RFC 2321

RITA -- The Reliable Internetwork Troubleshooting Agent

📅 published April 1998, from ietf

RITA -- The Reliable Internetwork Troubleshooting Agent 🦋

Okay bestie, this is a whole RFC and it's a total masterpiece ✨. Here's the title block so you know who's behind it:

RFC number: 2321
Network Working Group: A. Bressen (Andrew K. Bressen), from Cohesive Network Systems 💅
Category: Informational (it's just sharing info, it's not a standard) 🌸
Date: 1 April 1998 🙈
Obsoletes / Updates: the title block doesn't list any, so nothing gets replaced or patched here 🫶

Status of This Memo ✨

This memo gives information to the Internet community. It doesn't specify an Internet standard of any kind. You can distribute it as much as you want, no limits 🎀

Copyright Notice 🔥

Abstract 🌈

Okay so the abstract is basically: this is a description of how to use Nondeterministic Troubleshooting and Diagnostic Methodologies on today's super complicated nondeterministic networks and environments. It's giving "we're so serious about this" 💀

1. Introduction 🧚

Okay so IETF has been obsessed with helping people manage, troubleshoot, and diagnose networks. The hits include SNMP, cflowd, and RMON, and the projects in progress when this was written were Universal Logging Protocol and Distributed Management. These tools slay when everything is deterministic, meaning you know the network config or can easily figure it out. But they don't really handle the messy internetworks we have now, like:

Networks where the root bridge for a world-wide bridged network is suboptimally located, such as under the desk of a secretary who kicks off her shoes when she arrives in the morning. 👠
Networks where a hub is located adjacent to a monitor that emits disruptive RF when displaying certain graphics. 📺
Networks where an ISP and several of their customers use network 10.0.0.0 internally and do not hide RIP broadcasts from one another. 😭
Networks where gateways are data-sensitive
Networks where vendors inadvertently ship units with duplicate MAC addresses to the same end-user or where all users have a tool for changing MAC addresses. 💀

So this doc introduces a brand-new hardware-based tool for diagnosing and fixing network-related hardware and software problems. It's best for the nondeterministic stuff, the chaotic vibes listed above. It's literally useful at every level of the OSI model. Physical, network, transport, and application layers? Sure. It has also successfully handled problems at the political and religious layers 💅 (more on that later, lol).

RITA, the Reliable Internet Troubleshooting Agent, was first built at The Leftbank Operation (now Cohesive Network Systems, New England Division) using a hardware platform from Archie McPhee (Reference [1]). Here's what a typical RITA unit looks like in Figure 1:

         comb      neck             body                    feet
          |         |                |                       |
          v         v                V                       V
           ,^/'/,           ,______________________.         ,
         i'  '  /          /                       =========<-
        / <o>   `---------/                        \         `
      .;__.  ,__,--------.                         /         ,
         / ,/ vv          \                        =========<-
        '-'                `-----------------------'         `
         ^     ^                                     ^
         |     |                                     |
        beak  wattles                               legs

Figure 1.

2. Specification 🎀

A typical RITA is 51.25 cm long and yellow-orange in color. Natural or artificial substances may be used for construction. RITA is super flexible, so it can interoperate within pretty broad parameters. Unlike most other tools described in forthcoming RFC's, RITA does not require any IANA namespace management. It's not expected that versions will be incompatible, so there's no versioning field. Interoperability testing may be conducted at a future IETF meeting. 🧚‍♀️

3. Diagnostic Usage: 🔬

RITA can be used in two diagnostic fashions. Only one of them, described below in 3.1, has been refined enough that we feel comfortable publishing the methodology. 🫶

3.1. The BS eval test ✨

The first method gives a broad-spectrum evaluation of the quality of the entity tested, which is why it's called the BS eval test. It works great on both deterministic and non-deterministic problems. To test, you place the RITA unit on top of a suspect piece of hardware. For software, you place the unit on a packaged copy of the program, or on a hard copy of the source code.

