Dibbler – a portable Dynamic Host Configuration for IPv6 implementation Tomasz Mrugalski Gdansk University of Technology, Poland June 2005

2 Agenda IPv6 autoconfiguration: stateless vs stateful DHCPv6 standarization process Implementations Dibbler –Design goals –Features –Areas of development Q&A

3 IPv6 autoconfiguration (1) Stateless autoconfiguration –Link-local addresses –Global addresses (Router Advertisements) –Lack of per host customisation –Does not support any additional parameters –Not sufficient for end users (DNS)

4 IPv6 autoconfiguration (2) Statefull autoconfiguration (DHCPv6) –Additional parameters configuration (e.g. DNS) –Global address assignment –Provides network status for administrators

5 Standarization process (1) Long standarization process –Largest number of draft revisions (28) in IETF history Already finished: –RFC3315: DHCPv6 (June 2003) –RFC3319: SIP-related parameters (July 2003) –RFC3633: Prefix delegation parameters (Dec. 2003) –RFC3646: DNS-related parameters (Dec. 2003) –RFC3736: Stateless DHCPv6 (April 2004) –RFC3898: NIS-related parameters (Oct. 2004) –RFC4075: NTP-related parameters (May 2005) –RFC4076: Renumbering in stateless DHCPv6 (May 2005)

6 Standarization process (2) Work in progress: –Information refreshing (draft 3) –FQDN/DNS Updates (draft 2) –Service oriented address assignment (draft 1) –…–…

7 Implementations Linux: Sourceforge Windows: none BSD: Kame Cisco: Prefix Delegation/Relays only HP-UX: proprietary NEC: proprietary

8 Implementations Linux: Sourceforge Windows: none BSD: Kame Cisco: Prefix Delegation/Relays only HP-UX: proprietary NEC: proprietary Dibbler

9 Dibbler :: Design assumptions (1) Extensive server configuration –Preferences, multiple classes on one interface, address-client reservation, white-list, black-list, numerous options etc. Zero client konfiguration –out-of-the-box (quick install) Non-mandatory client configuration –For experienced/more demanding users Portability –2 layers: logic (C++), low-level functions (C) –Currently: Windows XP/2003, Linux 2.4/2.6 –Porting to other systems requires reimplementation of small number of low level functions

10 Dibbler :: Design assumptions (2) Clean architecture –Object-oriented –Easily extended Extensibility –Additonal options –Data is dumped in XML (scripts,stats) Open source –Free (as in freedom, not as in beer) –Sources available –GNU GPL licence

11 Dibbler :: Features (1) client server Server discovery Address/addresses grant Address renewal Duplicate Address Detection (DAD) Rapid-commit Unicast communication Options renewal

12 Dibbler :: Features (2) client server 1 Multiple server support –Redundancy –Client chooses best server –Retrieving options from multiple servers server 2

13 Dibbler :: Features (3) client serverrelay Relay support –Server supports multiple links (local and remote) –Central administration

14 Dibbler :: Features (3) clientserverrelay 1relay 2 Cascaded relays support –Up to 32 relays –Great scalability

15 Dibbler :: Features (4) DNS servers configuration Domain configuration NTP servers configuration Timezone configuration SIP-related parameters configuration NIS, NIS+ parameters configuration Options renewal

16 Dibbler :: Proposed extensions (1) client server Fully Qualified Domain Name –Who should perform DNS Update: Server or Client? –draft-ietf-dhc-dhcpv6-fqdn-02.txt Missing option: No update –Retrieve full name, do not update DNS (e.g. for logging purposes only) FQDN DNS server update

17 Dibbler :: Proposed extensions (2) thin/embedded client server Startup: –Download kernel –Start system –Mount remote file system

18 Dibbler :: Status of the project Increasing feedback –Poland, Germany, Chech Republic, France, Spain, USA, China, Malaysia, Canada, Taiwan, Switzerland, Turkey, India Users have ported Dibbler to various architectures –x86, x86_64, amd64, Sparc, PowerPC, Alpha –mipsel (embedded system, LinkSys wireless router WRT54) Over 2 years of development Team: –2 people (2003, 3 months) –1 person ( ) –2 new people expected in Q No budget

19 Dibbler :: Download count Spikes in Nov. 2004, Jan and April Correlates with 0.3.0, and release dates

20 Dibbler :: Areas of development Support for remaining features –DNS Updates –Authorization –Prefix delegation New parameter proposal –FQDN/DNS Updates improvement –Boot parameters for embedded devices Migration from project to product –Extensive documentation –Predictable releases –Bug tracking system –User support Better test methods –TAHI validation tool –ANVL conformance test environment by IXIA –Interoperability testing

21 Questions

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