Hi Alan,

Alan Maguire wrote:
> Sebastien Roy wrote:
>> I'm unclear about the implications of data-link instances being under 
>> the "auto" namespace.  From past discussions we've had between the 
>> Clearview, NWAM, and SMF teams, I was under the impression that there 
>> was consensus that data-link interfaces should be represented as SMF 
>> instances regardless of whether NWAM is enabled.  Is that not the case?
 >
> thanks for raising this issue! i'm afraid i wasn't aware of this 
> requirement.
> would it be possible to reconstruct some of the details of these 
> discussions here?

The gist of the consensus was that network data-link interfaces should be 
represented as SMF service instances on Solaris.  Whether those services 
are managed by a human being typing in dladm commands or by a smart 
android like nwamd is a separate issue.

The contents of the configuration currently contained in 
/etc/dladm/datalink.conf (in the clearview-uv gate) or 
/etc/dladm/aggregation.conf and /etc/dladm/linkprop.conf (in onnv-gate) 
need to end up as SMF properties of individual data-link SMF service 
instances.

> (i tried to locate more information relevant to this awhile ago, but had 
> no success
> unfortunately).

I don't believe minutes of that meeting exist, and I'm not sure who sent 
out a summary.  I believe a number of people on these mailing lists were 
in attendance and can correct me if my understanding is inaccurate.

> what i'm interested in specifically is this - in the 
> "NWAM disabled"
> case, is it the case that the SMF representation of datalinks is 
> intended to be simply
> a repository of  datalink configuration information, or are the datalink 
> instance states
> also intended to reflect link state? (e.g. a wireless datalink might be 
> "online" if
> connected to a WLAN).  if the instances are to be used in the non-NWAM case,
> as an administrator, i'd expect some sort of coordination between link
> state and SMF instance state i think.

At the very least, the service instances hold properties for those 
objects.  The semantics behind instance states certainly needs to be 
defined.  If NWAM is not managing data-links, as an administrator, I 
might be satisfied with the services representing what is configured, and 
using the tools I've always used to observe the underlying objects' state 
(i.e., dladm show-link).

> the intent of the use of the "auto" namespace in the current design was to
> underline the fact that the instances relate to "NWAM mode" only, so if 
> that's
> not the case, i agree that the "auto" prefix is misleading.

My personal opinion is that the object "data-link" or "IP interface" 
exists and is manageable regardless of whether a human or a computer is 
doing the managing.  Having different FMRIs to represent who's managing 
them seems strange, as their properties are the same regardless.

>>   Or is it simply that NWAM will always be enabled in Phase I?
>>
> it won't, which makes me think this needs a lot more work in light of the
> consideration you've mentioned above. thanks again!

That's part of the reason why Max was brought in to help.  Bridging the 
gap between /etc/dladm/* and SMF is not obvious.

-Seb

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