Internet DRAFT - draft-kinnear-dhc-dhcpv4-active-leasequery

draft-kinnear-dhc-dhcpv4-active-leasequery









Dynamic Host Configuration (DHC)                             Kim Kinnear
Internet Draft                                               Bernie Volz
Intended Status: Standards Track                              Mark Stapp
Expires: June 4, 2014                                      Cisco Systems

                                                            Neil Russell
                                                                 Staples
                                                        December 4, 2013


                       Active DHCPv4 Lease Query
          <draft-kinnear-dhc-dhcpv4-active-leasequery-02.txt>

Status of this Memo

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   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

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Abstract

   The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv4 (DHCPv4) has been
   extended with a Leasequery capability that allows a client to request
   information about DHCPv4 bindings.  That mechanism is limited to
   queries for individual bindings.  In some situations individual
   binding queries may not be efficient, or even possible.  In addition,
   continuous update of an external client with Leasequery data is
   sometimes desired. This document expands on the DHCPv4 Leasequery
   protocol, and allows for active transfer of near real-time DHCPv4
   address binding information data via TCP.

Table of Contents


    1.  Introduction................................................. 2
    2.  Terminology.................................................. 3
    3.  Protocol Overview............................................ 5
    4.  Interaction Between Active Leasequery and Bulk Leasequery.... 6
    5.  Message and Option Definitions............................... 7
    5.1.  Message Framing for TCP.................................... 7
    5.2.  New or Changed Options..................................... 8
    5.3.  Connection and Transmission Parameters..................... 10
    6.  Information Communicated by Active Leasequery................ 10
    7.  Requestor Behavior........................................... 11
    7.1.  Connecting and General Processing.......................... 11
    7.2.  Forming an Active Leasequery............................... 12
    7.3.  Processing Active Replies.................................. 13
    7.4.  Closing Connections........................................ 17
    8.  Server Behavior.............................................. 17
    8.1.  Accepting Connections...................................... 17
    8.2.  Replying to an Active Leasequery........................... 18
    8.3.  Multiple or Parallel Queries............................... 19
    8.4.  Closing Connections........................................ 19
    9.  Security Considerations...................................... 20
    10.  IANA Considerations......................................... 20
    11.  Acknowledgements............................................ 21
    12.  References.................................................. 21
    12.1.  Normative References...................................... 21
    12.2.  Informative References.................................... 21


1.  Introduction

   The DHCPv4 Leasequery capability [RFC4388] extends the basic DHCPv4
   capability [RFC2131] [RFC2132] to allow an external entity to query a
   DHCPv4 server to recover lease state information about a particular
   IP address or client in near real-time.



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   Requirements exist for external entities to keep up to date on the
   correspondence between DHCPv4 clients and the IPv4 addresses for
   which they have leases.  These requirements often stem from
   regulatory requirements placed on service providers by governmental
   agencies.

   These entities need to keep up with the current IPv4 address binding
   activity of the DHCPv4 server.  Keeping up with address binding
   activity is termed "active" leasequery.

   The DHCPv4 Bulk Leasequery [RFC6926] capability can be used to
   recover useful information from a DHCPv4 server when some external
   entity starts up.  This entity could be one which is directly
   involved in the DHCPv4 client - server transactions (e.g., a relay
   agent), or it could be an external process which needs information
   present in the DHCPv4 server's lease state database.

   The Active Leasequery capability documented here is designed to allow
   an entity not directly involved in DHCPv4 client - server
   transactions to nevertheless keep current with the state of the
   DHCPv4 lease state information in real-time.


2.  Terminology

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

   This document uses the following terms:

      o "address binding"

        The information that a DHCPv4 server keeps regarding the
        relationship between a DHCPv4 client and an IPv4 IP address.
        This includes the identity of the DHCPv4 client and the
        expiration time, if any, of any lease that client has on a
        particular IPv4 address.

      o "Active Leasequery"

        Keeping up to date in real-time (or near real-time) with DHCPv4
        address binding activity.

      o "Bulk Leasequery"

        Requesting and receiving the existing DHCPv4 address binding
        information in an efficient manner.



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      o "catch-up information, catch-up phase"

        If a DHCPv4 Active Leasequery requestor sends in a query-start-
        time option in a DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY message, the DHCPv4 server
        will attempt to send the requestor the information that changed
        since the time specified in the query-start-time option.  The
        address binding information sent to satisfy this request is the
        catch-up information, and the period while it is being sent is
        the catch-up phase.

      o "clock skew"

        The difference between the absolute time on a DHCPv4 server and
        the absolute time on the system where a requestor of an Active
        or Bulk Leasequery is executing is termed the "clock skew" for
        that Active or Bulk Leasequery connection.  It is not absolutely
        constant but is likely to vary only slowly.  While it is easy to
        think that this can be calculated precisely after one packet is
        received by a requestor from a DHCPv4 server, a more accurate
        value is derived from continuously examining the instantaneous
        value developed from each packet received from a DHCPv4 server
        and using it to make small adjustments to the existing value
        held in the requestor.

