Subject: Re: iSCSI: v15 issue: iqn. name format inconsistencies

From: "John Hufferd" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2002 02:43:36 -0700

You need to say:

- An optional colon ":"

A colon is optional and not required.  Many organization will not need the
colon.

And I would recommend

iqn.2001-04.com.acme.storage:diskarrays-sn-a8675309
iqn.2001-04.com.acme.storage:tape.sys1.xyz
iqn.2001-04.com.acme.storage.tape:sys1.xyz
iqn.2001-04.com.small.eng.storage.unit5

In this example the subdomain names that would otherwise conflict are
"storage" and "storage.tape"
The company called small has no possible conflicts and everything is
handled with a "."

.
.
.
John L. Hufferd
Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM)
IBM/SSG San Jose Ca
Main Office (408) 256-0403, Tie: 276-0403,  eFax: (408) 904-4688
Home Office (408) 997-6136, Cell: (408) 499-9702
Internet address: [email-masked]

Julian Satran/Haifa/IBM@[email-masked] on 07/17/2002 01:14:06 AM

Sent by:    [email-masked]

To:    "KRUEGER,MARJORIE (HP-Roseville,ex1)" <[email-masked]>
cc:    [email-masked]
Subject:    Re: iSCSI: v15 issue: iqn. name format inconsistencies

Marjorie,

Here is a differential.
Please check (fast!).

Julo

Type "iqn." (iSCSI Qualified Name)

This iSCSI name type can be used by any organization which owns a domain
name. This naming format is useful when an end user or ser-vice provider
wishes to assign iSCSI names for targets and/or initia-tors.

To generate names of this type, the person or organization generat-ing the
name must own a DNS domain name. This domain name does not have to be
active, and does not have to resolve to an address; it just needs to be
reserved to prevent others from generating iSCSI names using the same
domain name.

Because a domain name can expire, be acquired by another entity, and might
be used to generate iSCSI names by both owners, the domain name must be
additionally qualified by a date during which the naming authority owned
the domain name. A date code is provided as part of the "iqn." format for
this reason.

The iSCSI qualified name string consists of:

- The string "iqn.", used to distinguish these names from "eui." formatted
names.
- A date code, in yyyy-mm format. This date MUST be a date dur-ing which
the naming authority owned the domain name used in this format, and SHOULD
be the first month in which the domain name was owned by this naming
authority at 00:01 GMT of the first day of the month. This date code uses
the Grego-rian calendar. All four digits in the year must be present. Both
digits of the month must be present, with January == "01" and December
== "12". The dash must be included.
- A dot ".".
- The reversed domain name of the naming authority (person or organization)
creating this iSCSI name.
- A colon ":".
- Any string, within the character set and length boundaries, that the
owner of the domain name deems appropriate. This may contain product types,
serial numbers, host identifiers, software keys, or anything else that
makes sense to uniquely identify the initiator or target. Everything after
the reversed domain name, followed by colon ":", can be assigned as desired
by the owner of the domain name. It is the respon-sibility of the entity
that is the naming authority to ensure that the iSCSI names it assigns are
worldwide unique. For example, "ACME Storage Arrays, Inc.", might own the
domain name "acme.com".

The following are examples of iSCSI qualified names that might be
generated by "ACME Storage Arrays, Inc."

          Organization    Subgroup Naming Authority
              Naming      and/or string defined by
Type  Date     Auth       "acme.com" Naming Authority
+--++-----+ +------+ +--------------------------------+
|  ||     | |      | |                                |

iqn.2001-04.com.acme:storage.diskarrays-sn-a8675309
iqn.2001-04.com.acme:storage.tape.sys1.xyz
iqn.2001-04.com.acme:storage.tape.sys1.xyz

       "KRUEGER,MARJORIE                                                   
       (HP-Roseville,ex1)"                      To:        "Ips Reflector  
       <[email-masked]>        (E-mail)" <[email-masked]>        
       Sent by:                                 cc:                        
       [email-masked]                    Subject:        iSCSI: v15 
                                        issue: iqn. name format            
       07/17/2002 12:44 AM              inconsistencies                    

There is currently an inconsistency in the way iSCSI "iqn."-formatted names
are illustrated and described between the iSCSI protocol document and the
iSCSI Naming and Discovery document.  In particular, the separator
character between the reversed-domain name and the rest of the string is
defined to be "." but some examples in the N&D document describe it as ":".

