at last: minutes for the September'97 DB-WG meeting

  At last here are the draft minutes for the DB-WG meeting during RIPE-28
  in Amsterdam.
  
  Thanks to Mike Norris for taking notes and for providing me with the
  file shortly after the meeting. 

  The delay is exclusively my fault, 'cause I wanted to fix a broken name
  and a few other things - but didn't get aroud doing it in time.
  Eso es la vida...
  
  Apologies for the delay, and comments, corrections, etc. welcome as
  ususal.
  
  Wilfried.
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	D R A F T	D R A F T	D R A F T

		Database Working Group
	Minutes of Meeting, 24th September 1997
		at RIPE 28 in Amsterdam


The meeting began at 16:00.  Wilfried Woeber chaired.

1.  Admin Stuff
    Mike Norris acted as scribe.

    An agenda of business, as circulated, was agreed.

    The draft minutes of the DB WG meeting at RIPE 27 had been
    circulated recently.  Comments and corrections were welcome
    on the mailing list.


2.  DB AUP Enforcement
    Carol Orange reported steps to prevent misues of the RIPE
    database.  Responses to database queries were now prefixed
    with a copyright notice, with a URL for full details.  Those
    who wished to mirror the database for local use, or to copy
    it for any other purpose, had to enter into a contract with
    RIPE NCC; this stipulated, inter alia, that the copyright
    notice must always be displayed in responses.  The NCC was
    alert to abuse of the database by massive querying.


3.  DB SW Status Report
    Ambrose Magee reported on the status of the database software.

    whois client 
	- refinements to the -v flag were almost complete
	- the copyrigt notice (see #2 above)

    Ack/notification messages
	- these could now be suppressed

    RPSL - to be dealt with in a special BoF the next day

    DSTF - is now active
	 - details in plenary

    Cross notification
	- now implemented
	- available on TEST database

    New software
	- new release soon

    DB consistency project
	- work has started
	- deals only with internal inconsistencies at first
	- three phase approach
		- state of DB report
		- prevention
		- cleanup of existing objects
	- report by Hallowe'en

    Statistics
	- 500,000+ objects
  	- 150,000 updates in August, a peak month
	- 2,000,000 queries in August

    Ambrose reminded people to use the -k (keep session open)
    when making a larger number of queries in a row.

    Immediate plans
	- cross notification
	- DB consistency
	- "to do" list in line with RIPE NCC activity plan

    In discussion, it was reported that the NCC would undertake
    work on referral (to other databases) on completion of
    cross notification. Results could be expected by RIPE 29.

    Dana Hudes complained of someone else using his Graphnet
    trade name as a net-name in the RIPE database.  It was 
    agreed that it was not the function of RIPE to enforce any
    laws, nor to interfere with data entered by users in the 
    database.


     
4.  Registry Data Exchange (RIDE)
    David Kessens gave a presentation.  He said that RIDE would
    define a standard format for Internet registries, and would 
    define and use a protocol for exchanging and retrieving
    objects in such registries.  A draft charter for the work
    was ready and there was a mailing list (subscription requests
    to ride-request at isi.edu).  Status was summarised at 
    http://www.isi.edu/~david/ride/

    In discussion, David said that RIDE involved RIPE, Internic and
    ARIN people.  An overriding goal was to make the standard as
    simple as possible.


5.  Merit/RSng
    Jake Khuon reported on work being done by Merit on privacy
    of attributes.  For example, in the inet-rtr object, rs-in:
    and rs-out: would be public, but contact details would be
    private.  A new PRIV attribute applied to all objects and 
    used the existing security model.

    In discussion, it was agreed that real-time editing using
    RA tools would be nice, but needed more authentication.


6.  RAWhoisd Compatibility
    David Kessens reported RAWhoisd extensions.  The RAToolSet
    didn't use all the features of RAWhoisd.  He listed some of
    the new server features that the ToolSet needed, and also
    some of the outstanding requirements of the server.
    Performance enhancements would require a lot of effort.

    Wilfried would circulate Cengiz Alaettinoglu's summary to
    the mailing list and would invite comments.


7.  Input from other WGs
    The Local IR WG was considering new mechanisms of allocation
    and reverse delegation.  Due care would be exercised with
    any changes, particularly concerning entries in the database.

    The Routing WG reported that the aut-num object would have
    a mnt-route: attribute which would specify one or more 
    maintainers of route objects of the same origin.  The 
    attribute would not be mandatory, though; if absent, anyone
    could add a route object with the aut-num as origin.

    Joachim Schmitz also reported that controls were still needed
    to effect hierarchical authorisation.  


8.  Activity Plan
    Carol Orange spoke of the RIPE NCC activity plan for 1998
    insofar as it concerned work on the database.  Resources
    had been budgetted for database security.  Also, the growth
    of the database might lead to a requirement for new software.
    In these areas, she looked to the WG for support in 
    specifying what was required.

    Blasco Bonito asked how many orphan person: objects there
    were in the database.  Carol said that there were many
    such objects and speculated that aging might be used to
    help maintain the consistency of the database.

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Wilfried Woeber                :  e-mail: Woeber at CC.UniVie.ac.at
  Computer Center - ACOnet       :  
  Vienna University              :  Tel: +43 1 4277 - 140 33
  Universitaetsstrasse 7         :  Fax: +43 1 4277 - 9 140
  A-1010 Vienna, Austria, Europe :  RIPE-DB (&NIC) Handle: WW144
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