      o "DHCPv4 client"

        A DHCPv4 client is an Internet host using DHCP to obtain
        configuration parameters such as a network address.

      o "DHCPv4 relay agent"

        A DHCPv4 relay agent is a third-party agent that transfers BOOTP
        and DHCPv4 messages between clients and servers residing on
        different subnets, per [RFC951] and [RFC1542].

      o "DHCPv4 server"

        A DHCPv4 server is an Internet host that returns configuration
        parameters to DHCPv4 clients.

      o "IP address binding"

        The information that a DHCPv4 server keeps regarding the
        relationship between a DHCPv4 client and an IPv4 IP address.
        This includes the identity of the DHCPv4 client and the
        expiration time, if any, of any lease that client has on a
        particular IPv4 address.




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      o "MAC address"

        In the context of a DHCP message, a MAC address consists of the
        fields: hardware type "htype", hardware length "hlen", and
        client hardware address "chaddr".


3.  Protocol Overview

   The Active Leasequery mechanism is modeled on the existing individual
   Leasequery protocol in [RFC4388] as well as related work on DHCPv4
   Bulk Leasequery [RFC6926]; most differences arise from the long term
   nature of the TCP connection required for Active Leasequery.  In
   addition, a DHCPv4 server which supports Active Leasequery MUST
   support Bulk Leasequery [RFC6926] as well.

   An Active Leasequery client opens a TCP connection to a DHCPv4
   Server, using the DHCPv4 port 67.  Note that this implies that the
   Leasequery client has server IP address(es) available via
   configuration or some other means, and that it has unicast IP
   reachability to the DHCPv4 server.  No relaying for Active Leasequery
   is specified.

   After establishing a connection, the client sends an
   DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY message over the connection.  In response, the
   server sends updates to the requestor using DHCPLEASEACTIVE and
   DHCPLEASEUNASSIGNED messages which are extensions of these messages
   as defined in [RFC4388] and [RFC6926].

   Active Leasequery is designed to provide continuous updates of DHCPv4
   IPv4 address binding activity to an external entity.

   Active Leasequery has features which allow this external entity to
   lose its connection and then reconnect and receive the latest
   information concerning any IP addresses changed while it was not
   connected.

   These capabilities are designed to allow the Active Leasequery
   requestor to efficiently become current with respect to the lease
   state database after it has been restarted or the machine on which it
   is running has been reinitialized.  It is easy to define a protocol
   which works when the requestor is always connected to the DHCPv4
   server.  Since that isn't sufficiently robust, much of the mechanism
   in this document is designed to deal efficently with situations that
   occur when the Active Leasequery requestor becomes disconnected from
   the DHCPv4 server from which it is receiving updates and then becomes
   reconnected to that server.




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   Central to this approach, if the Active Leasequery requestor loses
   service, it is allowed to specify the time of its most recent update
   in a subsequent Active Leasequery request and the DHCPv4 server will
   determine whether or not data was missed while the Active Leasequery
   requestor was not connected.

   The DHCP server processing the Active Leasequery request may limit
   the amount of data saved, and methods exist for the DHCPv4 server to
   inform the Active Leasequery requestor that more data was missed than
   could be saved.  In this situation, the Active Leasequery requestor
   would issue a Bulk Leasequery [RFC6926] to recover information not
   available through an Active Leasequery.

   DHCPv4 servers are not required to keep any data corresponding to
   data missed on a Active Leasequery connection, but will typically
   choose to keep data corresponding to some recent activity available
   for subsequent queries by a DHCPv4 Active Leasequery client whose
   connection was temporarily interrupted.

   An Active Leasequery requestor would typically use Bulk Leasequery to
   initialize its database with all current data when that database
   contains no address binding information.  In addition, it would use
   Bulk Leasequery to recover missed information in the event that its
   connection with the DHCPv4 server was lost for a longer time than the
   DHCPv4 server would keep track of the specific changes to the IP
   address binding information.

   The messages sent by the server in response to an Active Leasequery
   request SHOULD be identical to the messages sent by the server to a
   Bulk Leasequery request regarding the way the data is encoded into
   the Active Leasequery responses.  In addition, the actions taken by
   the Active Leasequery requestor to interpret the responses to an
   Active Leasequery request SHOULD be identical to the way that the
   requestor interprets the responses to a Bulk Leasequery request.
   Thus, the handling of time, clock skew, data source, and other items
   discussed in the Bulk Leasequery specification [RFC6926] are to be
   followed when implementing Active Leasequery.


4.  Interaction Between Active Leasequery and Bulk Leasequery

   Active Leasequery can be seen as an extension of the Bulk Leasequery
   protocol [RFC6926].  The contents of packets returned to an Active
   Leasequery requestor are identical to that defined for the Bulk
   Leasequery protocol.

   Applications which employ Active Leasequery to keep a database up to
   date with respect to the DHCPv4 server's lease state database will



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   usually use an initial Bulk Leasequery to bring their database into
   equivalence with that of the DHCPv4 server, and then use Active
   Leasequery to keep that database current with respect to the DHCPv4
   server's lease state database.

