Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) A. Bierman Request for Comments: 8525 YumaWorks Obsoletes: 7895 M. Bjorklund Category: Standards Track Tail-f Systems ISSN: 2070-1721 J. Schoenwaelder Jacobs University K. Watsen Watsen Networks R. Wilton Cisco Systems March 2019
YANG Library
Abstract
This document describes a YANG library that provides information about the YANG modules, datastores, and datastore schemas used by a network management server. Simple caching mechanisms are provided to allow clients to minimize retrieval of this information. This version of the YANG library supports the Network Management Datastore Architecture (NMDA) by listing all datastores supported by a network management server and the schema that is used by each of these datastores.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has received public review and has been approved for publication by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 7841.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata, and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8525.
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Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2019 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 (https://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 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. Terminology ................................................4 2. Objectives ......................................................5 3. YANG Library Data Model .........................................6 4. YANG Library YANG Module ........................................8 5. IANA Considerations ............................................20 6. Security Considerations ........................................21 7. References .....................................................22 7.1. Normative References ......................................22 7.2. Informative References ....................................23 Appendix A. Summary of Changes from RFC 7895 .....................25 Appendix B. Example YANG Library Instance for a Basic Server .....25 Appendix C. Example YANG Library Instance for an Advanced Server .27 Authors' Addresses ................................................32
There is a need for a standard mechanism to expose which YANG modules [RFC7950], datastores [RFC8342], and datastore schemas [RFC8342] are in use by a network management server.
This document defines the YANG module "ietf-yang-library" that provides this information. This version of the YANG library is compatible with the Network Management Datastore Architecture (NMDA) [RFC8342]. The previous version of the YANG library, defined in [RFC7895], is not compatible with the NMDA since it assumes that all datastores have exactly the same schema. This is not necessarily true in the NMDA since dynamic configuration datastores may have their own datastore schema. Furthermore, the operational state datastore may support non-configurable YANG modules in addition to the YANG modules supported by conventional configuration datastores.
The old YANG library definitions have been retained (for backwards- compatibility reasons), but the definitions have been marked as deprecated. For backwards compatibility, an NMDA-supporting server SHOULD populate the deprecated "/modules-state" tree in a backwards- compatible manner. The new "/yang-library" tree will be ignored by legacy clients but will provide all the data needed for NMDA-aware clients (which will ignore the "/modules-state" tree). The recommended approach to populate "/modules-state" is to report the YANG modules with "config true" data nodes that are configurable via conventional configuration datastores and the YANG modules with "config false" data nodes that are returned via a Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF) <get> operation or equivalent.
The YANG library information can be different on every server, and it can change at runtime or across a server reboot. If a server implements multiple network management protocols to access the server's datastores, then each such protocol may have its own conceptual instantiation of the YANG library.
If a large number of YANG modules are utilized by a server, then the YANG library contents can be relatively large. Since the YANG library contents change very infrequently, it is important that clients be able to cache the YANG library contents and easily identify whether their cache is out of date.
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.
The following information is needed by a client application (for each YANG module in the library) to fully utilize the YANG data modeling language:
o name: The name of the YANG module.
o revision: If defined in the YANG module or submodule, the revision is derived from the most recent revision statement within the module or submodule.
o submodule list: The name and (if defined) revision of each submodule used by the module must be identified.
o feature list: The name of each YANG feature supported by the server must be identified.
o deviation list: The name of each YANG module with deviation statements affecting a given YANG module must be identified.
In addition, the following information is needed by a client application for each datastore supported by a server:
o identity: The YANG identity for the datastore.
o schema: The schema (i.e., the set of modules) implemented by the datastore.
In order to select one out of several possible designs for the YANG library data model, the following criteria were used:
1. The information must be efficient for a client to consume. Since the size of the YANG library can be quite large, it should be possible for clients to cache the YANG library information.
2. A dynamic configuration datastore must be able to implement a module or feature that is not implemented in the conventional configuration datastores.
3. It must be possible to not implement a module or feature in <operational>, even if it is implemented in some other datastore. This is required for transition purposes; a server that wants to implement <operational> should not have to implement all modules at once.
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4. A given module can only be implemented in one revision in all datastores. If a module is implemented in more than one datastore, the same revision is implemented in all these datastores.
