Network Protocols

AI Network Protocols and Design

*Protcols used for booting client
  *tftp for loading microroot
  *grub cannot support NFS or http, so cannot be used for loading microroot at this time.  
(DM extending GRUB is an option, though)
(SJ True, we are considering extended grub for wanboot as well)
  *dhcp for client network configuration. No bootparams for SPARC.
  *May not use this for boot file info, depends on mDNS SD.
  *Consider multi-cast DNS service discovery possible for client/server installation servicing. Need to see if it can be made to be secure.
   *Server:
*mDNS-SD in OpenSolaris allows for registering of the service via dns-sd. Service will be advertised in a specific domain with the given name and type listening on the specified port.
*Service name must be registered with port number, unless we indicate it is private to our space.
*Port number for the service is the TCP or UDP port number on which the service is listening.
*Attributes of the service can be described in key/value pairs in the services DNS TXT record.
*Additional attributes must be listed with the service registration.
   *Client side mDNS-sd:
*Can browse for instances of service type in specified domain.
*Will lookup and get info necessary to contract and use the named service.
General:
*Must use mdnsd deamon for mDNS-sd.
Security Considerations:

• • *Should use DNSSEC for authenticity of information.
  • *DNS-SD is just a naming and usage convention for records in the existing DNS system.

(DM Please orient design primarily at HTTP.  NFS is an optimization we may or may not choose to offer)
(SJ I think that we can offer both, and still have the appropriate design. NFS is an important feature for us to offer. However, that said, the reason I propose NFS is due to the memory size requirements we run in to with the current microroot and http downloads of the additional data. If we can use dcfs on both platforms to minimize the impact of memory required for the microroot that will help)

*Protocols for getting non microroot archives/data
  *NFS-mounting the remote filesystem containing the archive and lofi mounting the NFS filesystem on the client.  
  *http-download the remove archives and files to the client, unpack or lofi mount as required based on format of archives/files.