   There are several differences between the Active and Bulk Leasequery
   protocols.  Active Leasequery defines only one qualifier (the query-
   start-time) and no query types, while Bulk Leasequery defines several
   query types and qualifiers.  An Active Leasequery connection sends
   all available updates to the requestor.

   An Active Leasequery connection does not ever "complete", though the
   DHCPv4 server may drop the connection for a variety of reasons
   associated with some sort of exception condition.


5.  Message and Option Definitions


5.1.  Message Framing for TCP

   The use of TCP for the Active Leasequery protocol permits one or more
   DHCPv4 messages to be sent at a time.  The receiver needs to be able
   to determine how large each message is. The same framing techique
   used for Bulk Leasequery [RFC6926] is used for Active Leasequery.

   Two octets containing the message size in network byte-order are
   prepended to each DHCPv4 message sent on an Active Leasequery TCP
   connection. The two message-size octets 'frame' each DHCPv4 message.

   DHCPv4 message framed for TCP:




















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       0                   1                   2                   3
       0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |         message-size          |    op (1)     |   htype (1)   |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |   hlen (1)    |   hops (1)    |              ....             |
      +---------------+---------------+                               +
      |                                                               |
      .                  remainder of DHCPv4 message,
      .                   from Figure 1 of [RFC2131]                  .
      .                                                               .
      .                           (variable)                          .
      |                                                               |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+


           message-size    the number of octets in the message that
                           follows, as a 16-bit integer in network
                           byte-order.

           All other fields are as specified in DHCPv4 [RFC2131].


                  Figure 1:  Format of a DHCPv4 message in TCP

   The intent in using this format is that code which currently knows
   how to deal with a message returned from DHCPv4 Leasequery [RFC4388]
   will be able to deal with the message held inside of the TCP framing.

5.2.  New or Changed Options

   The existing messages DHCPLEASEUNASSIGNED and DHCPLEASEACTIVE are
   used as the value of the dhcp-message-type option to indicate an IP
   address which is currently not leased or currently leased to a DHCPv4
   client, respectively.

   All of the message types and options defined for Bulk Leasequery
   [RFC6926] are also used by Active Leasequery.  In addition, new
   message types and option types are defined for Active Leasequery, as
   described below.


5.2.1.  dhcp-message-type

   The message type option (option 53) from [RFC2132] requires
   additional values.  The values of these message types are shown below



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   in an extension of the table from Section 9.6 of [RFC2132]:

            Value   Message Type
            -----   ------------
             TBD1   DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY
             TBD2   DHCPLEASEQUERYSTATUS


5.2.2.  dhcp-status-code

   The dhcp-status-code option defined in [RFC6926] allows greater
   detail to be returned regarding the status of a DHCP request.  While
   specified in the Bulk Leasequery document, this DHCPv4 option is also
   used in Active Leasequery.

   This option has two possible scopes when used with Active Leasequery,
   depending on the context in which it appears. It refers to the
   information in a single leasequery reply if the value of the dhcp-
   message-type is DHCPLEASEACTIVE or DHCPLEASEUNASSIGNED.  It refers to
   the message stream related to an entire request if the value of the
   dhcp-message-type is DHCPLEASEQUERYSTATUS.

   Additional status codes defined for support of Active Leasequery are:


     Name      status-code       Description
     ----      -----------       -----------

     DataMissing      TBD3 Indicates that IP address binding
                           information requested is not available.

     ConnectionActive TBD4 Indicates that this connection remains
                           active.

     CatchUpComplete  TBD5 Indicates that this Active Leasequery
                           connection has completed sending all
                           of the saved data requested.



   A dhcp-status-code option MAY appear in the options field of a DHCP
   message.  If the dhcp-status-code option does not appear, it is
   assumed that the operation was successful.  The dhcp-status-code
   option SHOULD NOT appear in a message which is successful unless it
   is needed to convey some text message along with the Success status
   code.





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5.3.  Connection and Transmission Parameters


   DHCPv4 servers that support Active Leasequery SHOULD listen for
   incoming TCP connections on the DHCPv4 server port 67.
   Implementations MAY offer to make the incoming port configurable, but
   port 67 MUST be the default.  Requestors SHOULD make TCP connections
   to port 67, and MAY offer to make the destination server port
   configurable.

   This section presents a table of values used to control Active
   Leasequery behavior, including recommended defaults.  Implementations
   MAY make these values configurable.  However, configuring too-small
   timeout values may lead to harmful behavior both to this application
   as well as to other traffic in the network.  As a result, timeout
   values smaller than the default values SHOULD NOT be used.