5. Multiple revisions can be used for import, if import-by revision is used.
6. It must be possible to use the YANG library by schema mount [RFC8528].
The "ietf-yang-library" YANG module provides information about the modules, submodules, datastores, and datastore schemas supported by a server. All data nodes in the "ietf-yang-library" module are "config false" and thus only accessible in the operational state datastore.
+-----------+ | datastore | +-----------+ | | has a V +-----------+ +--------+ +------------+ | datastore | union of | module | consists of | modules + | | schema |----------->| set |--------------->| submodules | +-----------+ +--------+ +------------+
Figure 1
The conceptual model of the YANG library is depicted in Figure 1. Following the NMDA, every datastore has an associated datastore schema. A datastore schema is a union of module sets, and every module set is a collection of modules and submodules, including the modules and submodules used for imports. Note that multiple datastores may refer to the same datastore schema. Furthermore, it is possible for individual datastore schemas to share module sets. A common use case is the operational state datastore schema, which is a superset of the schema used by conventional configuration datastores.
Below is the YANG tree diagram for the "ietf-yang-library" module, excluding the deprecated "/modules-state" tree:
The "/yang-library" container holds the entire YANG library. The container has the following child nodes:
o The "/yang-library/module-set" contains entries representing module sets. The list "/yang-library/module-set/module" enumerates the modules that belong to the module set. A module is listed together with its submodules (if any), a set of features, and any deviation modules. The list "/yang-library/module-set/ import-only-module" lists all modules (and their submodules) used only for imports. The assignment of a module to a module set is
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at the server's discretion. This revision of the YANG library attaches no semantics as to which module set a module is listed in.
o The "/yang-library/schema" list contains an entry for each datastore schema supported by the server. All conventional configuration datastores use the same "schema" list entry. A dynamic configuration datastore may use a different datastore schema from the conventional configuration datastores and hence may require a separate "schema" entry. A "schema" entry has a leaf-list of references to entries in the "module-set" list. The schema consists of the union of all modules in all referenced module sets.
o The "/yang-library/datastore" list contains one entry for each datastore supported by the server, and it identifies the datastore schema associated with a datastore via a reference to an entry in the "schema" list. Each supported conventional configuration datastore has a separate entry, pointing to the same "schema" list element.
o The "/yang-library/content-id" leaf contains the YANG library content identifier, which is an implementation-specific identifier representing the current information in the YANG library on a specific server. The value of this leaf MUST change whenever the information in the YANG library changes. There is no requirement that the same information always result in the same "content-id" value. This leaf allows a client to fetch all schema information once, cache it, and only refetch it if the value of this leaf has been changed. If the value of this leaf changes, the server also generates a "yang-library-update" notification.
Note that for a NETCONF server implementing the NETCONF extensions to support the NMDA [RFC8526], a change of the YANG library content identifier results in a new value for the :yang-library:1.1 capability defined in [RFC8526]. Thus, if such a server implements NETCONF notifications [RFC5277] and the "netconf-capability-change" notification [RFC6470], a "netconf-capability-change" notification is generated whenever the YANG library content identifier changes.
The "ietf-yang-library" YANG module imports definitions from the "ietf-yang-types" and "ietf-inet-types" modules defined in [RFC6991] and from the "ietf-datastores" module defined in [RFC8342]. While the YANG module is defined using YANG version 1.1, the YANG library supports YANG modules written in any version of YANG.
Author: Robert Wilton <mailto:rwilton@cisco.com>"; description "This module provides information about the YANG modules, datastores, and datastore schemas used by a network management server.
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The key words 'MUST', 'MUST NOT', 'REQUIRED', 'SHALL', 'SHALL NOT', 'SHOULD', 'SHOULD NOT', 'RECOMMENDED', 'NOT RECOMMENDED', 'MAY', and 'OPTIONAL' in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 (RFC 2119) (RFC 8174) when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.
Copyright (c) 2019 IETF Trust and the persons identified as authors of the code. All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, is permitted pursuant to, and subject to the license terms contained in, the Simplified BSD License set forth in Section 4.c of the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info).
