syslog

The IETF is nearing completion of a new protocol aimed at minimizing problems resulting from misconfigured network devices, thereby easing part of the systems administration load. This XML-based protocol, NetConf, is intended to reduce the programming effort required to automate device configuration.

According to the NetConf Working Group Web site, "configuration of networks of devices has become a critical requirement for operators in today's highly interoperable networks. Operators from large to small have developed their own mechanisms or used vendor-specific mechanisms to transfer configuration data to and from a device, and for examining device state information which may impact the configuration. Each of these mechanisms may be different in various aspects, such as session establishment, user authentication, configuration data exchange, and error responses."

The Netconf Working Group aims to produce a protocol suitable for network configuration that includes the following characteristics (taken from the Web site):

Provides retrieval mechanisms that can differentiate between configuration data and non-configuration data.
Is extensible enough that vendors will provide access to all configuration data on the device using a single protocol.
Has a programmatic interface (avoids screen scraping and formatting-related changes between releases).
Uses a textual data representation that can be easily manipulated using non-specialized text manipulation tools.
Supports integration with existing user authentication methods.
Supports integration with existing configuration database systems.
Supports network wide configuration transactions (with features such as locking and rollback capability).
Is as transport-independent as possible.
Provides support for asynchronous notifications.

For more details, please refer to the NetConf Working Group Web site at:

http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/netconf-charter.html

Also this month, Sys Admin magazine and the SANS Institute are working together to gather the data for the annual salary survey from SANS, and we need your help to be sure the survey represents as much of the community as possible. We would appreciate it if you would take a few minutes to complete the 2005 Information Security Career Advancement Survey form online at:

http://www.sans.org/2006CareerSurvey

After all the data has been collected and tallied, we will publish the results of the salary survey in an upcoming issue of Sys Admin.

As always, if you an idea for an article, please send a proposal to Rikki Endsley at: rendsley@cmp.com. And, if you have any comments or suggestions, please don't hesitate to contact me at: aankerholz@cmp.com.

Sincerely yours,

Amber Ankerholz
Editor in Chief