   Parameter               Default   Description
   ---------------------------------------------
   BULK_LQ_DATA_TIMEOUT    300 secs  Bulk Leasequery data timeout
   BULK_LQ_MAX_CONNS       10        Max Bulk Leasequery TCP connections
   ACTIVE_LQ_RCV_TIMEOUT   120 secs  Active Leasequery receive timeout
   ACTIVE_LQ_SEND_TIMEOUT  120 secs  Active Leasequery send timeout
   ACTIVE_LQ_IDLE_TIMEOUT  60 secs   Active Leasequery idle timeout


6.  Information Communicated by Active Leasequery

   While the information communicated by a Bulk Leasequery [RFC6926] is
   taken directly from the DHCPv4 server's lease state database, the
   information communicated by an Active Leasequery is real-time
   information.  As such, it is the information which is currently
   associated with a particular IP address in the DHCPv4 server's lease
   state database.

   This is of significance, because if the Active Leasequery requestor
   runs slowly or the requestor disconnects from the DHCPv4 server and
   then reconnects with a query-start-time (signalling a catch-up
   operation), the information communicated to the Active Leasequery
   requestor is only the most current information from the DHCPv4
   server's lease state database.

   The requestor of an Active Leasequery MUST NOT assume that every
   lease state change is communicated across an Active Leasequery
   connection.  Even if the Active Leasequery requestor remains
   connected, the DHCPv4 server is only required to transmit information



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   about an IP address that is current when the packet is created and
   handed off to the TCP stack to send to the requestor.

   If the TCP connection blocks and the DHCPv4 server is waiting to send
   information down the connection, when the connection becomes
   available to be written the DHCPv4 server MAY create the packet to
   send at this time.  The current state of the IP address will be sent,
   and any transition in state or other information that occurred while
   the TCP connection was blocked will be lost.

   Thus, the Active Leasequery protocol does not allow the requestor to
   build a complete history of every activity on every lease.  An
   effective history of the important state changes for a lease can be
   created if the parameters of the DHCPv4 server are tuned to take into
   account the requirements of an Active Leasequery requestor.  For
   instance, the period after the expiration or release of an IP address
   could be configured long enough (say several minutes, well more than
   the receive timeout), so that an Active Leasequery requestor would
   never miss any changes in the client to IP address binding.

7.  Requestor Behavior


7.1.  Connecting and General Processing

   A Requestor attempts to establish a TCP connection to a DHCPv4 Server
   in order to initiate a Leasequery exchange.  If the attempt fails,
   the Requestor MAY retry.

   If an Active Leasequery is terminated prematurely by a
   DHCPLEASEQUERYDONE with a dhcp-message status-code of QueryTerminated
   or by the failure of the connection over which it was being
   submitted, the requestor MAY retry the request after the creation of
   a new connection.

   Messages from the DHCPv4 server come as multiple responses to a
   single DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY message.  Thus, each DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY
   or DHCPBULKLEASEQUERY request MUST have an xid (transaction-id)
   unique on the connection on which it is sent, and all of the messages
   which come as a response to it all contain the same xid as the
   request.  It is the xid which allows the data-streams of two or more
   different DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY or DHCPBULKLEASEQUERY requests to be
   demultiplexed by the requestor.

   A requestor MAY send a DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY request to a DHCPv4
   server and immediately close the transmission side of its TCP
   connection, and then read the resulting response messages from the
   DHCPv4 server.  This is not required, and the usual approach is to



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   leave both sides of the TCP connection up until at least the
   conclusion of the Active Leasequery.

7.2.  Forming an Active Leasequery

   The Active Leasequery is designed to create a long lived connection
   between the requestor and the DHCPv4 server processing the active
   query.  The DHCPv4 server will send IPv4 address binding information
   back across this connection with minimal delay after it learns of the
   binding information.  It will learn about IPv4 address bindings
   either because it makes the bindings itself or because it has
   received information about a binding from another server.

   To form the Active query, a DHCPv4 request is constructed with a
   dhcp-message-type of DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY.  This DHCPv4 request MUST
   NOT have a ciaddr, a chaddr, or a dhcp-client-identifier.  The DHCPv4
   request MUST contain a transaction-id, and that transaction-id MUST
   be locally unique to the TCP connection to the DHCPv4 server.  The
   DHCPv4 request SHOULD have a dhcp-parameter-request-list to inform
   the DHCPv4 server which DHCPv4 options are of interest to the
   requestor sending the DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY message.

   An important capability of the Active Leasequery is the ability of
   the requestor to specify that some recent data be sent immediately to
   the requestor in parallel with the transmission of the ongoing IPv4
   address binding information in more or less real time.  This
   capability is used in order to allow an Active Leasequery requestor
   to recover missed information in the event that it temporarily loses
   connectivity with the DHCPv4 server processing a previous Active
   Leasequery.

   Note that until all of the recent data (catch-up data) has been
   received, the requestor MUST NOT keep track of the base time received
   in Leasequery reply messages to use later in a subsequent Bulk
   Leasequery or Active Leasequery request.