This version of this YANG module is part of RFC 8525; see the RFC itself for full legal notices.";
revision 2019-01-04 { description "Added support for multiple datastores according to the Network Management Datastore Architecture (NMDA)."; reference "RFC 8525: YANG Library"; } revision 2016-04-09 { description "Initial revision."; reference "RFC 7895: YANG Module Library"; }
/* * Typedefs */
typedef revision-identifier { type string { pattern '\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}'; } description "Represents a specific date in YYYY-MM-DD format."; }
/* * Groupings */
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grouping module-identification-leafs { description "Parameters for identifying YANG modules and submodules."; leaf name { type yang:yang-identifier; mandatory true; description "The YANG module or submodule name."; } leaf revision { type revision-identifier; description "The YANG module or submodule revision date. If no revision statement is present in the YANG module or submodule, this leaf is not instantiated."; } }
grouping location-leaf-list { description "Common leaf-list parameter for the locations of modules and submodules."; leaf-list location { type inet:uri; description "Contains a URL that represents the YANG schema resource for this module or submodule.
This leaf will only be present if there is a URL available for retrieval of the schema for this entry."; } }
grouping module-implementation-parameters { description "Parameters for describing the implementation of a module."; leaf-list feature { type yang:yang-identifier; description "List of all YANG feature names from this module that are supported by the server, regardless whether they are defined in the module or any included submodule."; } leaf-list deviation { type leafref { path "../../module/name"; }
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description "List of all YANG deviation modules used by this server to modify the conformance of the module associated with this entry. Note that the same module can be used for deviations for multiple modules, so the same entry MAY appear within multiple 'module' entries.
This reference MUST NOT (directly or indirectly) refer to the module being deviated.
Robust clients may want to make sure that they handle a situation where a module deviates itself (directly or indirectly) gracefully."; } }
grouping module-set-parameters { description "A set of parameters that describe a module set."; leaf name { type string; description "An arbitrary name of the module set."; } list module { key "name"; description "An entry in this list represents a module implemented by the server, as per Section 5.6.5 of RFC 7950, with a particular set of supported features and deviations."; reference "RFC 7950: The YANG 1.1 Data Modeling Language"; uses module-identification-leafs; leaf namespace { type inet:uri; mandatory true; description "The XML namespace identifier for this module."; } uses location-leaf-list; list submodule { key "name"; description "Each entry represents one submodule within the parent module."; uses module-identification-leafs; uses location-leaf-list; }
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uses module-implementation-parameters; } list import-only-module { key "name revision"; description "An entry in this list indicates that the server imports reusable definitions from the specified revision of the module but does not implement any protocol-accessible objects from this revision.
Multiple entries for the same module name MAY exist. This can occur if multiple modules import the same module but specify different revision dates in the import statements."; leaf name { type yang:yang-identifier; description "The YANG module name."; } leaf revision { type union { type revision-identifier; type string { length "0"; } } description "The YANG module revision date. A zero-length string is used if no revision statement is present in the YANG module."; } leaf namespace { type inet:uri; mandatory true; description "The XML namespace identifier for this module."; } uses location-leaf-list; list submodule { key "name"; description "Each entry represents one submodule within the parent module."; uses module-identification-leafs; uses location-leaf-list; } } }
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grouping yang-library-parameters { description "The YANG library data structure is represented as a grouping so it can be reused in configuration or another monitoring data structure."; list module-set { key "name"; description "A set of modules that may be used by one or more schemas.
A module set does not have to be referentially complete, i.e., it may define modules that contain import statements for other modules not included in the module set."; uses module-set-parameters; } list schema { key "name"; description "A datastore schema that may be used by one or more datastores.
The schema must be valid and referentially complete, i.e., it must contain modules to satisfy all used import statements for all modules specified in the schema."; leaf name { type string; description "An arbitrary name of the schema."; } leaf-list module-set { type leafref { path "../../module-set/name"; } description "A set of module-sets that are included in this schema. If a non-import-only module appears in multiple module sets, then the module revision and the associated features and deviations must be identical."; } } list datastore { key "name"; description "A datastore supported by this server.
Each datastore indicates which schema it supports.
