On 11/19/25 11:01 AM, Peter Thomassen wrote:
> Hi Andy,
> 
> On 11/19/25 16:21, Andy Newton wrote:
>>>> Would these RECOMMENDS be better with explanations? Or if there is no 
>>>> further
>>>> advice to give, would making these non-normative be a good solution?
>>>>
>>>> 204        ..  A configurable retry schedule with
>>>> 205        exponential back-off is RECOMMENDED (e.g., after 5, 10, 20, 40, 
>>>> ...
>>>> 206        minutes). ...
>>>>
>>>> 218        ...  A
>>>> 219        schedule with exponential back-off is RECOMMENDED.
>>>
>>> My impression is that this recommendation has (obvious) technical merit. 
>>> Not following it typically will not be technically justified; rather, 
>>> implementing a back-off scheme requires introducing state, which may cost a 
>>> few days of work (depending on a system's architecture), and thus is a 
>>> cost. In other words, I think that a the main reason to not follow this 
>>> will be a business consideration.
>>>
>>> OTOH, I think we can hardly write "... is RECOMMENDED unless your boss 
>>> thinks it's too expensive."
>>> OTOH, I have a hard time seeing how the situation is improved by getting 
>>> rid of the RECOMMENDation.
>>>
>>> So, I'm at a loss here, and will be happy to follow any guidance. My 
>>> personal view though it that it's OK as is.
>>
>>
>> Is a retry policy fundamental to this specification? And if so, is 
>> exponential back-off the only type of retry policy that works? Neither is 
>> obvious to me.
>>
>> If you want to leave it as RECOMMENDED, then there should be an explanation 
>> about what happens if no retry policy or a different retry policy is 
>> implemented.
>>
>> This is just my opinion, but maybe some language such as:
>>
>>    A configurable retry schedule is RECOMMENDED to increase the likelihood 
>> of collecting data from all nameservers. An exponential back-off schedule
>>    provides the balance between faster task completion while accommodating 
>> less transient operational problems.
> 
> This indeed captures the intent well. I've made the following adjustment 
> (also reflected in the author-tools diff circulated earlier):
> 
> OLD
>     removing it from consideration.  A configurable retry schedule with
>     exponential back-off is RECOMMENDED (e.g., after 5, 10, 20, 40, ...
>     minutes).  To sidestep localized ...
> 
> NEW
>     removing it from consideration.  A configurable retry schedule is
>     RECOMMENDED to increase the likelihood of collecting data from all
>     nameservers.  An exponential back-off schedule (e.g., 5, 10, 20, 40,
>     ... minutes) provides a balance between faster task completion while
>     accommodating transient unreachability.  To sidestep ...
> 
> OLD
>     process, repeating all queries (suggested default: enabled).  A
>     schedule with exponential back-off is RECOMMENDED.
> 
> NEW
>     process, repeating all queries (suggested default: enabled with
>     exponential back-off).
> 
> I believe this addresses all open issues.

That works for me.

Thanks for your patience, Peter. Much appreciated.

-andy

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