Domain object template

Folks,

Francis has made an update to the old domain object template. A draft
version of his document is attached below. Please comment on this
document, it should preferably be OK'ed at the coming RIPE meeting.
This document is also available as:

ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/drafts/ripe-domain.{txt|ps}

Cheers,

-Marten








             RIPE Database Template for Domains


                       Francis Dupont

                 Document ID: ripe-049-bis
                    Obsoletes: ripe-049



                          ABSTRACT

          This paper describes the  format  and  syntax
     for  the  representation  for Internet domains and
     associated contact persons in the RIPE database.



1.  Introduction

RIPE (Reseaux IP Europeens)  coordinates  TCP/IP  networking
for the research community in Europe.

One of the activities of RIPE is to maintain a  database  of
European  IP networks, DNS domains and their contact persons
along with various other kinds of network management  infor-
mation.   This  database  content  is public information for
agreed  Internet  operational   purposes.    This   supports
NICs/NOCs  all  over  Europe  and  beyond  to  perform their
respective tasks.

This document describes the format and syntax  for  Internet
domain  information  and  the closely related contact person
information.

Top, first and sensible level domains should  be  registered
in the RIPE database.

Each object in the database describes a single entity in the
real  world.  This  basic  principle  means that information
about  that  entity  should  only  be  represented  in   the
corresponding  database  object and not be repeated in other
objects.

Objects are described by attributes  value  pairs,  one  per
line.   Objects  are  separated by empty lines. An attribute
that consists of multiple lines should  have  the  attribute
name  repeated on consecutive lines.  The information stored
about domain UKA.DE consists of  five  objects,  one  domain
object and four person objects and looks like this:



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      domain:  UKA.DE
      descr:   Universitaet Karlsruhe
      descr:   Informatik Rechnerabteilung IRA
      descr:   Am Fasanengarten 5
      descr:   D-7500 Karlsruhe, FRG
      admin-c: Werner Zorn
      tech-c:  Michael Rotert
      tech-c:  Klaus Becker
      tech-c:  Arnold Nipper
      nserver: iraun1.IRA.UKA.DE iramu1.IRA.UKA.DE
      nserver: unido.Informatik.Uni-Dortmund.DE
      sub-dom: ira
      dom-net: 129.13.0.0 192.54.104.0
      changed: nipper at ira.uka.de 910208
      source:  RIPE

      person:  Werner Zorn
      address: Universitaet Karlsruhe
      address: Informatikrechnerabteilung
      address: Am Fasanengarten 5
      address: D-7500 Karlsruhe
      phone:   +49 721 608 3981
      fax-no:  +49 721 699 284
      e-mail:  zorn at ira.uka.de
      changed: dfk at cwi.nl 11-Apr-90
      source:  RIPE

      person:  Michael Rotert
      address: Universitaet Karlsruhe
      address: Informatikrechnerabteilung
      address: Am Fasanengarten 5
      address: D-7500 Karlsruhe
      phone:   +49 721 608 4221
      fax-no:  +49 721 699 284
      e-mail:  rotert at ira.uka.de
      nic-hdl: MR78
      changed: dfk at cwi.nl 11-Apr-90
      source:  RIPE

      person:  Klaus Becker
      address: Universitaet Karlsruhe
      address: Informatikrechnerabteilung
      address: Am Fasanengarten 5
      address: D-7500 Karlsruhe
      phone:   +49 721 608 3973
      fax-no:  +49 721 699 284
      e-mail:  becker at ira.uka.de
      changed: dfk at cwi.nl 11-Apr-90
      source:  RIPE

      person:  Arnold Nipper
      address: Universitaet Karlsruhe
      address: Informatikrechnerabteilung



ripe-049-bis.txt                               January, 1995
                           - 3 -


      address: Am Fasanengarten 5
      address: D-7500 Karlsruhe
      phone:   +49 721 608 4331
      fax-no:  +49 721 699 284
      e-mail:  nipper at ira.uka.de
      nic-hdl: AN45
      changed: dfk at cwi.nl 11-Apr-90
      source:  RIPE


1.1.  How to access the Database ?

The database  is  public  information  for  agreed  Internet
operational purposes.  It can be accessed via a whois server
on host whois.ripe.net (tcp port 43). The whole database  is
also  available  via anonymous ftp from ftp.ripe.net as file
ripe.db in directory ripe/dbase. There is also a  compressed
version of the database available in that same directory, as
well as a version of the database  in  which  the  different
objects have been collected in different files. This "split"
version of the database can be  found  in  the  subdirectory
split.

1.2.  How to submit information to the database ?

Database updates should be sent via electronic mail to


        auto-dbm at ripe.net


Be sure to supply a person object [1] for each contact  per-
son  mentioned  in   the  network  objects.  Of  course  you
need  not supply person objects if they are already  present
in the database and the information is still correct.

Updates sent in should only contain the objects that need to
be  updated.  The  mail  is automatically parsed by software
that cannot intercept any messages that may be in the  mail.
If  an  update needs human intervention, or you have general
questions  on  the  procedures,  please   refer   to   ripe-
dbm at ripe.net.

Currently no special  authorisation  is  needed  to  create,
modify   or  delete  objects that describe persons or domain
name space. However extensive audit trails  of  all  changes
are being kept.

