RE: [Planetlab-arch] Proposed Changes for Dynamic Slice API

[Steve M. <sm...@CS...>]

On Tue, 27 Jan 2004, Timothy Roscoe wrote:

>
> It's not purely an implementation point.   Regexps aside, I would like
> to know:

i meant that the point i was making was an implementation point - clearly
the architecture of planetlab doesn't dictate that we export the entire
contents of the slice DB as an XML file (albeit in a somewhat NM-specific
format), that's just how it's implemented right now.

i'll generalise my point to the following: since there seem to be several
applications that require access to the slice DB we should consider if
the needs of those applications can be met with a common DB access or
export mechanism.  for example: listSlice could just send you the same XML
file that we export to Node Manager.  that may not be ideal but it would
be reasonable.

>  - list of slices I've created
>  - list of slices I'm authorized for
>  - list of slices created by one of my PIs

yes, those all seem like reasonable queries.  isn't the last query
equivalent to all slices with a specific site prefix e.g., irb_?  both the
last two points can be answered by consulting the XML file - i'll use that
as an argument for exporting the DB wholescale and letting you grep it
whichever way you like rather than trying to anticipate all the queries
you might perform and encapsulating them in an API.

let me put a (perhaps) simple question out there: is there a reason that
jon q. user should not be able to see the entire list of slices, including
node and user assocations and resource specifications?