Organisation Object in the RIPE Database
Purpose
The RIPE Database stores three main types of contact information: person,
role and organisation objects.
The person and role objects provide a way to find people
responsible for operations or usage of the resources represented in the
RIPE Database (IP blocks, Autonomous Systems, and domain names).
However, these do not provide an easy way of mapping resources to a particular
organisation. The organisation object fulfills this need.
This document defines how an organisation object works in the RIPE
Database and the corresponding database functionality.
Template of the organisation object
organisation: [mandatory] [single] [primary/look-up key]
org-name: [mandatory] [single] [look-up key]
org-type: [mandatory] [single] [ ]
descr: [optional] [multiple] [ ]
remarks: [optional] [multiple] [ ]
address: [mandatory] [multiple] [ ]
phone: [optional] [multiple] [ ]
fax-no: [optional] [multiple] [ ]
e-mail: [mandatory] [multiple] [look-up key]
org: [optional] [multiple] [inverse key]
admin-c: [optional] [multiple] [inverse key]
tech-c: [optional] [multiple] [inverse key]
ref-nfy: [optional] [multiple] [inverse key]
mnt-ref: [mandatory] [multiple] [inverse key]
notify: [optional] [multiple] [inverse key]
mnt-by: [mandatory] [multiple] [inverse key]
changed: [mandatory] [multiple] [ ]
source: [mandatory] [single] [ ]
Definitions of attributes
Following are the definitions of attributes that were first introduced with
the organisation object.
"organisation:"
Specifies the ID of an organisation object. An organisation ID is made
up of 'ORG-' prefix, followed by 2 to 4 letters, digits, a dash
and the database source (in the RIPE Database this is 'RIPE'). For example:
ORG-SANT1-RIPE
Note that all parts are mandatory, thus ORG-RT-RIPE would be
an invalid ID as it is missing the numeric part.
Please see Creating organisation objects section
below to find out how to specify auto-generated organisation IDs.
The organisation ID cannot be reused. If an organisation ID was used in
the past within an organisation object and then deleted, this ID
cannot be used in new organisation objects.
The auto-generation of organisation IDs and preventing reuse of them simplifies
the external references. Note that when an organisation changes name, the
"org-name:" can be modified accordingly. There is no need to
change the organisation ID.
"org-name:"
Specifies the name of the organisation that this organisation object
represents in the whois database. This is an ASCII-only text attribute. This
restriction is because the attribute is a look-up key and the whois protocol
does not allow specifying character sets in queries. The user can put the
name of the organisation in non-ASCII character sets in the "descr:"
attribute if required.
"org-type:"
Specifies the type of the organisation. The possible values are IANA
for Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, RIR for Regional Internet
Registries, NIR for National Internet Registries, LIR
for Local Internet Registries, and OTHER for all other
organisations. Note that in the RIPE NCC service region there are no National
Internet Registries, therefore in the RIPE Database there will not
be any organisation object with this value in the "org-type:"
attribute.
"ref-nfy:"
Specifies the e-mail address to be notified when a reference to the organisation
object is added or removed. An e-mail address as defined in RFC 2822.
"mnt-ref:"
Specifies the maintainer objects that are entitled to add references
to the organisation object from other objects.
"address:"
Specifies the address of the organisation. This is a free-text attribute.
"org:"
This attribute may appear in any object type. It points to an existing organisation
object representing the entity that holds the resource, (in the cases where
the whois database object represents an Internet resource). In other objects,
it can be used to specify the business relations. The value of this attribute
is the ID of the organisation object. It is mandatory in the inetnum
and inet6num objects with ALLOCATED-BY-RIR, ALLOCATED
PA, ALLOCATED PI and ALLOCATED UNSPECIFIED
values. It is optional in all other objects.
The "org:" attribute is single-valued in the inetnum,
inet6num and aut-num objects, and it is multi-valued in all
other objects. The "org:" attribute is used to specify the
holder of a resource in inetnum, inet6num and aut-num
objects, thus it must be single-valued in them. In other objects, it specifies
business relations (such as a person object, where it can be used
to specify whom the person works for) it can be multiple (in the person
object example, a person might work for several companies).
Creating organisation objects
The webupdates or syncupdates
interface can be used to create an organisation object.
Alternatively, the e-mail interface can be used. For this, you should first retrieve the template. This can be done
with the query:
whois -t organisation
Organisation object IDs are auto-generated similar to the way
person/role "nic-hdl:" attributes are auto-generated. During
creation of the object the user has to specify the ID of an organisation
object as AUTO-<digit>, then it will be assigned an appropriate
ID. The organisation ID is assigned using the initials of "org-name:"
attribute of the object. Or, the user can specify the letter combination
he/she prefers. For example if the user wants TTR as the letter
combination in the organisation ID, AUTO-1TTR should be put
into the "organisation:" attribute during the creation of the
object.
After filling in the necessary attributes in the template, and putting
AUTO-1 (or AUTO-1<letter-combination>) in
the "organisation:" attribute, the object can now be sent to
<auto-dbm@ripe.net> to actually create the object.