If the RITA doesn't get up and fly away, the hardware or software being tested is misconfigured, fubar, or broken as designed. 💀 This method flags all equipment and software as sub-optimal, but Sturgeon's Law (see reference [5]) says at least 90% of these results are accurate. So a maximum 10% false positive result is considered within acceptable parameters. 🙈

3.2. Haruspication 🔮

The second method applies traditional techniques of haruspication (see reference [3]). So far it's been way more successful with implements other than RITA. The absence of entrails in the RITA unit may be part of why. Future design enhancements may address this by adding artificial giblets. 😭

An alternative approach that got discarded involved cleromantic principles (see reference [3]), and it was known as "flipping the bird". 🖕

4. Corrective Usage: 🛠️

Corrective usage of RITA works best on the most difficult class of networking problems: the ones that seem to show sporadic, non-deterministic behavior. 😤

RITA units boost normal corrective measures for these problems. Those measures include rebooting, reseating components and connectors, changing tabs to spaces or vice-versa in configuration files, blaming third-party vendors, and using ballistic implements to cause wholesale displacement of systems and software. RITA boosts those to at least 100% of their normal efficacy. 🚀

Specific Problem Methodologies: 💅

Physical Layer: Wave RITA unit towards malfunctioning components. 👋
Network Layer: Wave RITA unit towards malfunctioning components. 👋
Transport Layer: Wave RITA unit towards malfunctioning components. 👋
Application Layer: Strike product vendor representative (or programmer, if available) with RITA, preferably on the top of the skull, while shouting, "Read The Fine RFC's comma darn it!" 📚💀
Political Layer: Strike advocates of disruptive or obstructive policies with RITA, preferably on the top of the skull. In extreme cases insertion of RITA into bodily apertures may become necessary. WARNING: subsequent failure to remove RITA may cause further problems. 🚨
Religious Layer: Strike advocates of disruptive or obstructive religions, and their vendor representatives, with RITA, preferably on the top of the skull. In extreme cases, the RITA may be used as a phlactory, funerary urn, or endcap for bus-and-tag cables. 🫠

5. Further Work 🌸

A RITA MIB is in development. This may mean adding interface technology and hardware to RITA. A prototype is shown in Figure 2:

         comb      neck             body                    feet
          |         |                |                       |
          v         v                V                       V
           ,^/'/,           ,______________________.         ,
         i'  '  /          /                       =========<-
        / <o>   `---------/                        \_____________m
      .;__.  ,__,--------.                         /         ,
         / ,/ vv          \                        =========<-
        '-'                `-----------------------'         `
         ^     ^                                     ^          ^
         |     |                                     |          |
        beak  wattles                               legs       ethernet

Figure 2.

So far there has been no investigation into using RITA to implement RFC 1149. 👀

RITA has also been used with some success on non-network problems, especially debugging SCSI bus malfunctions. 🧰

6. Security Considerations 🔐

⚠️ Serious security note, bestie: the RITA will only seriously impact system security facilities if it is filled with lead shot.

It does, however, boost the personal security of system administrators. Few network toughs are willing to face down a sysadmin armed with a RITA and a confident demeanor. 😎👑

7. Citations and References 📚

[1] Postel, J., and J. Reynolds, "Instructions to RFC Authors", RFC 2223, October 1997.

[2] McPhee, A., http://www.mcphee.com

[3] http://www.clix.net/5thworld/no-osphere/3e/manteia.html

[4] Waitzman, D., "Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers" RFC 1149, April 1990.

[5] Raymond, E. (editor), "The New Hacker's Dictionary" 2nd ed., MIT Press, September 1993. ISBN 0-262-18154-1

8. Acknowledgments 🫶

Huge thanks to Bob Antia for the initial development of RITA, editing, and an excellent leather jacket. John "cgull" Hood gave the first reading, and Elizabeth Goodman and Gerry Goodnough provided the equipment used for the illustrations. 🧥✨

9. Author's Address 💌

Andrew K. Bressen
72 Endicott Street
Somerville, MA

Phone: 617-776-2373
EMail: bressen@leftbank.com, bressen@cohesive.com, bressen@mirror.to

10. Full Copyright Statement 💜

You can copy and share this document and its translations, and you can make derivative works that comment on or explain it or help implement it. You can publish and distribute those too, in whole or in part, with no restrictions of any kind. The only catch is that the above copyright notice and this paragraph must be included on all copies and derivative works. This document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other Internet organizations. The exceptions are when it's needed for developing Internet standards, in which case the procedures for copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or when it's needed to translate it into languages other than English.

The limited permissions above are perpetual and will not be revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.

This document and the information contained herein is provided on an "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. 🌈

📦 where this page comes from

ietf: rfc2321 1998-04
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