| Internet-Draft | VLDB_CAPABILITY_LOCKTIMESTAMP | August 2023 |
| Barbosa | Expires 25 February 2024 | [Page] |
This document proposes the repurposing of the currently unused spares2 field within the nvldbentry and uvldbentry structures. The primary objective is to utilize this field for storing the timestamp representing the date and time when a given volume location entry was locked. To make this possible, this memo requests the allocation of a new capability bit, VLDB_CAPABILITY_LOCKTIMESTAMP, to be advertised by the Volume Location Server. When advertised, this bit indicates that the server has the capacity to provide the timestamp in question.¶
Comments regarding this draft are solicited. Please include the AFS-3 protocol standardization mailing list (afs3-standardization@openafs.org) as a recipient of any comments.¶
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The Volume Location Server is a critical component in AFS, responsible for providing a lookup service for volumes, identifying the server or set of servers on which volume instances can be found. Currently, there is a lack of standardized mechanisms to convey whether it can provide the date and time when a volume location entry was locked. This memo seeks to address this limitation by repurposing a currently unused volume location entry field and requesting the allocation of a new capability bit.¶
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.¶
Knowing the date and time when a volume location entry was locked can be valuable for various purposes, such as auditing and troubleshooting. It allows administrators and users to track and analyze the history of volume locks, enabling them to understand the sequence of events and take appropriate actions when necessary.¶
If the VLDB_CAPABILITY_LOCKTIMESTAMP bit is advertised, the Volume Location Server should be able to
retrieve and return the lock timestamp for a given volume location entry upon request from clients. The lock
timestamp should represent the date and time when a given entry was locked.
To make this possible, the spares2 field within the nvldbentry and uvldbentry structures has been designated
for the purpose of returning the mentioned timestamp.¶
This memo includes no request to IANA.¶
This memo requests the allocation of a new capability bit to be advertised by the Volume Location Server.¶
This memo does not introduce any new security considerations beyond those already inherent in the underlying protocols it relies on.¶
The author would like to thank Thomas Keiser, as the draft authored by him, titled "AFS-3 Protocol Capabilities Query Mechanism" [I-D.keiser-afs3-capabilities-00], served as a reference throughout the development of this draft.¶