   This capability is enabled by the transmission of a 4 octet base-time
   option with each Leasequery reply sent as the result of a previous
   Active Leasequery.  The requestor will typically keep track of the
   highest base-time received from a particular DHCPv4 server over an
   Active Leasequery connection, and in the event that the requestor
   finds it necessary (for whatever reason) to reestablish an Active
   Leasequery connection to that DHCPv4 server, the requestor will place
   this highest base-time value into a query-start-time option in the
   new DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY request.

   If the requestor doesn't wish to request an update of information
   missed when it was not connected to the DHCPv4 server, then it does



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   not include the query-start-time option in the DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY
   request.

   If the TCP connection becomes blocked or stops being writable while
   the requestor is sending its query, the requestor SHOULD be prepared
   to terminate the connection after BULK_LQ_DATA_TIMEOUT.  We make this
   recommendation to allow requestors to control the period of time they
   are willing to wait before abandoning a connection, independent of
   notifications from the TCP implementations they may be using.

7.3.  Processing Active Replies

   The Requestor attempts to read a DHCPv4 leasequery reply message from
   the TCP connection.  If the stream of replies becomes blocked, the
   Requestor SHOULD be prepared to terminate the connection after
   ACTIVE_LQ_RCV_TIMEOUT, and MAY begin retry processing if configured
   to do so.

   Note that a DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY request specifically requests the
   DHCPv4 server to create a long-lived connection which may not have
   data transferring continuously during its lifetime.  Therefore the
   DHCPv4 server will send a DHCPLEASEQUERYSTATUS message with a dhcp-
   status-code of ConnectionActive every ACTIVE_LQ_IDLE_TIMEOUT seconds
   (default 60) in order for the requestor to know that the connection
   remains alive.   Note that the default for ACTIVE_LQ_RCV_TIMEOUT is
   120 seconds, twice the value of the ACTIVE_LQ_IDLE_TIMEOUT's default
   of 60 seconds which drives the DHCPv4 server to send messages.  Thus
   ACTIVE_LQ_RCV_TIMEOUT controls how sensitive the requestor is to be
   to delays by the DHCPv4 server in sending updates or
   DHCPLEASEQUERYSTATUS messages.

   A successful query that is returning binding data MUST include a
   non-zero ciaddr.  It may also include a non-zero chaddr, htype, and
   hlen as well as additional options.  If there are additional bindings
   to be returned, they will be carried in additional Active Leasequery
   messages.

   Any requestor of an Active Leasequery operation MUST be prepared to
   receive multiple copies of the IPv4 address binding information for a
   particular IPv4 address.  See the Bulk Leasequery document [RFC6926]
   for information on how to deal with this situation.

   A single Active Leasequery can and usually will result in a large
   number of replies.  The Requestor MUST be prepared to receive more
   than one reply with transaction-ids matching a single
   DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY message from a single DHCPv4 server.

   A DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY has two regimes -- during the catch-up phase,



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   if any, and after any catch-up phase.  During the catch-up phase (if
   one exists), the data returned in the base-time option in a
   DHCPLEASEACTIVE or DHCPLEASEUNASSIGNED message may appear to be
   ordered, but the most recent change in the lease state data being
   returned is not related to the base-time option value in the
   messages.  Another way to say this is that the ordering of the
   updates sent by the DHCPv4 server during the catch-up phase is
   independent of the ordering in the changes in the lease state data.
   The base-time option from messages during this phase MUST NOT be
   saved and used in a subsequent DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY message's query-
   start-time option as it does not represent the extent of progress of
   the catch-up activity.

   After the catch-up phase, or during the entire series of messages
   received as the response to a DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY request with no
   query-start-time (and therefore no catch-up phase), the base-time
   option of the most recent message SHOULD be saved as a record of the
   most recent time that data was received.  This base-time (in the
   context of the DHCPv4 server) can be used in a subsequent
   DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY message's query-start-time, or in a
   DHCPBULKLEASEQUERY message's query-start-time if one is required,
   after a loss of the Active Leasequery connection.

   The DHCPLEASEQUERYSTATUS message MAY unilaterally terminate a
   successful DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY request which is currently in
   progress in the event that the DHCPv4 server determines that it
   cannot continue processing a DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY request.  For
   example, when a server is requested to shut down it SHOULD send a
   DHCPLEASEQUERYSTATUS message with a dhcp-status-code of
   QueryTerminated and include in the message a base time. This SHOULD
   be the last message on that connection, and once the message has been
   transmistted, the server should close the connection.

   After receiving DHCPLEASEQUERYSTATUS with a QueryTerminated status
   from a server, the Requestor MAY close the TCP connection to that
   server.

   The DHCPv4 Leasequery protocol uses the associated-ip option as an
   indicator that multiple bindings were present in response to a single
   client based query.  For Active Leasequery, client-based queries are
   not supported and so the associated-ip option is not used, and MUST
   NOT be present in replies.

7.3.1.  Processing Replies from a Request Containing a query-start-time


   If the DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY was requested with a query-start-time,
   the DHCPv4 server will attempt to send information about all IP



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   address bindings that changed since the time specified in the query-
   start-time.  This is the catch-up phase of the DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY
   processing.  The DHCPv4 server MAY also begin immediate updates over
   the same connection of real-time IP address binding information
   changes.  Thus, the catch-up phase may run in parallel with the
   normal updates generated by the DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY request.

