Status at end of Week #2

Hi!

  Here at the end of Week #2 of the RR Pilot project, we're trying to
nail down details for going into production Marcy 7 (or so).  Andy
has been doing the most work with database this week;  he will send
a separate message about what he's been learning.

  One high-level issue is the Joint Announcement.  Elise will work with
Daniel on this when she returns from vacation on Tuesday.  

  Andy has been working on a New Users' Guide ("How to Register
Information in Merit's Routing Registry").  [You guys don't all ready
have a document like this, right??]  We've tried to predict the
positioning we should be taking;  here's an example, for your
suggestions:

> Our first version of the Routing Registry is a direct port of the RIPE 
> database software designed and implemented Tony Bates, Marten Terpstra
> and Danial Karrenberg of RIPE.  RIPE and Merit exchange data nightly,
> so that the RIPE "PRIDE" tools work seamlessly over the combined data
> in both of these Routing Registry databases.  
> 
> Merit's initial offering supports nearly all RIPE objects and syntax,
> plus some new Merit extensions.  Merit and RIPE anticipate that we will
> do both joint development and independent development on the global
> Routing Registry system.  Independent development will facilitate rapid
> deployment of new facilities.  To the extent possible, however, Merit
> and RIPE will attempt to develop tools that work with both registries,
> leveraging the strengths of each, and where possible to provide the
> user with a seamless, integrated view of routing information.

We should have a draft for your review by Wednesday or so next week.

There are similar issues about code distribution, etc.  For example, to
conserve trans-Atlantic bandwidth, Merit could host an ftp repositry
for the PRIDE tools.  We'd set up the WashingtonU FTP server (which we
haven't actually done yet), and support a RIPE/PRIDE subtree.  The
banners on that subtree would welcome the user to the RIPE PRIDE tools.
Optimally, you guys would have logins and would maintain that subtree
directly, so it always had whatever you wanted to release.  When we
get into "branch" development, that might appear on a Merit subtree.

We might want to have very minor modifications even within the PRIDE
directory, though.  For instance, the "TOP.config" file might have a
line uncommented which pointed to the RIPE whois server for people who
got their copies from RIPE, or to Merit for those who got their copies
from Merit.  (Or this might all be moot with more sophisticated
schemes:  the code might dynamically decide whether the user's host was
193* or 194* and choose a whois server dynamically or something--which
leads into Daniel's list of whois server issues).

Jessica and Laurent are closing in on a version of the extended syntax
that we are willing to go into production with;  Laurent is hoping to
have a syntax parser and translator ready early next week, and the rest
of us are working to support the rest of their new attributes and their
new "Router" object (initially without much input validation).  Again,
the spec should settle down this coming week for your review.

We will talk to Bill Manning and Andrew Partan this week, to see if they
are willing to beta-test the pilot db.  (This "testing" will be more of
our installation, documentation, operation, and administration than of
the db itself).

Onward!!  

-Dale



-------- Logged at  Sat Feb 26 16:36:37 MET 1994  ---------