Network Working Group Barr Hibbs INTERNET-DRAFT (no affiliation) Category: Best Current Practice April 2004 Requirements for Proposed Changes to the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv4 (DHCPv4) Saved Tuesday, April 13, 2004, 2:54:21 PM Status of this Memo This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with all provisions of Section 10 of RFC 2026. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet- Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or made obsolete 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." The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/1id-abstracts.html. The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. Copyright Notice Copyright (C), 2003-2004, The Internet Society. All Rights Reserved. Abstract This memo describes the requirements of Internet-Drafts proposing changes to the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv4 (DHCPv4). These requirements specifically cover documentation expected whenever message formats or client state transitions are modified. Hibbs Expires: October 2004 [Page 1] Internet Draft DHCPv4 Change Requirements April 2004 1. Introduction During the lifetime to date of the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCPv4) it has been the subject of 30 Requests for Comments (RFCs) regarding the base protocol, 5 of which added new DHCPv4 message types or extended the protocol in some way, and 18 RFCs concerning other DHCPv4 options. Seven RFCs covered procedures and definition of base options. Additionally, there are constantly a number of Internet-Drafts under consideration for DHCPv4. There has been no standard documentation required to date for new Internet-Drafts concerning DHCPv4, even when proposed changes altered message formats, the client state machine, or processing required of servers, relay agents, or clients. This memo proposes a common-sense minimum standard for documentation required in any new Internet-Draft that will ensure consistency among the various IETF documents and improve the clarity of proposed changes. 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 RFC 2119. 2. Minimum Documentation Requirements It SHALL be the policy of the Dynamic Host Configuration (DHC) Working Group that new Internet-Drafts concerning DHCPv4 conform to each of the following requirements: 2.1. Description of Message Format Changes An Internet-Draft that proposes any changes to the DHCPv4 message format MUST fully describe the proposed change, and MUST modify or add entries to the message format figures and message requirements tables as appropriate. These include: o RFC 2131, Figure 1, "Format of a DHCP message" o RFC 2131, Figure 2, "Format of the 'flags' field" o RFC 2131, Table 1, "Description of fields in a DHCP message" o RFC 2131, Table 2, "DHCP Messages" o RFC 2131, Table 3, "Fields and options used by DHCP servers" Hibbs Expires: October 2004 [Page 2] Internet Draft DHCPv4 Change Requirements April 2004 o RFC 2131, Table 4, "Client messages from different states" o RFC 2131, Table 5, "Fields and options used by DHCP clients" Figures and tables appearing in other, relevant RFCs MUST also be updated as appropriate. 2.2. Description of Client State Machine Changes An Internet-Draft that proposes changes to the DHCPv4 client state machine MUST supply an updated version of the client state transition diagram (RFC 2131, Figure 5) showing event triggers, states, and client actions. State transition diagrams appearing in other, relevant RFCs MUST also be updated as appropriate. 2.3. Description of Behavior Changes An Internet-Draft that proposes changes to the behavior of DHCPv4 servers, clients, or relay agents MUST supply an updated description of the modified behavior. For example, see RFC 2131, Sections 4.3 and 4.4, for the description of DHCPv4 server and client behavior, respectively. Relay Agent behavior is described [as "gateway"] in RFC 951. 3. Intellectual Property The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any intellectual property or other rights that might be claimed to pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in this document or the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be available; neither does it represent that it has made any effort to identify any such rights. Information on the IETF's procedures with respect to rights in standards-track and standards-related documentation can be found in BCP-11. Copies of claims of rights made available for publication and any assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this specification can be obtained from the IETF Secretariat. The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary rights that may cover technology that may be required to practice this standard. Please address the information to the IETF Executive Director. Hibbs Expires: October 2004 [Page 3] Internet Draft DHCPv4 Change Requirements April 2004 4. IANA Considerations None. This memo does not include any numbering requirements requiring IANA activity. 