Michael Schuster writes:
> * import/export: the initial requirement was to have a means to take the
> current configuration of the load balancer ("ilbadm export <file>"),
> transport it to another machine by whatever means and re-apply ("ilbadm
> import <file>") it there.
>
> Q1: Would people agree that this requirement makes sense?
It's a little surprising to me. It sounds a bit like you're
reinventing "svccfg export" and "svccfg import," and I'm not sure why
or how far down that path you really want to go.
Should ilbadm have its own profile mechanism? What about
customization at install time (as with jumpstart scripts)? Snapshot
and rollback?
> Q1a: if yes, would you agree that the format we use here is of secondary
> concern, ie. private?
One concern would be how you manage to make sure that the data are
acceptable when transported from one system to another. Suppose
you're transferring configuration because you're upgrading to a new
system ... do the two have to have exactly the same software version?
What happens if they don't? Does anything check versioning?
Ordinarily, protocols like this (and a file transported between
machines sounds like a "protocol" to me) are made at least Committed
Private, meaning that we don't document it, but we guarantee backward
compatibility between versions. Is that what's intended?
Another issue would be parameterization: if you transfer configuration
data from one system to another, how much needs to be the same? What
if the interfaces have different names or a different subnet is in
some part of the configuration? Are users expected to edit this file
in transit?
> Q4: would this cause security considerations?
I wouldn't expect it to have any special considerations; "export"
would be quite similar to reading and displaying the configuration and
"import" would be the same as setting parameters.
--
James Carlson, Solaris Networking <james.d.carlson at sun.com>
Sun Microsystems / 35 Network Drive 71.232W Vox +1 781 442 2084
MS UBUR02-212 / Burlington MA 01803-2757 42.496N Fax +1 781 442 1677
