Announcement - Database Consistency and Statistics Project

Dear Colleagues,

[Apologies for multiple messages].

The new version of database consistency project, along with whois
server usage statistics have been released on the RIPE NCC's web
pages, with the following url:

http://www.ripe.net/db/dbconstat/

The goal of this project is to find the objects with consistencies not
enforced by the database, and provide reports and statistics to help users
correct them. It also aims at checking for the necessary protection of
objects and tracing the query and update statistics of the RIPE whois
server to analyze the current trends of using the database.

The goals of the consistency project do not include, for example, reality
checks for inetnum objects, but it addresses only internal inconsistencies
in the database, such as invalid references.

Here are the types of inconsistencies which are addressed in this project:

    * Inetnum object related:
          * Inetnum objects without status attribute,
          * Assigned inetnum objects without allocations,
          * Overlapping inetnum objects,
          * Inetnum objects with suspicious boundaries to form a network,
          * Assigned inetnum objects from assignments,
          * Inetnum objects with wrong PA or PI status,
          * Wrongly allocated inetnum objects.
    * Person object related:
          * Person objects with multiple identical copies,
          * Person objects which do not have any references to them,
          * Person objects not having a valid nic-handle,
          * Objects which have references to invalid nic-handles.
    * Maintainer object related:
          * Maintainer objects which do not have any references to them.
    * Protection related:
          * Weak authentications schemes for maintainers.
          * Inetnum objects with no mnt-lower attribute.

Reports about individual inconsistencies are sent only to the maintainers
of objects. If you'd like to receive the report for your inconsistencies,
send an e-mail to auto-dbcon at ripe.net  containing the maintainer name in its
body, and the appropriate authentication.

     * If the authentication of your maintainer is MAIL-FROM, mail
       should be sent from the appropriate e-mail address, and should
       contain the following in its body:
           mntner: <maintainer_name>

     * If the authentication of your maintainer is CRYPT-PW, mail should
       contain the following lines in its body:
           mntner: <maintainer_name>
           password: <password>

     * If the authentication of your maintainer is PGPKEY, mail should
       contain the following line and should be signed with the appropriate
       key:
           mntner: <maintainer_name>

     If you supply an existing maintainer and the proper authentication,
     the report of the inconsistencies related to the maintainer will be
     mailed back to you.

For questions, comments and suggestions, please contact ripe-dbm at ripe.net.

--
Can Bican
RIPE NCC