of any (all) new setuid executables. - Include a thorough description of the security assumptions, capabilities and any potential risks (possible attack points) being introduced by your project. A separate Security Questionnaire http://sac.sfbay/cgi-bin/bp.cgi?NAME=Security.bp is provided for more detailed guidance on the necessary information. Cases are encouraged to fill out and include the Security questionnaire (leveraging references to existing documentation) in the case materials. Projects must highlight information for the following important areas: - What features are newly visible on the network and how are they protected from exploitation (e.g. unauthorized access, eavesdropping) - If the project makes decisions about which users, hosts, services, ... are allowed to access resources it manages, how is the requestor's identity determined and what data is used to determine if the access granted. Also how this data is protected from tampering. - What privileges beyond what a common user (e.g. 'noaccess') can perform does this project require and why those are necessary. - What parts of the project are active upon default install and how it can be turned off. Security analysis TBD. In general, most administrators view IS-IS as "more secure" than other routing protocols, because it's not based on IP and cannot be routed. Remote attacks on it (unlike, say, BGP or OSPF) are impossible; physical network access is required. IS-IS, unlike STP, does have optional features that allow for authentication of messages between peers. This feature is unlikely to be used in a TRILL environment, however, as the goal of the IETF TRILL working group is to be as "plug and play" as is traditional bridging. No configuration should be necessary, and that includes authentication keys. The daemons and utilities associated with this project will all have Least Privilege applied. Details are TBD. 11. What is its UNIX operational environment: - Which Solaris release(s) does it run on? Solaris Nevada - Environment variables? Exit status? Signals issued? Signals caught? (See signal(3HEAD).) None of note. - Device drivers directly used (e.g. /dev/audio)? .rc/defaults or other resource/configuration files or databases? None - Does it use any "hidden" (filename begins with ".") or temp files? No. - Does it use any locking files? No. - Command line or calling syntax: What options are supported? (please include man pages if available) Does it conform to getopt() parsing requirements? TBD (Configuration tools not yet designed) - Is there support for standard forms, e.g. "-display" for X programs? Are these propagated to sub-environments? No. - What shared libraries does it use? (Hint: if you have code use "ldd" and "dump -Lv")? TBD - Identify and justify the requirement for any static libraries. None. - Does it depend on kernel features not provided in your packages and not in the default kernel (e.g. Berkeley compatibility package, /usr/ccs, /usr/ucblib, optional kernel loadable modules)? No. - Is your project 64-bit clean/ready? If not, are there any architectural reasons why it would not work in a 64-bit environment? Does it interoperate with 64-bit versions? Yes. No. Yes. - Does the project depend on particular versions of supporting software (especially Java virtual machines)? If so, do you deliver a private copy? What happens if a conflicting or incompatible version is already or subsequently installed on the system? No. - Is the project internationalized and localized? Yes. - Is the project compatible with IPV6 interfaces and addresses? Yes. (The one contact with IPv6 here is in the multicast snooping mechanism; we must listen to MLD in order to know whether a multicast router is present on a link. This isn't "required" information, but is part of a common optimization.) 12. What is its window/desktop operational environment? - Is it ICCCM compliant (ICCCM is the standard protocol for interacting with window managers)? - X properties: Which ones does it depend on? Which ones does it export, and what are their types? - Describe your project's support for User Interface facilities including Help, Undo, Cut/Paste, Drag and Drop, Props, Find, Stop? - How do you respond to property change notification and ICCCM client messages (e.g. Do you respond to "save workspace")? - Which window-system toolkit/desktop does your project depend on? - Can it execute remotely? Is the user aware that the tool is executing remotely? Does it matter? - Which X extensions does it use (e.g. SHM, DGA, Multi-Buffering? (Hint: use "xdpyinfo") - How does it use colormap entries? Can you share them? - Does it handle 24-bit operation? All N/A; no windowing or desktop. 13. What interfaces does your project import and export? - Please provide a table of imported and exported interfaces, including stability levels. Pay close attention to the classification of these interfaces in the Interface Taxonomy -- e.g., "Committed," "Uncommitted," and "*Private;" see: http://sac.sfbay/cgi-bin/bp.cgi?NAME=interface_taxonomy.bp Use the following format: Interfaces Imported Interface Classification Comments Nemo / GLDv3 Consolidation Private PSARC 2004/571 Interfaces Exported Interface Classification Comments Spanning Tree Committed IEEE 802.1D TRILL Uncommitted* draft-ietf-trill-rbridge-protocol-06.txt draft-ietf-trill-rbridge-arch-04.txt IS-IS Committed ISO/IEC DIS 10589 (RFC 1142) TRILL I/O Project Private Used by isisd TRILL Control Project Private Used by isisd Bridge Control Project Private Used by most components - Exported public library APIs and ABIs Protocols (public