[dns-wg] Re: [db-wg] Proposal to change the syntax of "nserver:" attribute

On Thu, May 25, 2006 at 03:46:48PM -0700, Doug Barton wrote:

Dear colleagues,

I have updated the proposal; hopefully all parties are now satisfied
with the changes. Please find the proposal below.

> > Thus my 'vote': represent with compressed lowercase.
> > But I could live with uncompressed too, as long as it would be done then
> > also everywhere in a consistent fashion.
> 
> On that we are in complete agreement.


Proposal for the change of "nserver:" syntax in "domain" object in the
RIPE Whois Database

---------------------------------------------- 
Motivation:

We plan to automate management of DNS delegation in the e164.arpa zone
(ENUM). The provisioning system, with the RIPE Database as a front end,
must support IPv6 glue records. It must also implement complete and
consistent IPv4 glue record support. This will mean making changes to
the RIPE Database syntax so that it specifies the glue record and the
updated delegation checks. This proposal covers that syntax.

Proposal:

We suggest changing the syntax of the "nserver:" attribute in DOMAIN
objects as follows:

nserver: [domain_name] /or/

nserver: [domain_name] [ipv4_address] /or/

nserver: [domain_name] [ipv6_address]

where

[domain_name] is the fully qualified DNS name of the name server with or
without a trailing "."

[ipv4_address] is an IPv4 address of the name server, in decimal dotted
quad form

[ipv6_address] is an IPv6 address of the name server, in lowercase
canonical form (Sect 2.2.1, RFC 4291)

The IPv6 textual compressed form (Section 2.2.2, RFC 4291) is also
accepted (see examples) and will be converted into lowercase canonical
form.

If [domain_name] is followed by an IP address, it must be inside the
domain that is being delegated. Any level of a glue name is supported
within the valid domain name syntax.

Multiple name server lines will need to be used to specify multiple IP
addresses for the same hostname.

Examples:

The following values would be accepted:

domain: example.com

nserver: ns1.example.com 192.0.2.1

nserver: ns1.d1.example.com 2001:db8:0:0:0:0:0:0

nserver: ns2.d1.example.com 2001:DB8::

nserver: ns2.d1.example.com 2001:db8::

All other variants of the values will be rejected.

End-of-line comments starting with '#' will be still allowed.

All IPv6 glue addresses in "nserver:" attribute will be represented in
domain objects in the RIPE Whois Database in the lowercase uncompressed
form, e.g. 2001:db8:0:0:0:0:0:0.

Consequences for existing objects:

We will not automatically modify any existing objects. Instead we
suggest notifying the maintainers of objects that do not comply with the
proposed syntax. This will cover around 150 objects.

Consequences for the delegation checks:

The introduction of the new syntax will add the following new DNS checks
for glue records:

    * every glue record has at least one IPv4 or IPv6 address specified 
      in domain object (error otherwise)
    * glue record name is inside the domain to be delegated (error otherwise)
    * glue nameserver should be authoritative for his own A/AAAA record (error otherwise)

-- 
Katie Petrusha
RIPE NCC