   A DHCPv4 server MAY keep only a limited amount of time ordered
   information available to respond to a DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY request
   containing a query-start-time.  Thus, it is possible that the time
   specified in the query-start-time represents a time not covered by
   the time ordered information kept by the DHCPv4 server.  If this
   should occur, and there is not enough data saved in the DHCPv4 server
   to satisfy the request specified by the query-start-time option, the
   DHCPv4 server will reply immediately with a DHCPLEASEQUERYSTATUS
   message with a dhcp-status-code of DataMissing with a base-time
   option equal to the server's current time.  This will signal the end
   of the catch-up phase, and the only updates that will subsequently be
   received on this connection are the real-time updates from the
   DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY request.

   If there is enough data saved to satisfy the request, then
   DHCPLEASEACTIVE and DHCPLEASEUNASSIGNED messages will begin arrive
   from the DHCPv4 server.  Some of these messages will be related to
   the query-start-time request and be part of the catch-up phase.  Some
   of these messages will be real-time updates of IP address binding
   changes taking place in the DHCPv4 server.  In general, there is no
   way to determine the source each message.

   Until the catch-up phase is complete, the latest base-time value
   received from a DHCPv4 server processing an Active Leasequery request
   cannot be reset from the incoming messages because to do so would
   compromise the ability to recover lost information if the
   DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY were to terminate prior to the completion of the
   catch-up phase.

   The requestor will know that the catch-up phase is complete because
   the DHCPv4 server will transmit a DHCPLEASEQUERYSTATUS message with
   the dhcp-status-code of CatchUpComplete.  Once this message is
   transmitted, all additional DHCPLEASEACTIVE and DHCPLEASEUNASSIGNED
   messages will relate to real-time ("new") IP address binding changes
   in the DHCPv4 server.

   As discussed in Section 6.3, the requestor SHOULD keep track of the
   latest base-time option value received over a particular connection,
   to be used in a subsequent DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY request -- but only
   if the catch-up phase is complete.  Prior to the completion of the
   catch-up phase, if the connection should go away or if the requestor



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   receives a DHCPLEASEQUERYDONE message, then when it reconnects it
   MUST use the base-time value from the previous connection and not any
   base-time value received from the recently closed connection.

   In the event that there was enough data available to the DHCPv4
   server to begin to satisfy the request implied by the query-start-
   time option, but during the processing of that data the server found
   that it was unable to continue (perhaps there was barely enough, the
   connection is very slow, and the aging algorithm causes the saved
   data to become unavailable) the DHCPv4 server will terminate the
   catch-up phase of processing immediately by sending a
   DHCPLEASEQUERYSTATUS message with a dhcp-status-code of DataMissing
   and with a base-time option of the current time.

   The requestor MUST NOT assume that every individual state change of
   every IP address during the period from the time specified in the
   query-start-time and the present is replicated in an Active
   Leasequery reply message.  The requestor MAY assume that at least one
   Active Leasequery reply message will exist for every IP address which
   had one or more changes of state during the period specified by the
   query-start-time and the current time.  The last message for each IP
   address will contain the state at the current time, and there may be
   one or more messages concerning a single IP address during the
   catch-up phase of processing.

   If an IP address changed state multiple times during the time that
   the requestor was not connected (that is, during the time from the
   query-start-time and the present), then only the current IP address
   binding information will be sent during the catch-up phase.  Thus,
   the requestor MUST NOT assume that every intermediate state change
   that occurred during the period from the query-start-time to the
   present will be represented by an individual Leasequery message.

   If the DHCPLEASEQUERYSTATUS message containing a dhcp-status-code of
   DataMissing is received and the requestor is interested in keeping
   its database up to date with respect to the current state of IP
   address bindings in the DHCPv4 server, then the requestor SHOULD
   issue a DHCPBULKLEASEQUERY request to recover the information missing
   from its database.  This DHCPBULKLEASEQUERY should include a query-
   start-time, set to be the same as its query-start-time previously
   included in the DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY responses from the DHCPv4
   server, and a query-end-time equal to the base-time returned by the
   DHCPv4 server in the DHCPLEASEQUERYSTATUS message with the dhcp-
   status-code of DataMissing.

   In the event that the requestor receives a DHCPLEASEQUERYSTATUS
   message with a dhcp-status-code of DataMissing, it is a reasonable
   assumption that it is interested in keeping its database up to date



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   with respect to the DHCPv4 server's internal IP address binding
   database or it would not have included the query-start-time in the
   DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY message.

   Typically, the requestor would have one connection open to a DHCPv4
   server for a DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY request and possibly one additional
   connection open for a DHCPBULKLEASEQUERY request to the same DHCPv4
   server to fill in the data that might have been missed prior to the
   initiation of the DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY.  The Bulk Leasequery
   connection would typically run to completion and be closed, leaving
   one Active Leasequery connection open to a single DHCPv4 server.
   Alternatively, both requests could be issued over a single
   connection.

