Service Applications Area Director: o David Crocker: dcrocker@sgi.com Area Summary reported by David Crocker/Silicon Graphics The Service Applications Area encompasses support capabilities for system configuration and query and for structured inter-process communication. DNS Future Work BOF (DNSFUTUR) The DNS Future Work BOF met on 1 April 1994 to read the ``last will and testament'' of the DNS Working Group. A major conclusion was that two new working groups should be formed: the first, chaired by Ed King, to write the ``DNS Requirements'' document, and the second, chaired by Randy Bush and to work in coordination with the DNS Security Working Group chaired by Jim Galvin, to work on three inter-related technical issues (incremental zone transfer, dynamic RR updates, and updates to intermittently connected nameservers). Ruediger Volk volunteered to write an ``Operational Guidelines'' document to supplement the existing literature. Another big open issue from the DNS Working Group was the ``big zone'' discussion, which was encouraged and directed towards the bigz@rice.edu mailing list. Remaining DNS Working Group issues (MIB, IDPR, SDRP, Load Balancing) are either complete or nearly so, and in any case do not appear to need further working group sign-off. A general DNS oversight task was held to be a good matter for discussion with the new IETF Chair, but outside the proper scope as determined by the old IESG. Having thus disposed of, passed on, or punted our responsibilities, they declared victory and went home. Remote Account Maintenance Protocol BOF (RAMP) This BOF was tasked with discussing interest in developing a protocol to enable quick, automatic setup of application-layer software on servers and clients. The current implementation is an authenticated connection-oriented protocol in which the client populates a server-based template with client information, which causes the server to create an account and return configuration information to the client. The group heard a presentation from Jeffrey Payne who has developed the current RAMP draft specification and working clients and servers. Discussion included possible duplication of effort by the DMTF Working Group, multiple language support, security issues and whether the template-based design is sufficiently extensible. The Service Applications Area Director, Dave Crocker, thought more e-mail discussion was in order prior to the formation of a working group. The discussion group participants were charged with defining the requirements for new network access and server registration/client configuration; e-mail registration/configuration; netnews service registration/configuration; fax and printing registration/configuration; mbone registration/configuration; file service registration/configuration; commercial database registration. DNS Security Working Group (DNSSEC) The DNS Security Working Group met to review the proposed security enhancements drafted by Charlie Kaufman and Don Eastlake. The desired requirements specified at the Houston meeting were reviewed, followed by a presentation and discussion of the proposal. A number of issues were identified, with a disposition proposed for each. In particular, resolution on a few was deferred until after implementation experience was available. Jim Galvin indicated that TIS would be implementing the proposal. This group expects to meet in Toronto. MHS-DS Working Group (MHSDS) The MHS-DS Working Group reviewed the status of its documents. Its four principal documents will be ready for submission to the standards track after minor editorial changes. The working group spent most of its time discussing and resolving issues related to its Long Bud pilot project. The current status of the project was reviewed, specific problems were shown, and solutions were proposed. The most significant problem currently effecting the project is that reliability of the C=US root-level Internet DSAs is deficient. This problem will be resolved by establishing a specific set of core DSAs for the project, and ensuring that these core DSAs hold full copies of the top levels of the X.500 Open Community Routing Tree, thereby minimizing dependence upon the US root DSAs. The MHS-DS Internet-Draft ``Introduction to Project Long Bud'' will be updated to reflect this solution and to clarify how interested organizations can participate in the pilot project. The updated Internet-Draft will be circulated by the end of April. ONC Remote Procedure Call Working Group (ONCRPC) The ONCRPC Working Group held two sessions on 28 March. The members agreed with the ONCRPC Working Group charter and proceeded to review the RPC and XDR drafts. Due to limited time, only sections which had changed significantly from RFCs 1014 and 1057 were reviewed. A number of editorial comments were made. It was suggested that the sections dealing with Diffie-Hellman and Kerberos based authentication be removed from the RPC draft and be made into a new document, so that the RPC draft deals only with the ``mandatory'' aspects of the RPC protocol. A number of suggestions for the follow-on working group were made. Service Location Protocol Working Group (SVRLOC) The meeting began with a brief overview of the protocol: what is the goal, why is it trying to be accomplished and how is it going to be accomplished. The major additions to the current draft of the protocol specification were reviewed. Discussion focussed on how the protocol scales and how far it is designed to scale. Recommendations for additions to the protocol were also discussed.