SALSA NetAuth Conference Call August 18, 2005

*Action Items*
New
[AI] {SteveO} and {Eric} will work together on revising draft four of the Architecture document to ensure its adherence to I2 document guidelines. [AI] {Chris} will send a note to the group via the list about sessions of interest at the Fall Internet2 Member Meeting. [AI] {Chris} and {Eric} will talk with Kevin to begin drafting the first version of the Components document. [AI] {Chris} and {SteveO} will send a note to the WG via the list soliciting suggestions for the future direction of the WG.

Carry Over
[AI] {Chris} will put together a few slides describing intersection points between SALSA NetAuth and SALSA NetAuth-FWNA. [AI] {Kevin, Eric and Chris} will add text to the Architecture document and republish the document as draft 4, ensuring conformance with the newly released Internet2 document guidelines. [AI] {Chris} will send the list of vendor questions developed by the WG during this call to the group via the list. [AI] {Chris} will arrange vendor discussions for a subsequent call. [AI] {Chris} will contact Bob Morgan to discuss whether there may be IETF activities that would be open to or in alignment with NetAuth efforts. [AI] {Chris} will post message to the NetAuth and FWNA lists soliciting volunteers to develop an outline of issues for NetAuth in a federated environment. [AI] {Chris} will solicit from the WG contributions about NetAuth vendor solutions currently being used. [AI] {Individuals} will send in case studies for potential use in the Strategies document.

*Participants*
Chris Misra, University of Massachusetts (chair)
Kevin Miller, Duke University
Rich Cropp, Penn State University
Randy Hagerty, Penn State University
Tony Genovese, ESnet
Eric Gauthier, Boston University
Terrie Clark, Internet2 (scribe)
Renee Frost, Internet2
Steve Olshansky, Internet2

*Discussion*
The Joint Techs workshop was held in Vancouver, British Columbia from July 17 – 21, 2005. The efforts of SALSA, including those of the NetAuth and the FWNA working groups were of interest to attendees. Also of interest was the potential deployment of Eduroam in the United States. Participants at the Joint Techs meeting discussed the need for integrated network management tools. Should Internet2 address this? Consensus was that a feature rich set of integrated network management tools should include NetAuth capabilities.

The WG could develop standards for institutions to use when deploying NetAuth. The standards could include recommendations about managing routers, firewalls, edge ports, data caches, bridges, caching, VLANs, and synchronized configurations. Since many institutions have networks built with disparate vendor components, it was decided to narrow the focus of the recommendations to NetAuth-related activities. The WG discussed building a reference model portraying a fully functional NetAuth system and the accompanying requirements for the system. The upcoming Components document will address the requirements for a NetAuth solution and serve as a reference model for institutions implementing a NetAuth solution.

The schedule for the Fall 2005 Internet2 Member Meeting to be held September 19
- 22 in Philadelphia, PA is now online at: http://events.internet2.edu/2005/fall-mm. The WG will present NetAuth efforts as well as hold a joint NetAuth/FWNA BoF. Individuals can search the posted program for sessions discussing topics of interest. The group discussed SALSA and SALSA-NetAuth future efforts to be evaluated at the Fall I2 Member Meeting. Two possible future efforts are NetAuth in a federated environment and developing software tools necessary for NetAuth solutions. Perhaps a useful effort would be developing case studies, use cases or guidelines and recommended practices for NetAuth.

MIT will hold a security camp Monday, August 22, 2005. For more information please see: http://websurvey.mit.edu/scamp/agenda.html

During the most recent FWNA call the FWNA group discussed a framework for deploying Eduroam in the US. The current Eduroam model is thought to be the most effective for early adopters. The FWNA group has a Wiki for the effort, linked from the WG page http://security.internet2.edu/fwna/. For more information please see: http://security.internet2.edu/fwna/minutes/NetAuth-FWNA-28-July-2005.html

The group also discussed past and future efforts of SALSA, SALSA-NetAuth and SALSA-NetAuth/FWNA. It was discussed that perhaps Eduroam.US efforts may consume the majority of the FWNA WG’s efforts. The FWNA WG may choose to focus on operational issues and technical design/architecture for Eduroam deployment in the US.

The group discussed efforts necessary for the start of the fall semester and the impact of recently announced Microsoft vulnerabilities. Most institutions will scan students’ computers during network pre-registration. Faculty and administrative computers that have remained inactive over the summer will be scanned and remediated. It is hoped that students with newer computer systems will have appropriate protection, if not, then remediation can be required before allowing them onto the network.

Some institutions are considering migrating from open source solutions to solutions developed by commercial vendors. The ones that are considering this that we are aware of do not have a specific timeframe established for the migration. One strong argument for continuing to use open source solutions is the high cost of the technology and retraining of network engineers/managers/administrators. Some institutions are also considering deploying an 802.1x network.

The next call is Thursday, September 1, 2005 at 12:00 PM EDT. An agenda with the call in number will be sent out to the WG via the list prior to the call.