[Infrastructures] using IA methodologies to build network element configuration

[Daniel Hagerty]

 > Development will basically go as I have time and/or need
 > enhancements for client deployments - however the aim is not just
 > to be able to generate the configs but to automatically provision
 > them to the appropriate devices. The system is intended to be a
 > general provisioner for things - dealing with the building-a-config
 > type of issues that isconf stays well clear of, and also providing
 > a web interface (if you want it) to manage the datastore for object

    Be careful here; as Brent mentioned, investing in good out of band
management to aid in the provisioning process simplifies the reasoning
process you take on enormously.

    Once you take on issues like context sensitive delta statements,
you are dealing with the oblique reflection problem ("please disable
my ability to communicate with *this router* until I do..." can be
said in an oblique/non-obvious fashion).

    I wouldn't say that solving it in an ad hoc fashion is anything
like impossible (it isn't) -- it's been done, and, for example, is
part of how one must write a semantic for a complex language like
scheme.  But don't walk into the problems naively.  There is difficult
computer science hiding here, causing smart people like Steve to say
"there's halting somewhere in here", and people like me to pound head
into wall until you see patterns in the stars the pounding produces.