Re: iSCSI: Naming and Discovery Team Formed

[David Robinson <David.Robinson@EBay.Sun.COM>]

Doug,
Maybe I missed something along the way, but is it not the purpose
of the N&D team to ask and answer the types of questions you raised
and to produce a draft to address them?

The WG has to provide an answer to the problem of N&D, even if the
answer is determined to have already been answered by an another group, 
we still need to have a draft to explain the decision.

To get to an RFC we need a draft, to get a draft we need to have a
proposal to discuss, to have a proposal we need to have a team to 
propose one, John has announced the formation of a team. So what is
your point?

	-David

Douglas Otis wrote:
> 
> John,
> 
> With your technical hat on, if speed is important why re-invent existing
> protocols?  Authentication will access a database external to the transport
> and devices which will easily provide required addressing.  The SCSI name
> server effort is to include text strings within transport management
> requests.  This is based on an assumption text is a universal standard
> whereas numbers change, i.e. DNS with respect to IP for HTTP.  Is there a
> general assumption SCSI will operate in an open and unauthenticated manner
> similar to HTTP?  Will there be established a consortium for registering
> SCSI names?  As authentication is essential to SCSI access, could you
> provide a technical reason for this naming effort?
> 
> SCSI standards groups provide unique numbers rather than text strings to
> locate media.  The user is the universal standard with respect to
> authentication and SCSI unique numbers associated with the user at the time
> of authentication defines a numeric path.  A schema within LDAP can provide
> these associations and not compromise security as would management text
> strings.  Even if the internal network was IB, a number or perhaps several
> is always suitable.  What are the problems being solved by this naming
> effort?  Why is authentication not being considered first?
> 
> Doug
> 
> > With my TC Hat on:
> > I am announcing the formation of a Naming and Discovery Team.  The team
> > members are:
> >
> > Jack Harwood, Joe Czap, Kaladhar Voruganti, Howard Hall, Mark
> > Bakke, Joshua
> > Tseng, V.Sairam, Yaron Klein, Lawrence J. Lamers,  &Jim Hafner.
> >
> > Kaladhar Voruganti will be the Editor, and Lead for the first Draft.
> >
> > We are all looking forward to their effort, and hope they can do some
> > speedy work.
> >
> > Hat off.
> >
> > .
> > .
> > .
> > John L. Hufferd
> > Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM)
> > IBM/SSG San Jose Ca
> > (408) 256-0403, Tie: 276-0403
> > Internet address: hufferd@us.ibm.com
> >