[db-wg] mntner creation

Ulf Kieber wrote:

>did I miss something or since when does the RIPE DB permit creation
>of mntner objects by direct mail.  Several of our customers have
>started creating mntners ad libitum and the mntner creation feature
>on lirportal.ripe.net has become pretty superfluous.
>  
>
Ulf,

The RIPE NCC used to approve all MNTNER object creations. This was a
historical practice, that we believe came from from a concern over
security, because there were a large number of unprotected objects in
the database. With the removal of the NONE authentication type, there
are no longer lots of unprotected objects.

The RIPE NCC approval had two bad effects. The first is that users had
to wait until a human processed the request, which means no new MNTNER
on weekends or outside of business hours in Amsterdam. The second
problem is that it took a lot of time for support people.

This approval added no real value, because in most cases it was non-LIRs
getting MNTNER objects this way. LIR MNTNER objects are usually created
as part of the first allocation process. The RIPE NCC therefore has no
relationship with the people asking for MNTNER objects, so no
"authentication" was actually going on - we have to trust the user.

Given that the reason for RIPE NCC approval had gone, and that the
process was harmful, we decided to allow any user to create MNTNER
directly. Our thinking was to allow MNTNER creation and see if any
problems resulted. We have not seen any problems, and in fact have
recently also allowed IRT creation without approval for much the same
reasons.

--
Shane