2. What is the nature and description of the request?
      
Apply ConnectTimout during SSH Banner exchange. 
Openssh provided with RHEL 5 is openssh-4.3p2-72.el5. This version does not
implement ConnectTimout option during SSH Banner exchange. This was implemented
in Openssh-4.9 version in upstream. 

Changelogs of Openssh 4.9 says the following 
"ssh(1)'s ConnectTimeout option is now applied to both the TCP connection and
the SSH banner exchange (previously it just covered the TCP connection). This
allows callers of ssh(1) to better detect and deal with stuck servers that
accept a TCP connection but don't progress the protocol, and also makes
ConnectTimeout useful for connections via a ProxyCommand." 

   3. Why does the customer need this? (List the business requirements here)
       
"We developed a centralized administration console for *NIX (linux, aix, sunos
and hpux) systems. This console is installed in a RedHat system using SSH
client v4.3. Additionally to the Web Console Application the system has several
batch processes to do some maintenance actions such as validating connectivity
with each administrated server or validating coherency between the
configuration data stored in our databases and the physical real configuration
present at that moment in the servers.

The connections between our system and the administrated servers is always by
ssh. We send always de ssh command with -o ConnectTimeout=60 parameter. But we
found that in some cases de sshd remote daemon is not working properly and an
error occurs during banner exchange (error: Connection timed out during banner
exchange). In this cases the ssh command gets stuck and ignores the sentence
ConnectioTimeout=60.

For us this is a big problem because some of this batch processes work in
serialized mode, and if one connection gets stuck the batch process gets
stopped at this point until someone notices and fixes it killing the stuck
connection. This problem is especially critical in processes that change
expired passwords."

   4. How would the customer like to achieve this? (List the functional requirements here)

"Now we must regularly review our batch processes to validate that we have no
stuck connections and thus advancing the potential problems this may cause."

   5. For each functional requirement listed in question 4, specify how Red Hat
and the customer can test to confirm the requirement is successfully
implemented.

Yes. 
 
   6. Is there already an existing RFE upstream or in Red Hat bugzilla?

Feature is already implemented in Openssh 4.9. 

   7. How quickly does this need resolved? (desired target release)

RHEL 5.7

   8. Does this request meet the RHEL Inclusion criteria (please review)

Yes.

   9. List the affected packages

OpenSSH.

  10. Would the customer be able to assist in testing this functionality if
implemented?

Yes.