PSARC 2007/397 NDMP Service

[Darren J Moffat]

Mark A. Carlson wrote:
> I agree with your comments on the weak security in the NDMP
> standard. Unfortunately, the "relevant standards org" is NDMP.org
> and they have gone into hibernation for the most part. Attempts
> were made to turn it over to IETF at one point, but that never went
> anywhere. We are trying to start up a software effort in the SNIA
> that could reawaken interest in this protocol. 

Does this mean use of the protocol is dead or just development of it 
from version 4 ?

 > The best approach would
> be to create a Sun Vendor Extension on security like Network Appliance
> has published here: http://www.ndmp.org/download/sdk_v4/extensions.shtml

I don't think a vendor extension is useful in this case since unless it 
is a standard and mandatory to implement part of the protocol it 
effectively means weak security except between Solaris clients.  This is 
exactly what happened with RPCSEC_GSS with NFSv3, it was mostly only 
available between Solaris clients, with NFSv4 a GSSAPI based 
authentication and transport confidentiality became mandatory to 
implement.  The same thing needs to happen to NDMP.

-- 
Darren J Moffat