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RIPE NCC to AFRINIC Transition

Introduction

In preparation for final recognition by ICANN, AFRINIC began operating as a fully functional RIR for the African region from 21 February 2005. LIRs that were members of the RIPE NCC based in Africa moved to conducting their registration business with AFRINIC.

LIRs in the AFRINIC service region were able to request IP address space, AS Numbers and reverse delegation from AFRINIC and enter objects in the AFRINIC Whois Database.

In the process of becoming a fully operational and recognised RIR, AFRINIC went through a number of transitions. The RIPE NCC minimised the operational impact on LIRs by completing all transitions on 21 February 2005.

Resource Requests

  • Resource requests were previously submitted through the RIPE NCC LIR Portal or by email.
  • From 21 February 2005 requests were redirected to an AFRINIC email address
  • From 21 February 2005, the RIPE NCC LIR Portal was made unavailable to African LIRs.

All policy documents were made available on the AFRINIC website.

Whois Database

From 21 February 2005, resources allocated to members in the African region needed to be registered in the AFRINIC Whois Database.

Whois Data Transfer

Members in the African region were advised to not update existing whois records during the transition period (from 14:00 on 21 February 2005)

  • All inetnum, inet6num and domain objects that related to PA allocations and assignments made in the AFRINIC service region were moved from the RIPE NCC to the AFRINIC Whois Database.
  • Aut-num objects in the range 30980 - 30999 and 34515 - 34519 were copied to the AFRINIC Database. Note that these objects also remained in the RIPE Database so that they could be used in the Routing Registry.
  • The AFRINIC Database does not include a Routing Registry. To avoid possible confusion, existing routing policy information were moved into the "remark:" attributes in objects in the AFRINIC Database. Aut-num objects in the RIPE Database remained the same.
  • Whenever an inetnum, inet6num, aut-num or domain object were copied or moved, the related mntner, person and organisation objects were also be copied/moved. Notifications of this were sent to the contacts (admin-c, tech-c, zone-c, e-mail) of these objects.
  • If after the transfer these mntner, person and/or organisation objects did not refer to objects that remain in the RIPE Database they were deleted. A separate notification was sent to maintainers when objects were deleted.
  • When an inetnum or inet6num object was moved, an appropriate object was inserted into the RIPE Database. Anyone querying for these moved objects was referred to the AFRINIC Database.
  • Domain objects that were copied were removed after final recognition. Updates to domain objects that related to African networks could not be performed during the transition period.

Updates to DNS

During the transfer domain objects were copied/moved to the AFRINIC Database. Reverse zones relating to these objects were frozen. As a consequence changes in the "nserver:" attributes in domain objects were not be reflected in the reverse DNS. Zones were frozen on February 21 at 11:00 UTC. While non-African LIRs could continue updating their domain objects it took up to 24 hours before modifications were visible in the DNS.

AS Numbers and PI Assignments

All aut-num objects not in the 30980 - 30999 and 34515 - 34519 blocks and PI assignments, and their related domain objects, remained registered in the RIPE Database.

Routing Registry

The Routing Registry is operated by the RIPE NCC. If you wanted to have routing information in the RIPE Database and your AS Number was in the 30980 - 30999 or 34515 - 34519 range, you had to maintain the aut-num object in both databases.

Data Privacy Issues

AFRINIC operates the AFRINIC Database for the same purpose and under the same operational model as the RIPE NCC. To formalise this AFRINIC, in addition to a Non-Disclosure Agreement, entered an agreement with the RIPE NCC that all data transferred to AFRINIC was to be "collected, processed, and transferred in accordance with the laws applicable [to the RIPE NCC]".

AFRINIC does not allow bulk transfer of Whois Database content and would not make bulk contact data available to third parties.

  • Until ICANN's final recognition of AFRINIC, LIRs in the African service region were still legally members of the RIPE NCC. All assignments and registrations were done under the terms of the RIPE NCC Standard Service Agreement
  • After ICANN's final recognition of AFRINIC, all services were transferred from the RIPE NCC to AFRINIC and LIRs needed to sign a contract with AFRINIC to receive services
  • As of January 2005, LIRs based in the AFRINIC service region received an AFRINIC contract by courier.
  • LIRs that had paid their membership fee to the RIPE NCC for 2005 did not have to pay AFRINIC for the year 2005.