7.4.  Closing Connections

   The Requestor or DHCPv4 leasequery server MAY close its end of the
   TCP connection at any time.  The Requestor MAY choose to retain the
   connection if it intends to issue additional queries.  Note that this
   client behavior does not guarantee that the connection will be
   available for additional queries: the server might decide to close
   the connection based on its own configuration.

8.  Server Behavior

   A DHCPv4 server which supports Active Leasequery MUST support Bulk
   Leasequery [RFC6926] as well.

8.1.  Accepting Connections

   Servers that implement DHCPv4 Active Leasequery listen for incoming
   TCP connections.  Port numbers are discussed in Section 5.3.  Servers
   MUST be able to limit the number of currently accepted and active
   connections.  The value BULK_LQ_MAX_CONNS MUST be the default;
   implementations MAY permit the value to be configurable.  Connections
   SHOULD be accepted and, if the number of connections is over
   BULK_LQ_MAX_CONNS, they SHOULD be closed immediately.

   Servers MAY restrict Active Leasequery connections and
   DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY messages to certain clients.  Connections not
   from permitted clients SHOULD be closed immediately, to avoid server
   connection resource exhaustion.

   If the TCP connection becomes blocked while the server is accepting a
   connection or reading a query, it SHOULD be prepared to terminate the
   connection after a BULK_LQ_DATA_TIMEOUT.  We make this recommendation
   to allow servers to control the period of time they are willing to
   wait before abandoning an inactive connection, independent of the TCP



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   implementations they may be using.

8.2.  Replying to an Active Leasequery


   If the connection becomes blocked while the server is attempting to
   send reply messages, the server SHOULD be prepared to terminate the
   TCP connection after ACTIVE_LQ_SEND_TIMEOUT. This timeout governs how
   much congestion the DHCPv4 server is prepared to tolerate over any
   Active Leasequery connection. The default is two minutes, which means
   that if more than two minutes goes by without the requestor reading
   enough information to unblock the TCP connection, the DHCPv4 server
   will drop the TCP connection.

   If the DHCPv4 server encounters an error during processing of the
   DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY message, either during initial processing or
   later during the message processing, it SHOULD send a
   DHCPLEASEQUERYSTATUS containing an error code of some kind in a
   dhcp-status-code option. It SHOULD close the connection after this
   error is signalled.

   Every reply to a DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY request MUST contain the
   information specified in replies to a DHCPBULKLEASEQUERY request
   [RFC6926].

   If a DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY request contains a query-start-time option,
   it indicates that the requestor would like the DHCPv4 server to send
   it not only messages that correspond to DHCPv4 address binding
   activity that occurs subsequent to the receipt of the DHCPLEASEACTIVE
   request, but also messages that correspond to DHCPv4 address binding
   activity that occurred prior to the DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY request.

   If a query-end-time option appears in a DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY the
   DHCPv4 server should send a DHCPLEASEQUERYSTATUS message with a
   dhcp-status-code of MalformedQuery and terminate the connection.

   In order to implement a meaningful response to this query, the DHCPv4
   server MAY keep track of the address binding activity and associate
   changes with particular base-time values from the messages.  Then,
   when requested to do so by a DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY request containing
   a query-start-time option, the DHCPv4 server can respond with replies
   for all address binding activity occurring on that query-start-time
   or later times.

   These replies based on the query-start-time MAY be interleaved with
   the messages generated due to current IP address binding activity.

   Once the transmission of the DHCPv4 Leasequery messages associated



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   with the query-start-time option are complete, a DHCPLEASEQUERYSTATUS
   message MUST be sent with a dhcp-status-code value of
   CatchUpComplete.

   The DHCPv4 server SHOULD keep track of a limited amount of previous
   address binding activity and associate it with base-time values.  The
   DHCPv4 server MAY choose to only do this in the event that it has
   received at least one DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY request in the past, as to
   do so will almost certainly entail some utilization of resources
   which would be wasted if there are no DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY clients
   for this DHCPv4 server.  The DHCPv4 server SHOULD make the amount of
   previous address binding activity it retains configurable.  There is
   no requirement on the DHCPv4 server to retain this information over a
   server restart (or even to retain such information at all).

   Unless there is an error or some requirement to cease processing a
   DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY request yielding a DHCPLEASEQUERYSTATUS message,
   such as a server shutdown, there will be no DHCPLEASEQUERYSTATUS
   message at the conclusion of the DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY processing
   because that processing will not conclude but will continue until
   either the client or the server drops the connection.

8.3.  Multiple or Parallel Queries

   Requestors may want to use an existing connection if they need to
   make multiple queries.  Servers MAY support reading and processing
   multiple queries from a single connection.  A server MUST NOT read
   more query messages from a connection than it is prepared to process
   simultaneously.

