Ok. We’re already on the telechat, but the questions seem important. Do the 
authors have thoughts?

Jari

On 05 May 2016, at 09:40, Elwyn Davies <[email protected]> wrote:

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> Document: draft-ietf-i2rs-traceability-09.txt
> Reviewer: Elwyn Davies
> Review Date: 2016/05/05
> IETF LC End Date: 2016/04/29
> IESG Telechat date: 2016/05/05
> 
> Summary:
> I have concerns about the trace model used as explained below.  It may be 
> that there is good reason and WG consensus for the model adopted, but it 
> would be good to see some explanation of the rather curious hybrid model 
> used.  There are also significant issues with the description of timestamps 
> and a number of other nits/editorial matters to address.
> 
> Apologies for the last minute delivery.
> 
> Possibly Major issues:
> Trace model:  The tracing model seems to be a curious hybrid of state 
> recording and event logging.  The introduction seems to imply that the 
> tracing model records events.  Indeed it does but state entry events do not 
> appear to get recorded until the sequence transitions out of the state.  I 
> can see that the COMPLETED entries record the total processing period, but 
> this loses the detail of when actual processing of the event starts (as 
> opposed to becoming PENDING).  I was somewhat surprised that a simple chained 
> transition event model was not used (especially since the tracing entries are 
> actually chained together already).
> 
> In particular if some sort of disaster occurs, it seems possible in this 
> model that events in the PENDING queue might never appear in the trace log at 
> all if the request hasn't started being processed. It also doesn't record any 
> preprocessing time before the request becomes PENDING.  If there is a 
> processing bottleneck this could be significant information.
> 
> I was also wondering whether this model traces the arrival and departure of 
> clients (and whether authoentication/authorisation worked or not).   This may 
> be covered by operation types in the architecture which I haven't had time to 
> read in detail.
> 
> Minor issues:
> 
> Nits/editorial comments:
> s1:  The Intro should also contain a description of the intention of the 
> document - basically a slight reworking of the abstract.  It should also 
> outline the association of the framework with the interface (i2rs 
> client<->agent) to which the traceability applies.
> 
> s3:
>> The
>>    ability to automate and abstract even complex policy-based controls
>>    highlights the need for an equally scalable traceability function to
>>    provide event-level granularity of the routing system compliant with
>>    the requirements of I2RS (Section 5 of
>>    [I-D.ietf-i2rs-problem-statement]).
> The 'routing system' doesn't have an event-level granularity.  Maybe
> OLD:
> provide event-level granularity of the routing system
> NEW:
> provide recording at event-level granularity of the evolution of the routing 
> system
> END
> 
> s4:  The section ends with this list of 'use cases':
>>    As I2RS becomes increasingly pervasive in routing environments, a
>>    traceability model offers significant advantages and facilitates the
>>    following use cases:
>> 
>>    1  Automated event correlation, trend analysis, and anomaly
>>       detection;
>> 
>>    2  Trace log storage for offline (manual or tools) analysis;
>> 
>>    3  Improved accounting of routing system operations;
>> 
>>    4  Standardized structured data format for writing common tools;
>> 
>>    5  Common reference for automated testing and incident reporting;
>> 
>>    6  Real-time monitoring and troubleshooting;
>> 
>>    7  Enhanced network audit, management and forensic analysis
>>       capabilities.
> I have added numbers to facilitate these comments:
> IMO #2 and #4 are either not use cases or a not phrased as use cases.  The 
> automated testing is not really a use case as such. Having these 
> characteristics supports the implementation of the actual use cases.  Related 
> to the data retention comment above, storing some or all of the trace log - 
> and knowing which bits might be critical to control data retention - is a use 
> case but the basic storage is just a necessary prerequisite of doing other 
> things.  I also might suggest a reordering indicating importance perhaps.
> 
> Thus I would suggest replacing this with something like:
> 
>   As I2RS becomes increasingly pervasive in routing environments, a
>   traceability model that supports controllable trace log retention
>   using a standardized structured data format offers significant advantages,
>   such as the ability to create common tools and support automated testing,
>   and facilitates the following use cases:
> 
>   o  Real-time monitoring and troubleshooting of router events;
> 
>   o  Automated event correlation, trend analysis, and anomaly
>      detection;
> 
>   o  Offline (manual or tools-based) analysis of router state evolution
>       from the retained trace logs;
> 
>   o  Enhanced network audit, management and forensic analysis
>       capabilities;
> 
>   o  Improved accounting of routing system operations; and
> 
>   o Providing a standardized format for incident reporting and test logging.
> 
> s5: .. is empty: Empty sections are not desirable.  A brief overview of the 
> following sub-sections should be added (or alternatively promote s5.1 which 
> actually describes the framework).
> 
> s5.1, para 1:
>> Some notable elements of the architecture are in
>>    this section.
> I don't understand this sentence.  If it implies that elements of the 
> architecture are defined in this section then one has to ask 'Why aren't they 
> defined in the architecture document?'  Since s5.1 contains the whole 
> framework, what other elements than the 'some notable' ones are there?
> 
> s5.1, para 2: The term 'northbpund' is not defined (and isn't used in the 
> architecture').
> 
> s5.2: The title is ' I2RS Trace Log Mandatory Fields'  - nothing that isn't 
> mandatory is discussed.  Should there be some words about optional extra 
> fields?
> 
> s5.2, timestamps:  The RFC3339 format doesn't tie up with 32 bit resolution - 
> there are hours and minutes etc and decimal representation is used.  Things 
> like origin for timestamps needs to be defined if they are to be truly useful 
> for comparison outside an individual enterprise (as might be implied by the 
> incident reporting use case).  If RFC 3339 format is really used, then the 
> timestamps need to include the date as well since logs will certainly run 
> over more than one day.  I note that the example in s6 shows full RFC 3339 
> date/time format examples.
> 
> s5.2, Applied Operation Data:  Does the Operation Data Present flag apply to 
> this field?  Can this be present even if there is no Requested Operation Data?
> 
> s5.2, Result Code: Need to expand acronym RIB.
> 
> s7.2:  One key point about timestamping (motivated by bitter experience) is 
> that timestamps need to be recorded at the point when the event actually 
> happens and not when the event is (potentially significantly later) entered 
> into the log.  Logging is (as indicated) often allocated a low priority and 
> event log writing may end up being postponed for a considerable time.
> 
> s11: I would consider I-D.ietf-i2rs-problem-statement and 
> I-D.ietf-i2rs-pub-sub-requirements to be Informative; and
> I-D.ietf-i2rs-rib-info-model, RFC 3339 and possibly RFC 5424 to be normative.
> 
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