5. Security Considerations None. This memo does not itself specify behavior or functionality. 6. References 6.1. Normative References [RFC951] Croft, B., and Gilmore, J., "Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP)," September 1985. [RFC2131] Droms, R., "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol," March 1997. 6.2. Informative References [BCP-11] Hovey, R., and Bradner, S., "The Organizations Involved in the IETF Standards Process," RFC 2028, October 1996. [RFC1534] Droms, R., "Interoperation Between DHCP and BOOTP," October 1993. [RFC1542] Wimer, W., "Clarifications and Extensions for the Bootstrap Protocol," October 1993. [RFC2026] Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 3," October 1996. [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels," March 1997. [RFC2132] Alexander, S., and Droms, R., "DHCP Options and BOOTP Vendor Extensions," March 1997. [RFC2241] Provan, D., "DHCP Options for Novell Directory Services," November 1997. [RFC2242] Droms, R., and Fong, K., "NetWare/IP Domain Name and Information," November 1997. Hibbs Expires: October 2004 [Page 4] Internet Draft DHCPv4 Change Requirements April 2004 [RFC2322] van den Hout, K., Koopal, A., and van Mook, R., "Management of IP numbers by peg-dhcp", April 1998. [RFC2485] Drach, S., "DHCP Option for The Open Group's User Authentication Protocol," January 1999. [RFC2563] Troll, R., "DHCP Option to Disable Stateless Auto- Configuration in IPv4 Clients," May 1999. [RFC2610] Perkins, C., and Guttman, E., "DHCP Options for Service Location Protocol," June 1999. [RFC2855] Fujisawa, K., "DHCP for IEEE 1394," June 2000. [RFC2937] Smith, C., "The Name Service Search Option for DHCP, September 2000. [RFC2939] Droms, R., "Procedures and IANA Guidelines for Definition of New DHCP Options and Message Types," September 2000. [RFC3004] Stump, G., Droms, R., Gu, Y., Vyaghrapuri, R., Demirtjis, A., Beser, B., and Privat, J., "The User Class Option for DHCP," November 2000. [RFC3011] Waters, G., "The IPv4 Subnet Selection Option for DHCP," November 2000. [RFC3046] Patrick, M., "DHCP Relay Agent Information Option," January 2001. [RFC3118] Droms, R., and Arbaugh, W., "Authentication for DHCP Messages," June 2001. [RFC3203] T'Joens, Y., Hublet, C., and De Schrijver, P., "DHCP reconfigure extension," December 2001. [RFC3256] Jones, D., and Woundy, R., "The DOCSIS (Data-Over-Cable Service Interface Specifications) Device Class DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) Relay Agent Information Sub-option," April 2002. [RFC3361] Schulzrinne, H., "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP-for-IPv4) Option for Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Servers," August 2002. [RFC3396] Lemon, T., and Cheshire, S., "Encoding Long Options in the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCPv4)," November 2002. [RFC3397] Aboba, B., Cheshire, S., "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Domain Search Option," November 2002. Hibbs Expires: October 2004 [Page 5] Internet Draft DHCPv4 Change Requirements April 2004 [RFC3442] Lemon, T., Cheshire, S., and Volz, B., "The Classless Static Route Option for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) version 4," December 2002. [RFC3456] Patel, B., Aboba, B., Kelly, S., Gupta, V., "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCPv4) Configuration of IPsec Tunnel Mode," January 2003. [RFC3495] Beser, B., and Duffy, P., "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Option for CableLabs Client Configuration," March 2003. [RFC3527] Kinnear, K., Stapp, M., Johnson, R., and Kumarasamy, J., "Link Selection sub-option for the Relay Agent Information Option for DHCPv4," April 2003. [RFC3594] Duffy, P., "PacketCable Security Ticket Control Sub-Option for the DHCP CableLabs Client Configuration (CCC) Option," September 2003. 7. Editor's Address Richard Barr Hibbs 952 Sanchez Street San Francisco, California 94114-3362 United States Phone: +1-(415)-648-3920 Fax: +1-(415)-648-9017 Email: rbhibbs@pacbell.net 8. Full Copyright Statement Copyright (C), 2003, The Internet Society. All Rights Reserved. This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than English. Hibbs Expires: October 2004 [Page 6] Internet Draft DHCPv4 Change Requirements April 2004 The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns. This document and the information contained herein is provided on an "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Acknowledgement Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the Internet Society. Hibbs Expires: October 2004 [Page 7]