An example submission might look like this:
organisation: AUTO-1
org-name: Ruritania Banking Interchange
org-type: OTHER
remarks: This is a dummy organisation object.
DO NOT reference this object as
it does not exist. Only for use in
examples.
address: 1 High Street
address: Polarcity
address: Northern Nowhere
phone: +31 20 5354444
e-mail: bit-bucket@ripe.net
admin-c: HOHO15-RIPE
tech-c: HOHO15-RIPE
ref-nfy: bit-bucket@ripe.net
mnt-ref: SANTA-MNT
mnt-by: SANTA-MNT
changed: ripe-dbm@ripe.net 20040419
source: RIPE
The above submission could create the following object in the database:
organisation: ORG-RBI1-RIPE
org-name: Ruritania Banking Interchange
org-type: OTHER
remarks: This is a dummy organisation object.
DO NOT reference this object as
it does not exist. Only for use in
examples.
address: 1 High Street
address: Polarcity
address: Northern Nowhere
phone: +31 20 5354444
e-mail: bit-bucket@ripe.net
admin-c: HOHO15-RIPE
tech-c: HOHO15-RIPE
ref-nfy: bit-bucket@ripe.net
mnt-ref: RURITANIA-MNT
mnt-by: SANTA-MNT
changed: ripe-dbm@ripe.net 20040419
source: RIPE
Please note that organisation objects with IANA, RIR,
NIR or LIR can only be created by the RIPE NCC.
Any other entity must use OTHER in the "org-type:"
when creating organisation objects.
Referencing organisation objects from other objects
The "org:" attribute is used to reference the organisation
objects from other objects. There are extra authorisation checks when adding
a reference to an organisation object. Suppose we want to update the
following person object
person: Santa Claus
address: Northern Hemisphere
phone: +31 20 5354444
e-mail: bit-bucket@ripe.net
nic-hdl: HOHO15-RIPE
remarks: This is a dummy person object.
DO NOT reference this object as
it does not exist. Only for use in
examples.
mnt-by: SANTA-MNT
changed: ripe-dbm@ripe.net 20030801
source: RIPE
to add "org: ORG-RBI1-RIPE" so that the object becomes
person: Santa Claus
address: Northern Hemisphere
phone: +31 20 5354444
e-mail: bit-bucket@ripe.net
nic-hdl: HOHO15-RIPE
remarks: This is a dummy person object.
DO NOT reference this object as
it does not exist. Only for use in
examples.
mnt-by: SANTA-MNT
org: ORG-RBI1-RIPE
changed: ripe-dbm@ripe.net 20030801
source: RIPE
Where the ORG-RBI1-RIPE organisation object is as it appears
above in Creating organisation objects section.
As with the normal authorisation/authentication check, the check is performed
on SANTA-MNT maintainer because it appears in the person object's "mnt-by:"
attribute. Additionally, the RURITANIA-MNT maintainer is also checked,
as it appears in the "mnt-ref:" attribute of the ORG-RBI1-RIPE
organisation object being referenced.
However, please note that once the "org:" attribute is added
to an object the subsequent modifications to this object are not checked
against the organisation object referenced in "ref-nfy:"
attribute. This check is performed only when an "org:" attribute
is added to an existing object, or when a new object with "org:"
attribute is created. This means that when removing an "org:"
attribute from an object this check is not performed.
When an "org:" attribute is added to an object or it is removed
from an object, the e-mail address(es) in the "ref-nfy:" attribute
of the organisation object is notified. Please note that "ref-nfy:"
attribute is optional in organisation objects.
Finding the resources allocated or assigned to an organisation
The "org:" attribute is an inverse key in the whois objects.
This enables the users of the whois database to find all the resources allocated
or assigned to an organisation with an inverse query. For example, the query:
whois -r -i org ORG-SANT1-RIPE
will return all objects that have ORG-SANT1-RIPE in
their "org:"
attributes.
Local Internet Registries (LIRs) and organisation objects
LIRs have organisation objects that are created and maintained for them by
the RIPE NCC. The organisation object for an LIR is created in the
RIPE Database when the organisation becomes an LIR.
LIRs can update parts of their organisation objects through the LIR
LIR
Portal (not by sending update messages to <auto-dbm@ripe.net>
as it is maintained by the RIPE NCC Hostmaster's mntner object).
An organisation object which is created by the RIPE NCC for the
LIR always contains LIR in the "org-type:" attribute.
Please note the following: - To change the admin-c/tech-c of an LIR organisation object you need to use the LIR Portal.
-
by changing the persons listed as "LIR Contacts" in the LIR Portal, the organisation object is automatically updated with
the changes.
Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), IANA and organisation objects
All RIRs and IANA have organisation objects in the RIPE Database that
are maintained by the RIPE NCC. The IANA organisation object is used
to mark the resources maintained by IANA, and the RIR organisation
objects are used to mark the resources maintained by the respective RIR.
You can always contact ripe-dbm@ripe.net
for questions and suggestions about this procedure.
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