RFC 4544, "Definitions of Managed Objects for Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI)", May 2006

Note: This RFC has been obsoleted by RFC 7147

Errata ID: 1638
Status: Held for Document Update
Type: Technical
Publication Format(s) : TEXT
Reported By: Alfred Hoenes
Date Reported: 2006-07-04
Held for Document Update by: Lars Eggert
Date Held: 2008-12-19

(1)  outdated text

Within Section 6, the first paragraph on top of page 5 says:

   It is worthwhile to note that this is an iSCSI MIB module and as such
   reflects only iSCSI objects.  This module does not contain
   information about the SCSI-layer attributes of a device.  If a SCSI
|  layer is present, the SCSI MIB module, currently under development,
   may be used to manage SCSI information for a device.

The last apparently sentence is outdated.  There already is an
appropriate Informative Reference given on page 81 of the RFC.
The RFC should say:

   It is worthwhile to note that this is an iSCSI MIB module and as such
   reflects only iSCSI objects.  This module does not contain
   information about the SCSI-layer attributes of a device.  If a SCSI
|  layer is present, the SCSI MIB module [RFC4455] may be used to manage
   SCSI information for a device.
                                        ^^^^^^^^^^^


(3)  4 similar typos

The DESCRIPTION clause of the iscsiInstSsnFailures  OBJECT-TYPE,
on page 20 of RFC 4544, says:

    DESCRIPTION
        "This object counts the number of times a session belonging
|       to this instance has been failed.  If this counter has
        suffered a discontinuity, the time of the last discontinuity
        is indicated in iscsiInstDiscontinuityTime."

It should better say:

    DESCRIPTION
        "This object counts the number of times a session belonging
|       to this instance has failed.  If this counter has suffered a
        discontinuity, the time of the last discontinuity is indicated
        in iscsiInstDiscontinuityTime."

The DESCRIPTION clause of the iscsiInstSsnDigestErrors OBJECT-TYPE,
on page 22 of RFC 4544, says:

    DESCRIPTION
|       "The count of sessions that were failed due to receipt of
        a PDU containing header or data digest errors.  If this
        counter has suffered a discontinuity, the time of the last
        discontinuity is indicated in iscsiInstDiscontinuityTime."

It should better say:

    DESCRIPTION
|       "The count of sessions that failed due to receipt of
        a PDU containing header or data digest errors.  If this
        counter has suffered a discontinuity, the time of the last
        discontinuity is indicated in iscsiInstDiscontinuityTime."

The DESCRIPTION clause of the iscsiInstSsnCxnTimeoutErrors OBJECT-TYPE,
on page 22 of RFC 4544, says:

    DESCRIPTION
|       "The count of sessions that were failed due to a sequence
        exceeding a time limit.  If this counter has suffered a
        discontinuity, the time of the last discontinuity
        is indicated in iscsiInstDiscontinuityTime."

It should better say:

    DESCRIPTION
|       "The count of sessions that failed due to a sequence
        exceeding a time limit.  If this counter has suffered a
        discontinuity, the time of the last discontinuity
        is indicated in iscsiInstDiscontinuityTime."

The DESCRIPTION clause of the iscsiInstSsnFormatErrors OBJECT-TYPE,
on page 23 of RFC 4544, says:

    DESCRIPTION
|       "The count of sessions that were failed due to receipt of
        a PDU that contained a format error.  If this counter has
        suffered a discontinuity, the time of the last discontinuity
        is indicated in iscsiInstDiscontinuityTime."

It should better say:

    DESCRIPTION
|       "The count of sessions that failed due to receipt of
        a PDU that contained a format error.  If this counter has
        suffered a discontinuity, the time of the last discontinuity
        is indicated in iscsiInstDiscontinuityTime."


(4)  incomplete descriptions

Within the Target Attributes Table, the objects
    iscsiTgtLastFailureType,
    iscsiTgtLastIntrFailureName,
    iscsiTgtLastIntrFailureAddrType, and
    iscsiTgtLastIntrFailureAddr
apparently have no meaningful value if no error has occurred (yet).
The DESCRIPTION clauses for these objects, on page 38/39 of RFC 4544,
do not indicate the behaviour of these objects in this case, i.e.,
when the iscsiTgtLastFailureTime instance in a given conceptual
row has the value zero.
The respective DESCRIPTION clauses should indicate whether these
objects
  -   should not be instantiated
or
  -   have a certain default value (t.b.d.)
in this case.


A similar issue holds for the objects in the Initiator Attributes
Table,
    iscsiIntrLastFailureType,
    iscsiIntrLastTgtFailureName,
    iscsiIntrLastTgtFailureAddrType, and
    iscsiIntrLastTgtFailureAddr
(The corresponding DESCRIPTIONS can be found on page 46/47.)


(5)  row creation / storageType restriction

Various tables contain rows that can be created/deleted dynamically.
Repeatedly, for these tables the DESCRIPTION clauses for the
corresponding StorageType objects contain the sentence
(e.g., for iscsiTgtAuthStorageType, on page 44):

                                  [...].  Rows in this table that were
         created through an external process may have a storage type of
         readOnly or permanent.

It is not clear from the text what precisely 'external process'
means, and therefore it remains open whether/why the restriction
on values `readOnly` or `permanent` makes sense.


(6)  unpleasant alignment

Any future update to this RFC should correct the unpleasant
staggered tabular alignment of the following row-structure
( SEQUENCE { ... } ) declarations for:
  o  IscsiPortalAttributesEntry,
  o  IscsiInitiatorAttributesEntry, and
  o  IscsiInitiatorLoginStatsEntry


(7)  Semantic gap in Initiator Login Stats Table ??

The Initiator Login Stats Table somehow is a "dual" of the
Target Login Stats Table.
Therefore, I miss an object in the Initiator Login Stats Table
corresponding to iscsiTgtLoginAuthorizeFails, counting received
Login Response PDUs with status class 0x202.

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