IP Management Tool - Minimum Requirements

Other than adding that it should be useable
simulteniously by multiple users without data
corruption, shall I go away and write it now?

Guy

(Since no one else seems interested)

> Hi,
> 
> Following a presentation of an IP Management Tool by Guy Vegoda at the
> last RIPE Meeting Tools BOF, interest was expressed in the development
> of an Open Source version of such a tool and I agreed to use the lirwg
> list to try and draw up Requirements for this. Hopefully this can be
> refined into something that we can then begin writing Specifications
> for.
> 
> Please remember that these are *Requirements* - i.e. what the users
> want the tool to do. Please confine remarks to this area and avoid
> mixing in the *Specifications* - i.e. how those requirements will be
> met - which we will come to, in good time.
> 
> It should also be emphasised that we would at this stage like to
> concentrate on _minimum_ requirements for a simple tool, such that it
> would be useful to a large number of LIRs. I think we can use these
> Minimum Requirements to produce something that may or may not include
> more advanced features as well, knowing that we would at least have
> covered the basic needs.
> 
> Comments on this process and the document are most welcome, and
> we would also like a good name.
> 
> Thanks to Guy Vegoda, Leo Vegoda and Nigel Titley for their help in
> drawing up this document, and especially to Guy for presenting his
> tool.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Maldwyn Morris
> Software Manager
> RIPE NCC
> 
> --
> 
> Minimum Requirements for an IP Management Tool
> ----------------------------------------------
> 
> 0. Introduction
> 
> Guy Vegoda presented an IP Management Tool at the Tools BOF at RIPE 38
> [1]. This document is an attempt to specify the minimum requirements
> for a similar tool, with the aim of producing an Open Source version
> for anyone who wants to use it.
> 
> Below, I address 1. General Points about the project, 2. The
> Requirements themselves, 3. External Constraint that must be
> considered, and 4. A list of References.
> 
> 
> 1. General Points
> 
> Name:
> 
> Let's use IPMT ( IP Management Tool ) as a placeholder for now.
> 
> Users:
> 
> We will target as users 'The Hostmaster staff of Local Internet
> Registries which are Customers of the RIPE NCC and who need to manage
> their IP Allocations and Assignments and the requests for same that
> they send to the RIPE NCC' [phew].  We will call one of these people a
> 'LIRHostmaster' and their organisation an 'LIR'.  It may also be
> useful to other people in other organisations to do other things, but
> that will not influence the requirements.
> 
> Open Source:
> 
> We will release this software under the LGPL licence [2]. 
> We use this instead of GPL [3] because this means we will remain able
> to using non-GPL'ed libraries, should that prove necessary.
> 
> The RIPE NCC is happy to support this project, but of course its Open
> Source nature means anyone else can use the code to begin their own
> Open Source project.  We are also happy about that.
> 
> IPV6:
> 
> We would be foolish not to consider the possibility of using this tool
> for managing IPV6 addresses and writing it such that this is possible,
> but we think it will be useful even if it does not and do not consider
> IPV6 support a requirement.
> 
> 
> 2. Requirements
> 
> General functionality:
> 
> IPMT should provide the LIRHostmasters with list, create, update, and
> delete access to information regarding their LIR's IPV4 allocations.
> These actions must be undoable where necessary.
> Basic validity checks will be performed on all input.
> 
> IPMT should provide the LIRHostmasters with list, create, update, and
> delete access to information regarding their LIR's IPV4 assignments.
> These actions must be undoable where necessary.
> Basic validity checks will be performed on all input.
> 
> IPMT should allow the LIRHostmasters to receive requests for IPV4
> assignments from the customers of their LIR and allow them to process
> them.
> 
> IPMT should allow LIRHostmasters to send well-formatted email requests
> for new IPv4 assignments to the RIPE NCC and allow the LIRHostmasters
> to receive and process responses from the RIPE NCC.
> 
> IPMT should allow LIRHostmasters to send well-formatted email requests
> for new IPv4 allocations to the RIPE NCC and allow the LIRHostmasters
> to receive and process responses from the RIPE NCC.
> 
> User Interface:
> 
> LIRHostmasters should be able to conveniently access IPMT functions
> from a wide range of Desktop Operating Systems, possibly including
> non-modern, non-Unix-like ones. A GUI interface is the minimal
> acceptable convenience level.
> 
> A less-convenient interface to IPMT for more complex functions and
> administration is acceptable.
> 
> 
> 3. External constraints
> 
> The RIPE NCC only accepts requests for new IPv4 Assignments and
> Allocations via email to hostmaster at ripe.net and replies only via
> email [4].
> 
> IPV4 Assignment requests must be in RIPE 141 format [5].
> Requests for new IPV4 Allocations have no special format.
> 
> LIRHostmasters handle customer requests for Assignments via telephone,
> email and web pages.
> 
> IPMT must have access to the RIPE DB [6] or a local mirror thereof.
> 
> 
> 4. References
> 
> [1] http://www/ripe/meetings/archive/ripe-38/index.html
> [2] http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lesser.html
> [3] http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
> [4] http://www.ripe.net/ripencc/mem-services/registration/status.html
> [5] http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-141.html
> [6] http://www.ripe.net/ripencc/pub-services/db/
> 
> 

-- 
Guy Vegoda \ guy at vegoda.org *Please do not send html*
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