2.  Format and syntax of the domain object

In a short summary below, the attribute column indicates the
name  of  the attribute inside the object, the second column
indicates whether this attribute is optional  or  mandatory,
and  the  third  column indicates whether this attribute can



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appear more than once per object:

     attribute   optional/mandatory  multiple/single
     domain:     mandatory           single
     descr:      mandatory           multiple
     admin-c:    mandatory           multiple
     tech-c:     mandatory           multiple
     zone-c:     optional            multiple
     nserver:    optional            multiple
     sub-dom:    optional            multiple
     dom-net:    optional            multiple
     remarks:    optional            multiple
     notify:     optional            multiple
     mnt-by:     optional            multiple
     changed:    mandatory           multiple
     source:     mandatory           single


Below each of these attributes and their format  and  syntax
are described in more detail, and examples are given.


domain:  The domain attribute contains the  fully  qualified
         domain  name  without  trailing  ".". Note that DNS
         names are case insensitive.  An example:

                 domain: UKA.DE

         Status: mandatory, only one line allowed

descr:   The descr attribute consists of a short description
         of  the organization and location where this domain
         is used.  The description can have multiple  lines.
         It need not contain the full postal address as this
         is required in  the  contact  person  objects  (see
         further  in  this document).  Free text is allowed.
         An example:

                 descr:   Universitaet Karlsruhe
                 descr:   Informatik Rechnerabteilung IRA

         Status: mandatory, multiple lines allowed

admin-c: The admin-c attribute contains the name or the  NIC
         handle  of  the administrative contact person. This
         is someone who will be contacted about  administra-
         tive things such as domain registration etc.  A NIC
         handle (if known) is preferred. Please do  not  use
         formal  titles  like  'Dr', 'Prof' or 'Sir'. Do not
         add full stops  between  names  or  initials.  This
         value  should  be exactly the same as the attribute
         in the person object  (see  further  below).   More
         than  one  administrative  contact  person  can  be
         specified, by simply repeating  the  attribute.  An



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         example of both the NIC handle and normal name use:

                 admin-c:  Daniel Karrenberg
         or (preferred)
                 admin-c:  DK58

         Status: mandatory, multiple lines allowed

tech-c:  The tech-c attribute contains the name or  the  NIC
         handle  of  the  technical  contact person. This is
         someone to be contacted for technical problems such
         as  (mis)behavior  of  nameservers  on the net etc.
         The format and syntax is the same  as  the  admin-c
         attribute above.

         Status: mandatory, multiple lines allowed

zone-c:  The zone-c attribute contains the name of the  zone
         contact  for the domain.  This is the person listed
         in the SOA record for the domain when the domain is
         a  zone  too  (the same argument, not every domains
         are zones, applies to nserver attribute).  The for-
         mat and syntax is the same as the admin-c attribute
         above.

         Status: optional, multiple lines allowed

nserver: The  nserver  attribute  contains   the   list   of
         nameservers  for of this domain, primary first. The
         format  is  fully  qualified  domain  name  without
         trailing  "."  OR IP Address(es) of the nameserver.
         Only one server should be described per  line.   An
         example:

                 nserver: iraun1.IRA.UKA.DE

         Status: optional, multiple lines allowed

sub-dom: The sub-dom attribute contains  the  list  of  sub-
         domains  of  the  domain.  The  format  is relative
         domain name to the domain (in  order  to  keep  the
         list compact).  An example:

                 sub-dom: ira

         Status: optional, multiple lines allowed

dom-net: The dom-net attribute contains the list of IP  net-
         works  in  this  domain.  The format is dotted quad
         including trailing 0s, extended formats defined  in
         [1]  for range of IP address space are allowed.  An
         example:

                 dom-net: 129.13.0.0 192.54.104.0



ripe-049-bis.txt                               January, 1995
                           - 6 -


         Status: optional, multiple lines allowed

remarks: The remarks attribute contains  any  remarks  about
         this  domain that cannot be expressed in any of the
         other  attributes.  Although  multiple  lines   are
         allowed,  it  should be only be used if it provides
         extra information to users  of  the  database,  and
         usage  should  be  kept to a minimum. For format is
         like the description attribute free text.  An exam-
         ple:

                 remarks:   MX record only

         Status: optional, multiple lines allowed

notify:  The notify attribute contains an email  address  to
         which  notifications  of  changes  to  this  object
         should be send. This can be useful if more than one
         person  manage  the  same  object.  A more detailed
         description can be found in [2]. The format is  one
         RFC822  electronic  mail address per line. Although
         multiple lines are allowed, usage should be kept to
         a minimum. An example:

                 notify:    operations at ripe.net

         Status: optional, multiple lines allowed

mnt-by:  The  maintainer  attribute  contains  a  registered
         maintainer name. This attribute is used for author-
         isation  of  database  update   requests.   It   is
         described  in  more  detail in [2]. The format is a
         registered maintainer name. An example:

                 mnt-by: RIPE-DBM

         Status: optional, multiple lines allowed

changed: The changed field contains information on who  last
         changed this object, and when this change was made.
         The format is an RFC 822 electronic mail address of
         the  person  who  made  the change, and the date of
         change in YYMMDD format. Multiple lines are allowed
         and shows the update history of an object. An exam-
         ple:

                 changed:    marten at ripe.net 940328

         Status: mandatory, multiple lines allowed

source:  The source contains a source  of  information.  For
         the  RIPE  database,  the  value  should  always be
         "RIPE". This field is used to combine and  exchange
         information between various database sources around



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         the world. Fixed value:

                 source:     RIPE

         Status: mandatory, only  one  line  allowed,  fixed
         value

3.  References


[1]  Lord, A., Terpstra, M.,  "RIPE  Database  Template  for
     Networks and Persons", ripe-119, October 1994.

[2]  Karrenberg, D., Terpstra, M., "Authorisation and Notif-
     ication  of  Changes  in  the RIPE Database", ripe-120,
     October 1994.









































ripe-049-bis.txt                               January, 1995