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RECONFIGURE Triggered by DHCPv6 Relay Agents
draft-ietf-dhc-triggered-reconfigure-03

The information below is for an old version of the document.
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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 6977.
Authors Mohamed Boucadair , Xavier Pougnard
Last updated 2013-01-21
Replaces draft-boucadair-dhc-triggered-reconfigure
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draft-ietf-dhc-triggered-reconfigure-03
DHC Working Group                                           M. Boucadair
Internet-Draft                                               X. Pougnard
Updates: 3315, 6422 (if approved)                         France Telecom
Intended status: Standards Track                        January 21, 2013
Expires: July 25, 2013

              RECONFIGURE Triggered by DHCPv6 Relay Agents
                draft-ietf-dhc-triggered-reconfigure-03

Abstract

   This document defines new DHCPv6 messages: Reconfigure-Request and
   Reconfigure-Ack.  Reconfigure-Request message is sent by a DHCPv6
   relay agent to notify a DHCPv6 server about a configuration
   information change, so that the DHCPv6 server can send a Reconfigure
   message accordingly.

   This document updates RFC 3315 and RFC 6422.

Status of this Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on July 25, 2013.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2013 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must

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   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
     1.1.  Problem  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
     1.2.  Requirements Language  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   2.  Proposed Solution  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   3.  Link Address Option  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   4.  RECONFIGURE-REQUEST and RECONFIGURE-ACK  . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     4.1.  Messages Format  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     4.2.  Messages Validation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
       4.2.1.  RECONFIGURE-REQUEST  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
       4.2.2.  RECONFIGURE-ACK  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     4.3.  Creation and Transmission of RECONFIGURE-REQUEST . . . . .  8
     4.4.  Server Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     4.5.  Receipt of RECONFIGURE-ACK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   5.  Rate Limiting Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   6.  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   7.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   8.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
   9.  References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
     9.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
     9.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

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1.  Introduction

1.1.  Problem

   [RFC6422] updates the DHCPv6 specification [RFC3315] with a new
   feature to let a DHCPv6 relay agent communicate information towards a
   DHCPv6 Client, and which is not available at the DHCPv6 server.  This
   is achieved owing to the use of RSOO (Relay-Supplied Options option)
   which carries configuration data to the DHCPv6 server.  The data
   conveyed in an RSOO is then sent back by the DHCPv6 server to the
   requesting DHCPv6 client.

   An example of a RSOO context is shown in Figure 1; only a subset of
   exchanged DHCPv6 and RADIUS messages is represented.

      +-------+                   +-------+                    +-------+
      |DHCPv6 |                   |  NAS  |                    |Radius |
      |Client |                   |(DHCPv6|                    |Server |
      |       |                   | Relay)|                    |       |
      +-------+                   +-------+                    +-------+
          |                           |                            |
          |---Solicit---------------->|                            |
          |                           |---Access-Request---------->|
                                      |<--Access-Accept------------|
                                      |  (e.g. DS-Lite-Tunnel-Name)|
                                    ....

                                      |                        +-------+
                                      |                        |DHCPv6 |
                                      |                        |Server |
                                      |                        |       |
                                      |                        +-------+
                                      |                            |
                                      |---Relay-Forward----------->|
                                      | (RSOO(DS-Lite-Tunnel-Name))|
                                      |                            |
          |                           |<--Relay-Reply--------------|
          |<--Advertise---------------|
          |  (e.g., OPTION_AFTR_NAME) |
                                     ....

               Figure 1: An Example of the RSOO Option Usage

   The change of the configuration may result in RADIUS exchanges
   ([RFC5176]) between the NAS/DHCPv6 relay agent and Dynamic
   Authorization Client (DAC) server as shown in Figure 2.  Note the
   change of the configuration in the DHCPv6 relay agent can be

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   triggered by any other out-of-band mechanism.

      +-------+                   +-------+                    +-------+
      |DHCPv6 |                   |  NAS  |                    |Radius |
      |Client |                   |(DHCPv6|                    |Server/|
      |       |                   | Relay)|                    |  DAC  |
      +-------+                   +-------+                    +-------+
          |                           |                            |
                                      |<-----CoA-Request-----------|
                                      | (e.g. DS-Lite-Tunnel-Name) |
                                      |------CoA-Response--------->|
                                    ....

