version 2.0 ripe-13 RIPE Databases R.Blokzijl 28 August, 1990 1 Introduction In the document describing the RIPE Task Forces [ripe-4] several databases are defined as essential for the proper management of IP services in Europe. The various databases are: o a database that contains the IP networks that have RIPE connectivity. o a database that contains information about persons responsible for RIPE connected networks. o a database containing namespace administration data. These databases will support a European `whois' service. This document describes the format of the various database entries, how to submit new entries to the database, and how to update existing entries. 2 Database entry formats The database entries are ASCII text. There are three kind of objects in the databases: o networks o persons o namespace data Objects are stored as a series of pairs. Attributes have two character names. Attribute-value pairs are stored on a single line of the form: *aa: vvvvvvvv where aa is the attribute name and vvvvvvvv is the attribute value. If an attribute value, like an address, has several lines, multiples of these lines may appear. Similarly if an object has multiple attributes of one type, e.g. more than one phone number. Objects are delimited by blank lines. All entries have a source attribute with the following defined values: so -source of the information: MERIT - NSFnet NIC database maintained by MERIT Inc. on host nis.nsf.net WHOIS - DDN NIC database maintained by SRI International on host nic.ddn.mil RIPE - RIPE NCC database maintained by RIPE on host nic.eu.net LOCAL - local info This is intended for local info or aditional info that is not to be published or that supersedes global info Objects can have multiple entries coming from various sources. It is interest- ing to see the inconsistencies of the various databases concerned. The RIPE database itself is only the part with the source attribute RIPE. 2.1 Networks Objects describing networks have the attributes described in the following list: in -IP network number Including trailing 0's na -official network name Capitals, numerals and hyphens only. as -autonomous systems the network belongs to locally. Not stringently defined yet. ni -NSFnet inbound announcements in the form order=asn If the source is MERIT this is what NSFnet had in it's database on the date mentioned in *ch. NSFnet updates currently are Tuesdays and Thursdays. All announcements are mentioned with their order. Typical: 1=97 2=237 3=224. no -NSFnet outbound announcements See above. tc -name of technical contact. This must be the same string as in the corresponding *pn entry. There must be such a person entry! ac -name of administrative contact. This must be the same string as in the corresponding *pn entry. There must be such a person entry! de -description of the network. Give organisation and place. Postal address and country are not needed, they can be found via the contacts. The country is given in *cy. co -connectivity. The definition of this is arbitrary and should be replaced by something more rational as e.g. AS's that may be traversed or some such. Sug- gestions welcome. LOCAL - local only This means routing updates will be blocked in RIPE routers. RIPE - European This means RIPE routers will distribute routes for this net. NSF - NSFnet This means the net is in the NSFnet database ICS - Internet Connected Status EU - member of InterEUnet NORDU