Meeting Notes, 2021 11 18

DENT Roadmap and Feature Working Group

Date --- 2021 November 18 Zoom meeting --- https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMod-yvrD4rHtNIpPTosVOj571ECS_lrf8j

Attendees

• Jon Polom (Department of Defense; research engineer)
• Andrew Dunn (Department of Defense; research engineer)
• Robert Marko (Sartura; kernel devel)
• Luka Perkov (Sartura; principal)
• Jakov Petrina (Sartura; build system)
• Victor Tkachenko (NAG; lead engineer/product manager)
• Kishore Atreya (Marvell PLM)
• Taras Chornyi (PL Vision; switchdev developer)
• Steve Noble (amazon; DENT TSC lead)
• Sandeep Nagaraja (amazon; lead engineer)
• Michael Lane (amazon; principle TPM)
• Trishan de Lanerolle (Linux Foundation;TP/Community lead for DENT)
• Celement Chang (Delta; BSP developer)
• Mingxi Kao (Alpha Networks)
• Richard Herwig (Whole Foods; bare metal switching)
• Lawrence Liao (Delta)
• Manodipto Ghose (Testing Working Group)
• Mike Ward (Accton)
• Moti Nisim (Marvell)
• Mickey Rachamim (Marvell)
• Robert Perry
• Naresh Kumar
• Krishnamurthy Mayya
• Moni Levy (nvidia)
• Jan Lubbe
• Carl Roth
• Richard Lee (Accton)

Agenda

• New topics
  • Review C-release feature issue list
    • what should be in the dentOS released images?
    • what is the C-release?
      • interface configuration management
        • BAD IDEA: write a CLI config file manager for networkd
          • networkd is likely best choice to persist interface states
          • networkd has no built in support for writing config files
          • ndcfg network network_name Match MACAddress aa.bb.cc.dd.ee.ff Network DHCP yes
          • ndcfg network rm -y network_name
          • ndcfg link link_name Match OriginalName sw1p15 Link MTUBytes 9000
          • zero potential this could be accepted upstream into networkctl but we should investigate potential. systemd dbus interface can't push configs into systemd
          • This is "dead end." Linux paradigm is to edit config files and restart a deamon for changes to take effect.
        • priority should be to provide verified options with documentation:
          • networkd
          • ifupdown2
          • ifupdown-ng
        • Stretch goal: gNMI
          • has open implementation in SONiC
          • contributed to IETF
          • @jon leans heavily towards gNMI
          • gRPC based
          • protobuf for exchange
          • http transport
          • reference implementations in go
          • go may have lower barrier to entry for development/extension
          • not tied to yang so forces less opinions onto user
          • would be large development effort
        • Stretch goal: yang, netconf, resconf
          • sysrepo is available as open implementation
          • netconf uses xml encoding which dates it
          • netconf is its own protocol; does not ride on http
          • existing open implementations as C libraries
          • potentially large development effort, depending on feature set needed
      • configuration persistence across reboot and update
        • ostree
          • doesn't provide actual separate partition
          • does provide for configuration file persistence but not migration
        • A/B partition desirable but hard to manage
        • configuration file migration assistance would be nice but also could be left to users
      • security
        • 802.1x
          • test trap of 0x888E with tc filter rule
          • need examine feasibility and options for building authenticator daemon
        • STP
          • kernel does not support per-VLAN STP, RSTP only
          • mstpd mimics mSTP due to kernel shortcoming
          • need to propose extending the kernel to address this shortcoming
          • check what networkd, ifupdown2, ifupdown-ng support for configuring STP
        • DHCP
          • Need to examine feasibility
          • Try tc rules to trap DHCP request and responses
          • Driver could trap this by default
          • Need logic for what to do with request and response
        • Port isolation/private VLAN
      • base platform
        • Debian or Gentoo most likely
        • Which one is most flexible?
    • Build system
      • Propose to move dentOS to replica for build system
  • identify features that need a decision point
    • wireguard (strong interest/use potential in this)
    • telemetry
    • IGMP snooping
    • Port security
    • new userspace daemon for dot1x
  • project goals discussion
    • what is main objective of DENT project?
    • how best can we enable the user to accomplish their goals/desires with "products" of the DENT project/community?
  • "ONLP rewrite to use kernel subsystems"
    • is this the best path to invest in?
    • Setup follow-up meeting to discuss userspace platform management tools (IE: what ONLP does now)
    • Take a high level look at what makes sense across wired switches, wireless APs, and any other device types the DENT project may want to support
    • Steve Noble thinks ONLP shim is possible and best option at least in short term
    • Sartura doesn't like obtrusiveness and complexity of ONLP and suggests examination of what is minimally required to expose enough functionality for end users to develop exactly what they need
    • Mellanox does not use ONLP on Spectrum platforms
    • Participants: nvidia, Sartura, amazon, ODMs [Delta, Accton, WNC]

Actions

• Delta to provide PoE controller software specification
• Amazon to supply PoE daemon specifications for external contributors (Carl Roth)
• Need to develop specification for 802.1x driver portion
• Develop vendor agnostic driver feature requirements list
• Marvell will update Prestera Switchdev wiki with current features (in process)
• Create github issue in dentOS repo for platform support model discussion