      CoA (Change-of-Authorization, [RFC5176])

                     Figure 2: Change of configuration

   Whenever the configuration information sent by the DHCPv6 relay agent
   to the DHCPv6 server change, the DHCPv6 server has no means to detect
   it so that it can send a Reconfigure message with the updated
   configuration data accordingly.  A solution is sketched in Section 2.

1.2.  Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

2.  Proposed Solution

   To solve the problem described in Section 1.1, this document proposes
   a new DHCP message called Reconfigure-Request.  In the example
   depicted in Figure 3 a Reconfigure-Request message is sent by the
   DHCPv6 relay agent to a DHCPv6 server as soon as the configuration
   data conveyed in an RSOO option have changed.  Upon receipt of this
   message, and if it is configured to support such mode, the DHCPv6
   server must build Reconfigure-Ack and Reconfigure messages.
   Reconfigure-Ack is used to acknowledge the receipt of Reconfigure-
   Request.  Reconfigure message is then sent to the DHCPv6 relay, which
   in turn will forward the message to the appropriate DHCPv6 client.

   This setup assumes the relay has a record of the client, so that it
   has enough information to send the Reconfigure-Request message to the
   server.  Means to recover state in failure events must be supported,
   but are not discussed in this document.

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      +-------+                   +-------+                    +-------+
      |DHCPv6 |                   |  NAS  |                    |Radius |
      |Client |                   |(DHCPv6|                    |Server/|
      |       |                   | Relay)|                    | DAC   |
      +-------+                   +-------+                    +-------+
          |                           |                            |
                                      |<-----CoA-Request-----------|
                                      | (e.g. DS-Lite-Tunnel-Name) |
                                      |                            |
                                      |------CoA-Response--------->|
                                    ....
                                      |                        +-------+
                                      |                        |DHCPv6 |
                                      |                        |Server |
                                      |                        |       |
                                      |                        +-------+
                                      |                            |
                                      |---Reconfigure-Request----->|
                                      |<--Reconfigure-Ack----------|
                                      |                            |
          |                           |<--Relay-Reply -------------|
          |<--Reconfigure-------------|   (Reconfigure)            |
          |                           |                            |
                                    ....

                Figure 3: RECONFIGURE-REQUEST Flow Example

   The Reconfigure-Request message can also be used in other scenarios
   than those that assume the use of RSOO.  It is out of scope of this
   document to describe all these scenarios.

   The support of Reconfigure-Ack simplifies the retransmission
   procedure of the relay as it provides an explicit indication from the
   server.  An alternative approach is the relay monitors Reconfigure
   messages received from the server to conclude whether Reconfigure-
   Request was successfully handled or not.  Nevertheless, this implicit
   approach may fail to achieve its goals in some cases: e.g., the
   server accepts the request but it delays to generate the
   corresponding Reconfigure messages due to its rate-limiting policies,
   the request was partially failed for some clients, etc.  To avoid
   useless reconfigure cycles (e.g., due to the loss of Reconfigure-
   Ack), the approach adopted in this document allows the relay to
   correct the content of a re-transmitted Reconfigure-Request based on
   some observed events (e.g., the client has retrieved the updated
   configuration).  If the relay has no client to reconfigured, it stops
   sending Reconfigure-Request messages.

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3.  Link Address Option

   Figure 4 shows the format of the Link Address Option.

      0                   1                   2                   3
      0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |       OPTION_LINK_ADDRESS     |         option-len            |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                                                               |
      |                  link-address (IPv6 address)                  |
      |                                                               |
      |                                                               |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

              Figure 4: Message Format of Link Address Option

   The description of the fields are as follows:

      option-code: OPTION_LINK_ADDRESS (To be assigned by IANA, see
      Section 6).

      option-len: 16 (octets).

      link-address: An IPv6 address used by the server to identify the
      link on which the client is located.

   The Link Address Option is used by the relay agent to indicate to the
   server the link on which the client is located.  The relay agent MUST
   use a link-address value that is equivalent to the value used when
   relaying messages from the client to the server.  Two link-address
   values are said to be equivalent if both values are IPv6 addresses
   that are on-link for the network link to which the client is
   connected.  The relay agent SHOULD use the same value that was sent
   to the DHCP server when relaying messages from the client to the
   server, as in Section 20.1.1 of [RFC3315].

4.  RECONFIGURE-REQUEST and RECONFIGURE-ACK

4.1.  Messages Format

   Two new message type codes are defined:

      RECONFIGURE-REQUEST (To be assigned by IANA, see Section 6).

      RECONFIGURE-ACK (To be assigned by IANA, see Section 6).

