Pekka and Bob, > On Fri, 20 May 2005, Bob Hinden wrote: > > Also, I am not sure I understand what the problem is regarding knowing when > > to try using DHCPv6. For practical purposes, if there isn't a router > > present > > (indicated by the RAs it sends) is very unlikely that there will be a > > DHCPv6 > > server either (or it won't be reachable because the router is down). If > > the > > "m" and/or "o" bits are set in a RA, it is a pretty good hint that a host > > might try to use DHCPv6 and see what it gets. If the "m" or "o" bits are > > not > > set, then it's a pretty good hint that there isn't much sense in trying to > > use DHCPv6. > > Actually, the lack of M or O bits is not as good a hint as their > existence. If we wanted a _good_ hint about non-existence of DHCPv6 > (for addresses or config information), we'd have to have different > flag(s) like "Yes, I'm aware of what DHCPv6 is, but we don't use it in > this network". That allows disambiguation from "Yes, we do have a > couple of DHCPv6 servers, but we weren't aware you should configure > this stuff in the RAs, because with v4 you don't". > > But I'm not sure that disambiguation is worth the effort. > > That said, I support the clarification. In a sense I agree with > Thomas et al that the ra-mo-flags spec goes beyond the bare minimum > what the IETF specifications must specify -- it documents the policies > and behaviours which most vendors would implement in any case, but > these kind of knobs have often been left out of our specs. However, > as there has been so much confusion and discussion of M/O flags, I > think this specification is useful, and also allows vendors (who want > to) to implement the knobs in a uniform manner.
I'll have to re-read the draft, but I think that documenting the M/O bits sufficiently so that nodes and networks will be able to interoperate in a reasonable way. Documenting the basic policies and rules, IMO, are a good thing. Would a BCP-type document be a reasonable way to achieve this? John -------------------------------------------------------------------- IETF IPv6 working group mailing list ipv6@ietf.org Administrative Requests: https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ipv6 --------------------------------------------------------------------