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The server MUST instantiate one entry in this list per specific datastore it supports. Each datastore entry with the same datastore schema SHOULD reference the same schema."; leaf name { type ds:datastore-ref; description "The identity of the datastore."; } leaf schema { type leafref { path "../../schema/name"; } mandatory true; description "A reference to the schema supported by this datastore. All non-import-only modules of the schema are implemented with their associated features and deviations."; } } }
/* * Top-level container */
container yang-library { config false; description "Container holding the entire YANG library of this server."; uses yang-library-parameters; leaf content-id { type string; mandatory true; description "A server-generated identifier of the contents of the '/yang-library' tree. The server MUST change the value of this leaf if the information represented by the '/yang-library' tree, except '/yang-library/content-id', has changed."; } }
/* * Notifications */
notification yang-library-update {
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description "Generated when any YANG library information on the server has changed."; leaf content-id { type leafref { path "/yanglib:yang-library/yanglib:content-id"; } mandatory true; description "Contains the YANG library content identifier for the updated YANG library at the time the notification is generated."; } }
/* * Legacy groupings */
grouping module-list { status deprecated; description "The module data structure is represented as a grouping so it can be reused in configuration or another monitoring data structure.";
grouping common-leafs { status deprecated; description "Common parameters for YANG modules and submodules."; leaf name { type yang:yang-identifier; status deprecated; description "The YANG module or submodule name."; } leaf revision { type union { type revision-identifier; type string { length "0"; } } status deprecated; description "The YANG module or submodule revision date. A zero-length string is used if no revision statement is present in the YANG module or submodule."; }
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}
grouping schema-leaf { status deprecated; description "Common schema leaf parameter for modules and submodules."; leaf schema { type inet:uri; description "Contains a URL that represents the YANG schema resource for this module or submodule.
This leaf will only be present if there is a URL available for retrieval of the schema for this entry."; } } list module { key "name revision"; status deprecated; description "Each entry represents one revision of one module currently supported by the server."; uses common-leafs { status deprecated; } uses schema-leaf { status deprecated; } leaf namespace { type inet:uri; mandatory true; status deprecated; description "The XML namespace identifier for this module."; } leaf-list feature { type yang:yang-identifier; status deprecated; description "List of YANG feature names from this module that are supported by the server, regardless of whether they are defined in the module or any included submodule."; } list deviation { key "name revision"; status deprecated;
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description "List of YANG deviation module names and revisions used by this server to modify the conformance of the module associated with this entry. Note that the same module can be used for deviations for multiple modules, so the same entry MAY appear within multiple 'module' entries.
The deviation module MUST be present in the 'module' list, with the same name and revision values. The 'conformance-type' value will be 'implement' for the deviation module."; uses common-leafs { status deprecated; } } leaf conformance-type { type enumeration { enum implement { description "Indicates that the server implements one or more protocol-accessible objects defined in the YANG module identified in this entry. This includes deviation statements defined in the module.
For YANG version 1.1 modules, there is at most one 'module' entry with conformance type 'implement' for a particular module name, since YANG 1.1 requires that at most one revision of a module is implemented.
For YANG version 1 modules, there SHOULD NOT be more than one 'module' entry for a particular module name."; } enum import { description "Indicates that the server imports reusable definitions from the specified revision of the module but does not implement any protocol-accessible objects from this revision.
Multiple 'module' entries for the same module name MAY exist. This can occur if multiple modules import the same module but specify different revision dates in the import statements."; } } mandatory true;
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status deprecated; description "Indicates the type of conformance the server is claiming for the YANG module identified by this entry."; } list submodule { key "name revision"; status deprecated; description "Each entry represents one submodule within the parent module."; uses common-leafs { status deprecated; } uses schema-leaf { status deprecated; } } } }
/* * Legacy operational state data nodes */
container modules-state { config false; status deprecated; description "Contains YANG module monitoring information."; leaf module-set-id { type string; mandatory true; status deprecated; description "Contains a server-specific identifier representing the current set of modules and submodules. The server MUST change the value of this leaf if the information represented by the 'module' list instances has changed."; } uses module-list { status deprecated; } }
/* * Legacy notifications
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*/
notification yang-library-change { status deprecated; description "Generated when the set of modules and submodules supported by the server has changed."; leaf module-set-id { type leafref { path "/yanglib:modules-state/yanglib:module-set-id"; } mandatory true; status deprecated; description "Contains the module-set-id value representing the set of modules and submodules supported at the server at the time the notification is generated."; } } }
<CODE ENDS>
5. IANA Considerations
RFC 7895 previously registered one URI in the "IETF XML Registry" [RFC3688]. This document takes over this registration entry made by RFC 7895 and changes the Registrant Contact to the IESG according to Section 4 of [RFC3688].