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   RECONFIGURE-REQUEST and RECONFIGURE-ACK use the same format as
   defined in Section 6 of [RFC3315].

4.2.  Messages Validation

4.2.1.  RECONFIGURE-REQUEST

   Clients MUST silently discard any received RECONFIGURE-REQUEST
   messages.

   Servers MUST silently discard any received RECONFIGURE-REQUEST
   messages that meet any of the following conditions:

   o  the message does not include a Client Identifier Option [RFC3315].

   o  the message does not include a Link Address Option (Section 3).

   o  the message includes a Server Identifier Option [RFC3315] but the
      contents of the Server Identifier Option does not match the
      server's identifier.

   The server MUST be configurable to accept or reject RECONFIGURE-
   REQUEST messages.  If the server is configured to reject RECONFIGURE-
   REQUEST, the server MUST silently discard any RECONFIGURE-REQUEST it
   receives.

   The relay agent MUST be configurable to accept or reject RECONFIGURE-
   REQUEST messages received from other relay agents.  If the relay is
   configured to reject RECONFIGURE-REQUEST, the relay MUST silently
   discard any RECONFIGURE-REQUEST it receives.  If the relay is
   configured to accept RECONFIGURE-REQUEST messages, these messages are
   relayed as specified in Section 20.1.1 of [RFC3315].

   Because RECONFIGURE-REQUEST message provides a mechanism for
   triggering the DHCP Reconfigure message, and the DHCP Reconfigure
   message can raise security threats (e.g., to control the timing of a
   DHCP renewal), the DHCP server MUST have some mechanism for
   determining that the relay agent is a trusted entity.  RECONFIGURE-
   REQUEST messages originating from unknown relay agents MUST be
   silently dropped.

4.2.2.  RECONFIGURE-ACK

   Clients and Servers MUST silently discard any received RECONFIGURE-
   ACK messages.

   The relay MUST silently discard any received RECONFIGURE-ACK messages
   that meet any of the following conditions:

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   o  the "transaction-id" field in the message does not match the value
      used in the original message.

   o  the message does not include a Server Identifier Option.

   o  the message does not include a Status Code Option [RFC3315].

4.3.  Creation and Transmission of RECONFIGURE-REQUEST

   For any event (e.g., modification of the configuration information)
   that requires the server to issue a Reconfigure message, the relay
   agent determines the client which is affected by the change and then
   builds a Reconfigure-Request message: the relay agent sets the "msg-
   type" field to RECONFIGURE-REQUEST, generates a transaction ID and
   inserts it in the "transaction-id" field.  The relay agent MUST
   include a Client Identifier Option [RFC3315] and a Link Address
   Option (Section 3) so that the DHCPv6 server can identify the
   corresponding client and the link on which the client is located.
   The relay agent MAY supply the updated configuration in the RSOO
   [RFC6422].  The relay agent MAY supply a Reconfigure Message Option
   to indicate which form of Reconfigure to use.  The relay agent MAY
   include any option (e.g., Interface Identifier [RFC3315]) which it
   might insert when relaying a message received from a client.

   When several clients on the same link are affected by a configuration
   change, the relay MUST include several Client Identifier Options,
   each of them identifies a specific client.  If including Client
   Identifier Options of all impacted clients exceeds the maximum
   message size (see Section 5), the relay MUST generate several
   RECONFIGURE-REQUEST messages required to carry all Client Identifier
   Options.  Rate-limit considerations are discussed in Section 5.

   The relay transmits RECONFIGURE-REQUEST messages according to Section
   14 of [RFC3315], using the following parameters:

     IRT    1 sec
     MRT    10 secs
     MRC    5
     MRD    0

   When retransmission is required, the relay may decide to correct the
   content of RECONFIGURE-REQUEST message it issues (e.g., update the
   Client Identifier list).  This decision is local to the relay (e.g.,
   it may be based on observed events such as one or more clients were
   reconfigured on their own).

   The relay may receive (Relay-Reply) Reconfigure before Reconfigure-
   Ack.  The relay SHOULD NOT interpret it as if the Reconfigure-Request

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   was successfully handled by the Server.  The relay SHOULD use
   Reconfigure-Ack, not the Reconfigure message, to determine if the
   request was successful.

4.4.  Server Behaviour

   Upon receipt of a valid Reconfigure-Request message from a DHCPv6
   relay agent (see Section 4.2), the server determines the client(s)
   for which a Reconfigure message is to be sent.

