[dns-wg] Re: Re: IPv6 glue AAAA RRs in the root zone

>>>>> "Joao" == Joao Damas <Joao_Damas at isc.org> writes:

    >> Have you forgotten the IPv6 migration issues that Johan Ihren
    >> and others have mentioned at previous WG meetings?

    Joao> No, I have discussed them with Johan on occasion. Does that
    Joao> mean we are to seat down and do nothing? 

No, of course not. Doing nothing is not an option. 

    >> For instance, what will my IPv6 web browser do when lookups
    >> over IPv6 for www.google.com return only A records?

    Joao> What do you mean "your IPv6 web browser"?

I would have thought this was obvious from the context: a browser
running on some IPv6-only device or only had DNS transport over IPv6.

    Joao> Of course changes need to be done in a responsible way and I
    Joao> am taking personal offence if you would suggest that I would
    Joao> not follow that path.

I made no such suggestion. [I said some TLDs might be pressured into
doing IPv6 things before they were ready to do that. They may well be
acting responsibly based on the limited resources and info they have
available to them.] And anyway, how can you take personal offence?
AFAIK, you're not personally responsible for any TLD AAAA glue or the
contents of the root zone. Please note too that I'm not impugning
those who do have that responsibility either. What I am saying is that
making well-intentioned changes to critical DNS infrastructure may
have unexpected consequences if the impact of those changes isn't
fully understood. This applies to other horrors like DNSSEC
deployment, not just these IPv6 issues.

BTW, the IANA document which sparked this discussion talks about
changing TLD delegations when there are "serious operational
problems". Presumably these arise after the TLD and IANA have acted
responsibly by applying some carefully considered (but not fully
thought out?) change to the delegation.

    >> Finally, by encouraging the IPv6-only people to go off into
    >> their own little world, we fragment the internet and its name
    >> space.

    Joao> No, you just are not getting it. I am talking about
    Joao> enabling, you are talking about limiting.

I'm doing no such thing. Though I may well not be "getting it". What
we seem to be disagreeing about is tactics and strategy, not policy.
ie We agree IPv6 has to be deployed in the DNS. Where we differ is in
how to achieve that. You seem to be saying "just do it". I'm saying
"let's first try to understand what we're getting ourselves into".
IMO the internet today is too big and too important for the "just do
it" approach that was possible 10 or more years ago.

    >> At the very least, it will mean some IPv6-ers are likely to
    >> develop a mindset that DNS migration to IPv6 is done and
    >> there's nothing more for them to do as far as IPv6 and the DNS
    >> is concerned.

    Joao> Since when has that been possible for any protocol that is
    Joao> used on the Internet? DNS, the protocol, keeps changing and
    Joao> adding new possibilities, just like most other Internet
    Joao> protocols.

DNS protocol development has been stalled for years. But that's beside
the point. Whenever something new comes along, care needs to be taken
that it doesn't introduce interoperability problems or operational
issues. [eg Sending resolvers into an infinite tight loop beating up
root or TLD servers for the same non-existent names.] I'm sure we
agree on this. What we're disagreeing about appears to be the extent
that these potential problems have been analysed and documented.

Perhaps an IPv6-only island on the internet would bring DNS problems
for the rest of the net that the people in this island never see? Or
care to fix? In a sense, this can be compared to the DSL users who
have Windows boxes that get hijacked by spammers. The end user might
not be aware of that, so can't/won't plug the holes that give rise to
the operational problems. It's a bad analogy because someone will
eventually blackhole the spammer and give an incentive for the end
user to fix the problem. That sort of corrective mechanism might not
be possible in an IPv6 only island that's pounding the life out of the
world's name servers.