[Xorp-hackers] Configuration managment ....

[Timothy Griffin]

hi, 

perhaps this idea has been kicked around before: 
how about using an SQL database (such as MySQL) to 
manage all xorp configuration data? 

if we run with this idea a bit, then we can 

   --- forget about implementing our own cli, just use sql
          --- this might be immediately appealing for config commands 
              like "bgp neighbor ...", since we are just populating 
              a "database".  But what about things like "show ip bgp ..."? 
              well, i'm perverse enough to think of this as populating 
              a database table (or tables) that can then be further queried 
              using SQL .... 
   --- forget about implementing configuration "transaction management", 
       just use the technology provided by the database system. 
   --- forget about implementing configuration "access control", 
       just use the technology provided by the database system. 
   --- forget about nice user interfaces, just ride the database technology 
       curve (lots of open source front ends for MySQL out there..., Web, XML, ...) 

in short, ride the database technology curve!  MySQL 5.0, which is now under
development, will have stored procedures as well as triggers.  this would make it 
much easier to implement an XRL wrapper (config changes come in as sql, then triggers 
generate xrl messages to other processes...). 

The database could be used to store logs as well. 

We can even imagine a single database (perhaps with backup mirrors) holding the entire
configuration of a network (wow, the config database actually being 
the "database of record" --- what a concept!) 

comments? 

cheers,
tim 
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~tgg22