[ncc-services-wg] Introducing the Assisted Registry Check

Dear colleagues,

After a successful pilot, the RIPE NCC is pleased to announce the launch of the Assisted Registry Check (ARC) - an improvement to our existing audit activities based on feedback from members and the RIPE community.

As mandated by the RIPE community, the RIPE NCC has always conducted regular audits of LIRs to ensure the quality and currency of their registry data. Until now, these audits have largely been conducted whenever an LIR requested an additional IPv4 allocation. However, now that we've reached the final /8 and LIRs can only receive one final /22 IPv4 allocation, there will be a significant drop in the number of these "additional allocation audits" carried out by the RIPE NCC. The ARC review is a way for the RIPE NCC to maintain this periodic contact with LIRs and to ensure that the accuracy of data in the RIPE Registry is maintained, without placing any additional burden on the participating LIR's operations.

It was clear from previous feedback that the RIPE NCC's audit activities needed to be more efficient and less time consuming for LIRs. With this in mind, the RIPE NCC will initially conduct ARC reviews for a period of three months, during which time we will closely monitor the time and effort required by LIRs. At the end of this period, we will complete an in-depth review and incorporate any feedback as appropriate.  Continual development is a vital component of the ARC review and will ensure that the activity remains relevant, useful and helpful to LIRs.

During the ARC review, the RIPE NCC will perform a variety of consistency checks to assess the quality of LIRs' registry data. We will then provide personalised support to help correct any issues that are found. This helps to raise awareness of routing and reverse DNS inconsistencies as well as helping LIRs to strengthen the quality of their registry data.

More information about what the ARC review involves can be found here:
https://www.ripe.net/lir-services/resource-management/assisted-registry-check

There is also a RIPE Labs article that explains the process in more detail here:
https://labs.ripe.net/Members/matt_parker/the-assisted-registry-check-let-us-help-you

If you are interested in participating and would like to volunteer for an Assisted Registry Check, please send us an email at<lir-help at ripe.net>  and we will contact you with further details.

Kind regards

Matt Parker
Registration Services
RIPE NCC