Subject: Re: [Netconf] client/ server terminology -?

From: "Victor Lyamtsev" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2013 16:48:26 +0000

So, is the "subscriber" also "client", e.g. would i have to install the same application on workstation that issues configuration request and on managed device?
Does that mean "subscribers" have to be connected to RPC server to receive notifications, or is that mechanism multicast-based?
Thank you, again.
-V

------- Original Message -------
On 1/4/2013 4:31 PM Juergen Schoenwaelder wrote:
On Fri, Jan 04, 2013 at 03:12:59PM +0000, Victor Lyamtsev wrote:
> Hello,
> It's my understanding ( from standard) that "client" is an application that makes configuration request and "server" is an application (RPC server) that acts on it.... So, if I have 100 managed devices, does it mean I have to have "server" on each device? 

Yes.

> Is it possible to have one RPC server and 100 "actor" applications, like SNMP traps?

Now you are talking about notifications. Notifications are emitted by
the server and received by clients that subscribe to an event stream.

> What is the purpose of "manager"? Can someone clarify
> client/server/manager terminology?

NETCONF does not use the term 'manager'. But basically, a NETCONF
management applications includes a NETCONF client to talking to
NETCONF servers. See RFC 6244 for a general overview or the slides of
my NETCONF YANG tutorial that I presented a few IETFs ago.

/js

-- 
Juergen Schoenwaelder           Jacobs University Bremen gGmbH
Phone: +49 421 200 3587         Campus Ring 1, 28759 Bremen, Germany
Fax:   +49 421 200 3103         <http://www.jacobs-university.de/>

---

From: Juergen Schoenwaelder <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2013 18:50:19 +0100

On Fri, Jan 04, 2013 at 04:48:26PM +0000, Victor Lyamtsev wrote:

> So, is the "subscriber" also "client", e.g. would i have to install
> the same application on workstation that issues configuration
> request and on managed device?

The notification receiver is a NETCONF client. In fact, you subscribe
to events by invoking an RPC. But note that this does not imply that
its the same _application_. You might very well have a special
application that simply subscribes to event notifications. This is an
implementation detail.

> Does that mean "subscribers" have to be connected to RPC server to
> receive notifications, or is that mechanism multicast-based?

Yes to the first part. I do not know how you get to multicasting but
since everything by default runs over SSH/TCP, it should be rather
clear that things won't multicast.

/js