The IETF Operations and Management area held an interim meeting in Phoenix in conjunction with the last NANOG. It was called to address the gulf which has grown between the operator community and the management tools development community. There are clearly un-met needs for network management tools, and tools which haven't found use in operational networks. Randy and Bert want to get the two groups talking again so the management tools folks' time won't be wasted and the operators will get tools they can use. Suzanne Woolf and I have been tasked with producing a draft to document operator requirements of infrastructure management methods. We need to describe the tools, methods, and practices which operators need the management software community to support, in as unambiguous a fashion as possible. There's an email list for discussing the requirements, which you can subscribe to in the usual manner at: ops-nm-request@ops.ietf.org and there's an email address to which specific suggested requirements can be sent, which Suzanne and I will try to incorporate into the document. Please write up exactly what you're thinking, with clear examples, if possible, and as much detail as you think is necessary, and send them to: ops-nm-suggestions@ops.ietf.org As likely requirements are submitted, Suzanne and I will summarize them back to the ops-nm list for discussion. If you need to contact us privately we can be reached at: Suzanne Woolf woolf@mfnx.net +1 408 367 6666 (GMT +8) Bill Woodcock woody@pch.net +1 510 409 6620 (GMT +8) Thanks, -Suzanne Woolf -Bill Woodcock