I remember discussion (among the N&D team) that this separator should be
":" in order to distinguish the reversed domain name from the rest of the
string, but this got lost somewhere along the line.  If there are no
objections to changing this in the main draft, this translates into changes
for both the iSCSI main draft and the N&D draft in cleaning up the examples
and making sure they are consistent (some use "." and some use ":").

Here are the changes I recommend to the main draft:
In section 2.2.6.3

    The iSCSI qualified name string consists of:
      -  The string "iqn."
      -  A date code, in yyyy-mm format.  This date MUST be a date
         during which the naming authority owned the domain name used
         in this format, and SHOULD be the date on which the domain
         name was acquired by this naming authority.  This date code
         uses the Gregorian calendar.  All four digits in the year must
         be present.  Both digits of the month must be present, with
         January == "01" and December == "12".  The dash must be
         included.
      -  A dot ".".
      -  The reversed domain name of the naming authority (person or
         organization) creating this iSCSI name.
      -  A colon ":".
      -  Any string, within the character set and length boundaries,
         that the owner of the domain name deems appropriate.  This may
         contain product types, serial numbers, host identifiers, soft-
         ware keys, or anything else that makes sense to uniquely iden-
         tify the initiator or target.  Everything after "<reversed
         domain name>:", can be assigned as desired by the owner of
         the domain name.  It is the responsibility of the entity that
         is the naming authority to ensure that the iSCSI names it
         assigns are world wide unique.

    For example, "ACME Storage Arrays, Inc.", might own the domain name
    "acme.com". The following are examples of iSCSI qualified names that
    might be generated by "ACME Storage Arrays, Inc."

                   Organization
                       Naming     String defined by
         Type  Date     Auth      "acme.com" naming authority
         +--++-----+ +------+ +--------------------------------+
         |  ||     | |      | |                                |

         iqn.2001-04.com.acme:storage.diskarrays-sn-a8675309
         iqn.2001-04.com.acme:server.megafast900.i95874

In section 11.4 TargetName

    Examples:

      TargetName=iqn.1993-11.com.diskvendor:diskarrays.sn.45678

In section 11.5 InitiatorName

    Examples:

      InitiatorName=iqn.1992-04.com.osvendor:plan9.cdrom.12345
      InitiatorName=iqn.2001-02.com.ssp:users.customer235.host90

<Julian, make sure to delete the last example in the current text, as it's
invalid>

In appendix C

    In the first example, the initiator and target authenticate each other
    via Kerberos:

      I-> Login (CSG,NSG=0,1 T=1)
          InitiatorName=iqn.1999-07.com.os:hostid.77
          TargetName=iqn.1999-07.com.acme:diskarray.sn.88
          AuthMethod=KRB5,SRP,None

etc - all these Login examples that contain iSCSI names need to be fixed.

In appendix D

    Target sends a text response that contains:

      TargetName=iqn.1993-11.com.acme:diskarray.sn.8675309

etc - all TargetName examples need to be fixed.

Several examples in the Naming and Discovery draft need to be fixed - I'll
address that in a separate email.

Marjorie Krueger
Networked Storage Architecture
Networked Storage Solutions
Hewlett-Packard

---

From: Bill Studenmund <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2002 10:30:56 -0700 (PDT)

> - An optional colon ":"

While I think it'd be better to make the ":" mandatory, to do what you
want I think the text should be '- Either a "." or a ":"' to indicate that
one of the two is needed. :-)

> The company called small has no possible conflicts and everything is

Take care,

Bill