subnet info, was Re: [HECnet] _PROVISIONAL_ map of HECnet, courtesy largely of Brian H.

[Dave McGuire]

On 01/07/2013 09:57 PM, Ian McLaughlin wrote:
Yeah more and more of us are using Ciscos to do this.   We really
need to find a way around this issue that doesn't involve manual
maintenance of routing info.

Perhaps an agreed-upon entry in INFO.TXT ?   That's still manually
managed, but it's managed by the individual link owners.

  Well Brian raised the good point of "on which host?"   ...I think the
problem here is that INFO.TXT really looks like, to me as a relative
HECnet n00b, a per-"domain" file...but there's no clear delineation of
administrative domains here.   We've been using areas, but we're running
out of those, and there's no consistency in the node numbering within
each area.

  We could all agree to have "an info node" with a particular node
number within each area, but that won't work when we start having
multiple administrative domains within a single area.   Johnny talked
about exactly this just today, in the context of Sampsa's relocation.
Dividing lines between regions of administrative control will not
correspond to area numbers for much longer, its sounds like.

  Perhaps a centralized database that maintains per-NODE info, not
per-AREA info.   Then that database could have a field that denotes the
point of administrative control that is responsible for each node.

  Then, some mechanism (either automated, manual, whatever) would then
populate that database.   Perhaps there could be several population
mechanisms...a program that runs under VMS, RSX, RSTS/E, or whatever,
and something over IP for everything else.

                              -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA