[ncc-services-wg] Re: [db-wg] Proposal - Maintaining person, role and domain objects

Wilfried Woeber, UniVie/ACOnet wrote:
> Denis Walker wrote:
> [....]
>   
>> The first one concerns maintaining all objects in the RIPE Database, which
>> followed from a recommendation from the Data Protection Task Force (DP TF)
>> (see below). We have already had some preliminary discussions about this
>> with the DP TF. They provided the RIPE NCC with some very useful feedback,
>> which is incorporated in this proposal.
>>     
>
> 2 question regarding implementation details...
>
> [...]
>   
>> New startup 
>> Send an update message to dbupdate to create a person object and a
>> mntner object. These must be the first two objects in an update
>> message, in any order.
>>     
>
> 1)
> This sentence, and the explanation that follows, implies that exactly
> *two* objects are required here and supported. It should work, even
> for the cases where admin-c: and tech-c: are (to be) different. Just
> double-checking.
>   

Not quite right. My view is that these two mutually referencing objects
must be the FIRST two in an update message. There can be other objects
in the message also, but unrelated to this 'startup procedure'.

To avoid over complicating the code we want to keep it simple and only
have 2 objects with the mutual reference for the new creation. If you
want a different admin-c and tech-c in the new mntner, none of which
currently exist, first create the new mntner/person pair using the one
person as both admin-c and tech-c. Then create the second person and
modify the mntner.

> 2)
> I suppose the use of auto-X instead of an explicit handle would be
> supported here as well, as in similar chicken and egg situations?
>   

Yes....I should have used AUTO- in the examples to make that clearer.

regards
Denis Walker
RIPE NCC

>   
>> The references to each other must also be in
>> place. The database software will accommodate this. 
>>  
>>   person:         Den is
>>   address:        RIPE Network Coordination Centre (NCC)
>>   address:        Singel 258
>>   address:        1016 AB Amsterdam
>>   address:        The Netherlands
>>   phone:          +31 20 535 4444
>>   nic-hdl:        DW-RIPE
>>   mnt-by:         aardvark-mnt
>>   notify:         denis at ripe.net
>>   changed:        denis at ripe.net 20040318
>>   source:         RIPE
>>  
>>   mntner:         AARDVARK-MNT
>>   descr:          Mntner for denis' objects.
>>   admin-c:        DW-RIPE
>>   tech-c:         DW-RIPE
>>   upd-to:         denis at ripe.net
>>   auth:           X509-1
>>   notify:         denis at ripe.net
>>   mnt-by:         AARDVARK-MNT
>>   referral-by:    RIPE-DBM-MNT
>>   changed:        denis at ripe.net 20040225
>>   source:         RIPE
>>  
>> The update software will recognise that the first person/mntner object
>> references a non-existent mntner/person object. It will check that this
>> referenced object is next in the update message. If it is, the "mnt-
>> by:" attribute will be removed from the person object. The person and
>> mntner objects will be created, and then the person object will be
>> modified to add back the "mnt-by:" attribute.
>>  
>> The objects are now fully configured and can be used. The person object
>> can be referenced by any other object where a nic-hdl is referenced. It
>> can also be linked to the white pages. The mntner can be used to
>> protect any data in the database.
>>  
>> If the non-existent referenced object is not next in the update message
>> then an error message will be generated and the update will fail. This
>> is the current behaviour.
>>     
>
> Wilfried.
>