Fwd: Re: Short summaries of WG sessions [DataBase]

  The attached text fragment for the RIPE 25 Minutes was submitted yesterday.
  You might want to have that as an interim summary while the full DB-WG
  minutes are being worked on...

  Cheers,
  Wilfreid.

   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Here's the Summary for the DB-WG Meeting, RIPE 25, Amsterdam

  I might again be too verbose, I don't know.
  Please feel free to fix my typos and any broken sentences.
  Roderick, apologies for the one-day delay over the promise...
  
  Wilfried.


  Chair:	Wilfried Woeber
  Scribe:	John LeRoy Crain
  Participants:	51 (according to the sign-up list)


  The following agenda was agreed:

A.  Administrative stuff 
	- volunteering of the scribe
	- WG-agenda bashing

B.  DB-SW status report by the RIPE NCC
	- recent changes, V2.0
	- new features: experience, feedback

C.  DB consistency and sanity checks
	- at time of transaction (create/modify)
	- at regular intervals 
	- input from other WGs
	- input from the NCC (address space handling)
	- RIPE/(NIC)-Handle space, special cases,
	  like ROLExxx-RIPE, RIPExxx-yyy, AUTOxxx-RIPE

D.  Inverse lookup discussion
	- recursive lookup on by default, should this change?
	- extending the list of attributes that can be use in -i lookup?

E.  Documentation
	- structure and contents as proposed by the NCC
	- user input

F.  New functionality
	- things on the consolidated wish-list	
	- url handling
	- inet-rtr object extension

Y.  General input from other WGs
	- DNS WG: registration of 2nd level (and lower) domains
	- Local-IR WG: proposal to have the SW enforce mandatory attributes
	  (status, NIC-handles)
	
Z.  AOB
	- clarification abou mailing lists
	- obsolete advisories in inetnum objects

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~	

    	[ The following summary is not necessarily following ]
    	[ the actual agenda and sequence of discussions, for ]
    	[ a complete report refer to the WG minutes, please! ]


  Results and decisions 
  
  The usual report about the status of the DB and the DB software was
  offered by the RIPE-NCC (Carol Orange) and well received by the group.
  There is still a couple of minor bugs around (as can be expected anyway
  when implementing a major new softeware release), these bugs are being
  fixed asap.

  The behaviour of the software when doing an inverse lookup ("-i" flag) is
  to be changed to imply "-r" (recursion disabled).
  
  NIC-Handles (in general) and the status: attribute for inetnum: objects
  should be enforced by the DB software. This is to bring the software in
  line with the requirements in the address allocation guidelines
  documentation.
  The proposed flag day for these changes is 1.1.1997.

  In order to avoid confusion, the string AUTO (which is used to request and
  control automatic handle assignment) shall be reserved (not to be used for
  a real handle).

  There was general consensus that the quality and consistency of the data
  in the RIPE-DB should be improved. The group formally supports this
  activity which is also part of the RIPE NCC Activity Plan for 1997.
  A project has been set up with the Free University of Amsterdam to look at
  the consistency issues. Students may wish to interview selected users.

  Current thinking is that there shall be more sanity checking at the time of
  a transaction (each time) and that we need some background checks that can
  be performed at regular intervals. These should then catch inconsistencies
  which can not be properly detected by the transaction tests.
  Making this process succeed is expected to require collaboration and some
  effort from Local-IR folks as well as from the routing folks.

  Ambrose Magee was introduced as the new primary maintainer of the DB-SW.
  He then reported on the proposed structure of the Documentation for the
  RIPE Database objects, the usage and the software. The group endorsed the
  concept with some minor proposals for improvement and stressed the
  importance of the documentation, and in general, the importance of
  consolidation vs. new functionality.

  Input received from the DNS-WG asked for a referral mechanism in the
  RIPE-DB to support registering 2nd and lower level domain objects at the
  site of a TLD Administration, but still offering access with whois by way
  of the RIPE-DB. There was a reasonable number of TLDs represented that
  promised support on their end for implementing that approach. 

  The decision reached calls for an interim solution to add a referral
  mechanism to domain: objects.  This would only be used in (TLD) domain:
  objects that describe the TLD and point to the authoritative DB that holds
  the 2nd and any lower level data.

  During the discussion of the DB-SW behaviour of handling multiple
  maintainer entries, it was clarified that there is no hierarchy involved.
  The software just scans all entries and tries to find a match. The first
  match found is honored. This is in line with the current concept and
  design.


  New actions:

Action (1) on  Wilfried Woeber and Carol Orange,
  To come up with a technical proposal for better DB consistency checking.

Action (2) on all WG members,
  To think about implications of the proposed DB consistency checking and to
  provide input.

Action (3) on RIPE NCC (Carol Orange, Daniel Karrenberg),
  To report about the FUA findings (on DB consistency) at next ripe meeting.

Action (4) on RIPE NCC (Carol Orange, Daniel Karrenberg),
  To document the approach to find and change references to person objects in
  order to support migration to mandatory handles (using inverse look up and
  "search and replace") and send it to the list.

Action (5) RIPE NCC (Ambrose Magee) (time allowing),
  To implement the change that "whois -i ..." implies "whois -i -r ..."

Action (6a) on Wilfried Woeber,
  To ask on the DB-WG mailing list about the need of improved inverse lookup
  functionality (more attributes allowed for -i).
Action (6b) on Daniel Karrenberg,
  To look at query logs for "failed" -i attempts.

Action (7) on Ripe NCC (Ambrose Magee),
  Produce the RIPE-DB Documentation a.s.a.p. and according to the agreed
  structure.

Action (8a) on RIPE NCC (Carol Orange),
  Publish the "known bugs" list, on the Web or on the FTP-Server.
Action (8b) on RIPE NCC (Carol Orange),
  Publish the "open issues" list (consolidated wishlist) on the Web or on the
  FTP server.

Action (9) on RIPE NCC (Ambrose Magee, Carol Orange, Daniel Karrenberg),
  To propose and implement (a.s.ap.) a referral mechanism for TLD domain:
  objects (only).

Action (10) on Wilfried Woeber and the RIPE NCC,
  To make a proposal on the technical and procedural requirements of making
  the status: attribute for inetnum: objects mandatory.

Action (11) on RIPE NCC (Ambrose Magee),
  To change the DB-SW to obsolete the advisory: attribute in inetnum: objects.

Action (12) on RIPE NCC (Ambrose Magee),
  To add mailing lists with their descriptions to the database documents.

  WW,  7-OCT-1996.
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  Wilfried Woeber                :  e-mail: Woeber at CC.UniVie.ac.at
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