   The server constructs a Reconfigure-Ack message by setting the "msg-
   type" field to RECONFIGURE-ACK, and copying the transaction ID from
   the RECONFIGURE-REQUEST message into the transaction-id field.  The
   server MUST include a Status Code Option [RFC3315] indicating whether
   the request is successfully processed, failed or partially failed.

   o  If the request is successfully handled by the server, the server
      MUST include a Status Code Option indicating "Success".

   o  If the request includes several Client Identifier options but the
      server will issue reconfigure requests only for a subset of them,
      the server MUST include a Status Code Option indicating "Success"
      but in the meantime it MUST copy back the list of Client
      Identifier Options pointing to clients for which the server won't
      issue a Reconfigure message.

   o  If the server failed to process the request for all clients, the
      server MUST set the Status Code Option to the appropriate status
      code (e.g., UnspecFail, NotAllowed, etc.).

   If RSOO is supplied, the server MAY use its content to double check
   whether a Reconfigure is required to be sent to the client.  This
   assumes the server store the content of RSOO it used to generate
   configuration data sent to requesting clients.

   The server MAY use the content of the Reconfigure Message Option
   supplied by the relay agent to determine which form of Reconfigure to
   use.

   Then, the server MUST follow the procedure defined in Section 19.1 of
   [RFC3315] to construct a Reconfigure message.  This Reconfigure
   message may be sent directly to the DHCPv6 client or to a relay agent
   [RFC3315].

   Rate-limit considerations are discussed in Section 5.

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4.5.  Receipt of RECONFIGURE-ACK

   Depending on the status code enclosed in a received RECONFIGURE-ACK
   message, the relay may decide to terminate the request or try a
   different corrected Reconfigure-Request.

5.  Rate Limiting Considerations

   The relay MUST rate-limit Reconfigure-Request messages to be sent to
   the server.  The relay MUST be configured with required rate-limit
   parameters (i.e., the rate of Reconfigure messages).  The maximum
   Reconfigure-Request packet size SHOULD be configurable and the
   default value MUST be 1280 octets.

   The server MUST rate-limit Reconfigure messages triggered by
   Reconfigure-Request messages.  The server MUST be configured with
   required rate-limit parameters (i.e., the rate of Reconfigure
   messages).

6.  IANA Considerations

   IANA is requested to assign the following new DHCPv6 Message type in
   the registry maintained in
   http://www.iana.org/assignments/dhcpv6-parameters:

      RECONFIGURE-REQUEST

      RECONFIGURE-ACK

   IANA is requested to assign the following new DHCPv6 Option Codes in
   the registry maintained in
   http://www.iana.org/assignments/dhcpv6-parameters:

      OPTION_LINK_ADDRESS

7.  Security Considerations

   Security considerations elaborated in [RFC3315] (in particular
   Section 21.1) and [RFC6422] must be taken into account.  In addition,
   DHCPv6 servers MAY be configured to discard relayed RECONFIGURE-
   REQUEST messages or restrict relay chaining (see [RFC5007] for more
   discussion about the rationale of this recommended behavior).  Relay
   agents SHOULD implement appropriate means to prevent using
   RECONFIGURE-REQUEST messages as a denial-of-service attack on the
   DHCPv6 servers.

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8.  Acknowledgements

   Many thanks to R. Maglione, A. Kostur, G. Halwasia, C. Jacquenet and
   B. Volz for the comments and review.

   Special thanks to T. Lemon who provided a detailed review.

9.  References

9.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC3315]  Droms, R., Bound, J., Volz, B., Lemon, T., Perkins, C.,
              and M. Carney, "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for
              IPv6 (DHCPv6)", RFC 3315, July 2003.

   [RFC6422]  Lemon, T. and Q. Wu, "Relay-Supplied DHCP Options",
              RFC 6422, December 2011.

9.2.  Informative References

   [RFC5007]  Brzozowski, J., Kinnear, K., Volz, B., and S. Zeng,
              "DHCPv6 Leasequery", RFC 5007, September 2007.

   [RFC5176]  Chiba, M., Dommety, G., Eklund, M., Mitton, D., and B.
              Aboba, "Dynamic Authorization Extensions to Remote
              Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS)", RFC 5176,
              January 2008.

Authors' Addresses

   Mohamed Boucadair
   France Telecom
   Rennes,   35000
   France

   Email: mohamed.boucadair@orange.com

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   Xavier Pougnard
   France Telecom
   Lannion,
   France

   Phone:
   Email: xavier.pougnard@orange.com

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