[dns-wg] Proposal to change the syntax of "nserver:" attribute

[Katie Petrusha katie@localhost]

[Apologies for duplicate mails]

Motivation: 

We plan to automate management of DNS delegation in the e164.arpa zone (ENUM). 
The provisioning system, with the RIPE Database as a front end, must support 
IPv6 glue records. It must also implement complete and consistent IPv4 glue 
record support. This will mean making changes to the RIPE Database syntax 
so that it specifies the glue record and update the delegation checks. 
This proposal covers that syntax. 

Proposal: 

We suggest changing the syntax of the "nserver:" attribute in DOMAIN objects 
as follows: 

nserver: [domain_name] /or/ 
nserver: [domain_name] [ipv4_address] /or/ 
nserver: [domain_name] [ipv6_address] 

where 

[domain_name] is the fully qualified DNS name of the name server without a 
trailing "." 
[ipv4_address] is an IPv4 address of the name server 
[ipv6_address] is an IPv6 address of the name server 

If [domain_name] is followed by an IP address, it must be inside the zone 
that is being delegated. Any level of a glue name is supported within the 
valid domain name syntax. 

Multiple name server lines will need to be used to specify multiple IP 
addresses for the same hostname. 

Examples: 

The following values would be allowed: 

domain: example.com 
nserver: ns1.test.net 168.0.0.1 
nserver: ns1.test.net 0::0 
nserver: ns1.example.com 
nserver: ns1.d1.example.com 

All other variants of the values will be rejected. 

End-of-line comments starting with '#' will be still allowed. 

Consequences for existing objects: 

We will not automatically modify any existing objects. Instead we suggest 
notifying the maintainers of objects that do not comply with the proposed 
syntax. This will cover around 150 objects. 

Consequences for the delegation checks: 

DNS checks applicable to glue records will be added to the Zone Delegation 
Checker (http://www.ripe.net/rs/reverse/delcheck/delcheck_descr.html)

-- 
Katie Petrusha
RIPE NCC