The YANG module specified in this document defines a schema for data that is designed to be accessed via network management protocols such as NETCONF [RFC6241] or RESTCONF [RFC8040]. The lowest NETCONF layer is the secure transport layer, and the mandatory-to-implement secure transport is Secure Shell (SSH) [RFC6242]. The lowest RESTCONF layer is HTTPS, and the mandatory-to-implement secure transport is TLS [RFC8446].
The Network Configuration Access Control Model (NACM) [RFC8341] provides the means to restrict access for particular NETCONF or RESTCONF users to a preconfigured subset of all available NETCONF or RESTCONF protocol operations and content.
Some of the readable data nodes in this YANG module may be considered sensitive or vulnerable in some network environments. It is thus important to control read access (e.g., via get, get-config, or notification) to these data nodes. These are the subtrees and data nodes and their sensitivity/vulnerability:
The "/yang-library" subtree of the YANG library may help an attacker identify the server capabilities and server implementations with known bugs since the set of YANG modules supported by a server may reveal the kind of device and the manufacturer of the device. Although some of this information may be available to all NETCONF users via the NETCONF <hello> message (or similar messages in other management protocols), this YANG module potentially exposes additional details that could be of some assistance to an attacker. Server vulnerabilities may be specific to particular modules, module revisions, module features, or even module deviations. For example, if a particular operation on a particular data node is known to cause a server to crash or significantly degrade device performance, then the "module" list information will help an attacker identify server implementations with such a defect, in order to launch a denial-of- service attack on the device.
[RFC8526] Bjorklund, M., Schoenwaelder, J., Shafer, P., Watsen, K., and R. Wilton, "NETCONF Extensions to Support the Network Management Datastore Architecture", RFC 8526, DOI 10.17487/RFC8526, March 2019, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8526>.
This document changes [RFC7895] in the following ways:
o Renamed document title from "YANG Module Library" to "YANG Library".
o Added a new top-level "/yang-library" container to hold the entire YANG library providing information about module sets, schemas, and datastores.
o Refactored the "/modules-state" container into a new "/yang-library/module-set" list.
o Added a new "/yang-library/schema" list and a new "/yang-library/ datastore" list.
o Added a set of new groupings as replacements for the deprecated groupings.
o Added a "yang-library-update" notification as a replacement for the deprecated "yang-library-change" notification.
o Deprecated the "/modules-state" tree.
o Deprecated the "/module-list" grouping.
o Deprecated the "/yang-library-change" notification.
Appendix B. Example YANG Library Instance for a Basic Server
The following example shows the YANG library of a basic server implementing the "ietf-interfaces" [RFC8343] and "ietf-ip" [RFC8344] modules in the <running>, <startup>, and <operational> datastores and the "ietf-hardware" [RFC8348] module in the <operational> datastore.
Newline characters in leaf values are added for formatting reasons.
Appendix C. Example YANG Library Instance for an Advanced Server
The following example extends the example in Appendix B by using modules from [RFC8345] and [RFC8349] to illustrate a slightly more advanced server that:
o Has a module with features only enabled in <operational>; the "ietf-routing" module is supported in <running>, <startup>, and <operational>, but the "multiple-ribs" and "router-id" features are only enabled in <operational>. Hence, the "router-id" leaf may be read but not configured.
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o Supports a dynamic configuration datastore "example-ds-ephemeral", with only the "ietf-network" and "ietf-network-topology" modules configurable via a notional dynamic configuration protocol.
o Shows an example of datastore-specific deviations. The "example-vendor-hardware-deviations" module is included in the schema for <operational> to remove data nodes that cannot be supported by the server.
o Shows how module-sets can be used to organize related modules together.
Newline characters in leaf values are added for formatting reasons.