RIPE Handle document

Folks,

Please find below the draft document to implement RIPE handles in the RIPE
database. Please read it carefully, since it will impact registration of
people. 

Current timescales:

from draft to official document: Dec 13th (1 week from now)
implementation:                  Dec 20th (2 weeks from now)

Comments please.

-Marten












               Internet Handles and the RIPE Database



                         Daniel Karrenberg
                          Marten Terpstra

                        Document ID: ripe-nh



                              ABSTRACT

           This document describes the need for unique iden-
      tifiers for Persons and the way they are assigned and
      used in the RIPE database.



Why Internet Handles

Like other registry databases the RIPE Network Management Database
[ripe-013] stores information about contact persons for various
other object types stored in the database such as network numbers,
DNS domains and autonomous systems.

Data about each contact person is stored in a "person" object which
in turn is referenced by the other objects.  This way data about a
real person is stored only in one place, the person object.  This
has the advantage that any necessary changes need to be done only in
one place rather than in each object the person is a contact for.
Originally each person was uniquely identified by their full name
and references were implemented by storing the full person name in
the contact attributes of other objects.  A side effect of this was
that the database could not store more than one person with the same
full name.

When this ("John Smith") problem became an issue another attribute
was needed to disambiguate persons with the same name.  Since the
InterNIC was already using a "NIC Handle" scheme and it was hoped to
unify the registry databases quickly these handles were used.  NIC
handles are unique identifiers consisting of two or three aphabetic
cahracters and a serial number.  A "nic-hdl" attribute was added to
the person object. If present this "nic-hdl" is now used together
with the "person" attribute to uniquely identify a person.  The
value of nic-hdl is a search key for the database and can be used to
reference a contact person in the contact attributes of other
objects.

A side effect of this is that all persons needing a handle to



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disambiguate them from another person need to be in the InterNIC
database in order to obtain a NIC handle.  This was not considered a
problem because quick unification of the databases was expected
quickly.

As it turns out the assignment of globally unique handles from a
single number space is not likely to be feasible. Therefore there is
a need for more local assignment of unique handles. These handles
will also be used in the database exchange between regional regis-
tries.

The regional registries agreed to create separate handle spaces by
appending a suffix identifying the registry to handles creating a
unique Internet handle.

This document describes the procedures to implement this in the
European Regional Internet Registry.



RIPE Handle

Internet handles issued by the RIPE NCC are called RIPE handles.
The purpose of a RIPE handle is to uniquely identify a person in the
RIPE network management database and other related databases that
choose to use it.

A RIPE handle is a string of 2-3 letters immediately followed by a
serial number without leading 0s followd by the string "-RIPE".
Legal RIPE handles are:

        AB1-RIPE
        AXA123-RIPE
        XYZ99-RIPE

Normally the letters are chosen to be the initials of the person.
The -RIPE suffix is used to disctinguish RIPE-handles from Internet
handles issued by other registries.  Internet handles issued by the
InterNIC in the RIPE database will be suffixed by the string "-INIC"
to distinguish them from other handles.

All persons in the RIPE database must have an Internet handle.

Every person in any of the databases keeping contact information
should only use Internet handle.

Assignment

RIPE handles are assigned by sending a person object to the normal
update address <auto-dbm at ripe.net> with "nic-hdl" value of "assign".
The update process will then generate a unique handle, insert the
person object with the new handle in the database and report back
the handle.  In case there already are persons with the same full
name in the database the update process will include them in the



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report so that the user can check whether he inadvertently created a
duplicate person object.

Users wishing to obtain a specific RIPE handle (vanity handle) can
request that by specifying it after the "assign" string, e.g.
"assign JB007-RIPE". If the handle in question is available it will
be assigned.

It should be noted that the RIPE NCC only issues RIPE handles and
not other Internet handles.



Usage

The primary use of RIPE handles is to reference a specific person in
the RIPE database, either in another object or a database query.

Contact attributes can have the following types of values:

    John E. Doe           full name            not recommended
    AXA123-RIPE           Internet Handle
    John E. Doe (JED12)   full name (handle)   recommended


Wherever possible the use of full names on their own should be dis-
continued.  These references can become ambiguous unnoticedly at any
time by another person with the same name being registered.

The handle plus full name syntax is recommended because it makes it
possible to detect typing errors in handles.


Handles can also be used when querying the RIPE whois server.
Matches will occur for either the full handle (AXA123-RIPE) or just
the part before the suffix (AXA123). In the latter case all persons
in the queried databases with a handle starting in AXA123 will
match.



Transition

For the database exchange with the InterNIC it is neccessary for
each person in the RIPE database to have a unique Internet handle.
Therefore the NCC will assign a RIPE handle to each person without a
NIC handle in the database on the 20th of December 1993.

>From that point this handle must be included in any updates made to
that person entry.  The handle should be used in all references to a
person in other database object.

For the conversion of local databases the RIPE NCC will provide
local registries and other interested parties with a tool which adds



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RIPE handles to persons in database objects. The tool will accept
RIPE database formatted input files without syntax checking and will
output the file unchanged but with handles added. The tool queries
the RIPE database and can thus be run only after handles have been
added to the RIPE database.  Becuause there is no syntax checking
the tool should work for databases with local attributes or objects
as long as they adhere to the general RIPE database format.


















































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