   Typically, a requestor of a Active Leasequery would not need to send
   a second Active Leasequery while the first is still active.  However,
   sending an Active Leasequery and a Bulk Leasequery over the same
   connection would be possible and reasonable.

   This MAY be a feature that is administratively controlled.  Servers
   that are able to process queries in parallel SHOULD offer
   configuration that limits the number of simultaneous queries
   permitted from any one requestor, in order to control resource use if
   there are multiple requestors seeking service.

8.4.  Closing Connections

   The server MAY close its end of the TCP connection after sending its
   last message, a DHCPLEASEQUERYSTATUS message in response to a query.
   Alternatively, the server MAY retain the connection and wait for
   additional queries from the client.  The server SHOULD be prepared to
   limit the number of connections it maintains, and SHOULD be prepared



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   to close idle connections to enforce the limit.

   The server MUST close its end of the TCP connection if it encounters
   an error sending data on the connection.  The server MUST close its
   end of the TCP connection if it finds that it has to abort an in-
   process request.  A server aborting an in-process request SHOULD
   attempt to signal that to its clients by using the QueryTerminated
   status code in the dhcp-status-code option in a DHCPLEASEQUERYSTATUS
   message.  If the server detects that the client end has been closed,
   the server MUST close its end of the connection after it has finished
   processing any outstanding requests.

9.  Security Considerations

   The "Security Considerations" section of [RFC2131] details the
   general threats to DHCPv4.  The DHCPv4 Leasequery specification
   [RFC4388] describes recommendations for the Leasequery protocol,
   especially with regard to relayed LEASEQUERY messages, mitigation of
   packet-flooding DOS attacks, restriction to trusted clients, and use
   of IPsec [RFC4301].

   The use of TCP introduces some additional concerns.  Attacks that
   attempt to exhaust the DHCPv4 server's available TCP connection
   resources, such as SYN flooding attacks, can compromise the ability
   of legitimate clients to receive service.  Malicious clients who
   succeed in establishing connections, but who then send invalid
   queries, partial queries, or no queries at all also can exhaust a
   server's pool of available connections.  We recommend that servers
   offer configuration to limit the sources of incoming connections,
   that they limit the number of accepted connections and the number of
   in-process queries from any one connection, and that they limit the
   period of time during which an idle connection will be left open.

10.  IANA Considerations

   IANA is requested to assign the following new DHCP message types from
   the registry "DHCP Message Type 53 Values" maintained at
   http://www.iana.org/assignments/bootp-dhcp-parameters


      1. A dhcp-message-type of TBD1 for DHCPACTIVELEASEQUERY.

      2. A dhcp-message-type of TBD2 for DHCPLEASEQUERYSTATUS.

   IANA is requested to assign the following new DHCP status codes from
   the registry "DHCP Status Code Type 151 Values" maintained at
   http://www.iana.org/assignments/bootp-dhcp-parameters




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     Name              status-code
     ----              -----------
     DataMissing       TBD3
     ConnectionActive  TBD4
     CatchUpComplete   TBD5


11.  Acknowledgements

   The ideas in this document came in part from work in DHCPv6 and
   DHCPv4 Bulk Leasequery as well as from in depth discussions between
   the authors.


12.  References


12.1.  Normative References


   [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
      Requirement Levels", RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC2131] Droms, R., "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol", RFC 2131,
      March 1997.

   [RFC4301] Kent, S., Seo, K., "Security Architecture for the Internet
      Protocol", RFC 4301, December 2005.

   [RFC4388] Woundy, R., Kinnear, K., "Dynamic Host Configuration
      Protocol (DHCP) Leasequery", RFC 4388, February 2006.

   [RFC6926] Kinnear, K., Volz, B., Russell, N., Stapp, M., Rao,
      D.,Joshi B., Kurapati, P., "DHCPv4 Bulk Leasequery", RFC 6926,
      April 2013.

12.2.  Informative References


   [RFC951] Croft, B., Gilmore, J., "Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP)", RFC
      951, September 1985.

   [RFC1542] Wimer, W., "Clarifications and Extensions for the Bootstrap
      Protocol", RFC 1542, October 1993.

   [RFC2132] Alexander, S., Droms, R., "DHCP Options and BOOTP Vendor



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      Extensions", RFC 2132, March 1997.

Authors' Addresses


      Kim Kinnear
      Cisco Systems
      1414 Massachusetts Ave.
      Boxborough, Massachusetts 01719

      Phone: (978) 936-0000

      EMail: kkinnear@cisco.com



      Bernie Volz
      Cisco Systems
      1414 Massachusetts Ave.
      Boxborough, Massachusetts 01719

      Phone: (978) 936-0000

      EMail: volz@cisco.com



      Neil Russell
      Staples
      500 Staples Drive
      Framingham, MA 01702

      Phone: (508) 253-5000

      EMail: neil.e.russell@gmail.com



      Mark Stapp
      Cisco Systems
      1414 Massachusetts Ave.
      Boxborough, Massachusetts 01719

      Phone: (978) 936-0000

      EMail: mjs@cisco.com





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