RE: SLP, iSNS, and iSCSI

[Joshua Tseng <jtseng@NishanSystems.com>]

David,

> [B] RFC 2610 specifies DHCP options for configuring
> SLP Directory Agent locations and SLP scopes for both
> User and Service Agents.  This would allow DHCP to be
> used for centralized administration of an SLP
> infrastructure, and works even when DHCP is not used
> for IP address assignment.
>

I'm not a DHCP expert, but in my limited understanding
of the protocol, the DHCP server is not intelligent
about who is asking for IP addresses and options.
There is nothing to identify or authenticate a DHCP
client making a request (other than the MAC), since it
doesn't even have an IP address, not to mention an FQDN
or any other identity.

If this is true, I am puzzled as to how you can use
DHCP to manage SLP scopes.  The DHCP server can't say
"device A gets scopes X, Y, and Z", since it doesn't
even know who device A is.  All it can do is hand out
the same set of scopes to everyone requesting option 79.
And that's all.  So how can you configure a complex set
of overlapping scopes using a DHCP server???

Lastly, I want to make sure everyone understands that
support for FCIP is included in the iSNS out of courtesy
to the FCIP community, and after close consultation with
several key individuals from that community.  Since we
are not implementing FCIP, I personally am neutral on
whether it should be used for FCIP, although I do
believe it would be of great value.

Josh