or private) Drag and Drop ToolTalk Cut/Paste TBD - Other interfaces TBD - What other applications should it interoperate with? How will it do so? Must interoperate with traditional bridges, IS-IS routers, and RBridges. - Is it "pipeable"? How does it use stdin, stdout, stderr? No. - Explain the significant file formats, names, syntax, and semantics. N/A - Is there a public namespace? (Can third parties create names in your namespace?) How is this administered? No. - Are the externally visible interfaces documented clearly enough for a non-Sun client to use them successfully? Yes. 14. What are its other significant internal interfaces inter-subsystem and inter-invocation)? - Protocols (public or private) - Private ToolTalk usage - Files - Other - Are the interfaces re-entrant? Refer to rbridges-arch.png; key internal interfaces are: - I/O mechanism for regular IS-IS and TRILL IS-IS messages, used by Quagga isisd. - TRILL control interface that sets up nickname-based forwarding entries and tunnel handling, used by Quagga isisd. - Bridge control interface that creates bridge instances, assigns links to bridges, configures bridging parameters, and controls bridge behavior. Used by multicast snooping process, isisd, configuration tool, and spanning tree. 15. Is the interface extensible? How will the interface evolve? - How is versioning handled? - What was the commitment level of the previous version? - Can this version co-exist with existing standards and with earlier and later versions or with alternative implementations (perhaps by other vendors)? - What are the clients over which a change should be managed? - How is transition to a new version to be accomplished? What are the consequences to ISV's and their customers? All interfaces described in section 14 above are Project Private. They're not expected to be needed outside of this project. 16. How do the interfaces adapt to a changing world? - What is its relationship with (or difficulties with) multimedia? 3D desktops? Nomadic computers? Storage-less clients? A networked file system model (i.e., a network-wide file manager)? N/A 17. Interoperability - If applicable, explain your project's interoperability with the other major implementations in the industry. In particular, does it interoperate with Microsoft's implementation, if one exists? - What would be different about installing your project in a heterogeneous site instead of a homogeneous one (such as Sun)? - Does your project assume that a Solaris-based system must be in control of the primary administrative node? For IS-IS and traditional bridging, this project will need to be interoperable with Linux and Cisco, as those represent common peers. This implementation will help define interoperability for TRILL. At some point in the future, there will be peers to talk to using TRILL, and our goal is to demonstrate interoperability when those other implementations are available. 18. Performance - How will the project contribute (positively or negatively) to "system load" and "perceived performance"? N/A - What are the performance goals of the project? How were they evaluated? What is the test or reference platform? TBD (Will need performance references for bridging.) - Does the application pause for significant amounts of time? Can the user interact with the application while it is performing long-duration tasks? No pausing. - What is your project's MT model? How does it use threads internally? How does it expect its client to use threads? If it uses callbacks, can the called entity create a thread and recursively call back? The kernel portion is MT-hot. The user space components are all single-threaded. (Quagga uses a multi-process design, with common components in the central zebrad daemon, and individual protocols in separate processes, separated by sockets.) - What is the impact on overall system performance? What is the average working set of this component? How much of this is shared/sharable by other apps? TBD - Does this application "wake up" periodically? How often and under what conditions? What is the working set associated with this behavior? Yes. IS-IS sends Hello messages every 10 seconds on each configured interface by default, and this can be tuned to trade off traffic versus silent failure detection time. Working set TBD. - Will it require large files/databases (for example, new fonts)? The LSP database within IS-IS is potentially large. It has at least as many entries as there are routers in the network, and may have more for pseudonodes. This database is held in user space RAM (not in files) and is built dynamically from peer reports. The kernel forwarding database is built from IS-IS derived information and from L2 information learned from directly attached interfaces. - Do files, databases or heap space tend to grow with time/load? What mechanisms does the user have to use to control this? What happens to performance/system load? TBD 19. Please identify any issues that you would like the ARC to address. - Interface classification, deviations from standards, architectural conflicts, release constraints... - Are there issues or related projects that the ARC should advise the appropriate steering committees? None. 20. Appendices to include - One-Pager. - Prototype specification. - References to other documents. (Place copies in case directory.) Normative references (in materials directory): rfc1142.txt draft-ietf-trill-rbridge-protocol-06.txt draft-ietf-trill-rbridge-arch-04.txt 802.1D-1998.pdf Informative reference: http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/rbridges/