[ncc-announce] [news] RIPE Database: Cleaning-up Organisation Names in "descr:"

Dear colleagues,

We want to let you know about a clean-up that we have been planning with the RIPE Database Working Group (WG) and explain why this is being done. As this is currently being discussed on the WG mailing list, there is still time to comment if you wish. 

Background
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For a long time, there has been a requirement that the first "descr:" attribute of resource objects that were allocated/assigned by the RIPE NCC must match the name of the organisation that holds the resource. However, these resource objects have also had a reference to the organisation object of the holder of these resources for quite some time, and the RIPE NCC ensures that this organisation object matches what we have in the RIPE Registry. This means that we have been using two parallel approaches to achieve the same goal. 

Since we began using organisation objects, requiring the organisation name in the “descr:” attribute has become redundant. It creates the potential for a mismatch between the name recorded here and the name on the actual organisation object. It also leads to confusion about where the correct name of the organisation can be found, along with a number of other issues. 

This has been discussed at length on the RIPE Database WG mailing list and during WG sessions at RIPE 70, 71 and 72. Consensus was reached that going forward:
- Organisation names should no longer be enforced in "descr:" attributes
- LIRs should be allowed to modify the "descr:” attribute[1] and will be responsible for maintaining this (it will not be verified by the RIPE NCC)
- The RIPE NCC should clean up existing cases where the organisation name is enforced
- "descr:” should become an *optional* attribute

Last Week’s Reverted Clean-up
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The WG decided that a clean-up was needed to remove any confusion about where the organisation name should be found. Because there are 93,105 objects that need to be updated, it is not practical to send notifications to all of these resource holders individually. As this change was expected to have little operational impact, it was decided that this should be done as a silent update. However, while the WG was informed of our intention to run the clean-up, it was an oversight on our part not to send a notification to the wider RIPE community. 

We proceeded with our implementation of these changes in the RIPE Database and deployed release 1.86 to production on 21 March. We then communicated our intent to run the clean-up on 11 April to the Database WG[2]. When we ran the update last week, a community member alerted us to a problem and the clean-up was reverted the following day after it was completed[3].

There is now a discussion about how or whether to continue with this clean-up on the RIPE Database WG mailing list[4]. If the WG determines that we should proceed with this, we have a tentative date set for 9 May 2016. We invite you to discuss this further on the mailing list at <db-wg at ripe.net> if you have any opinions or concerns that you would like to share.

We will also be reviewing our processes to ensure we give adequate notification for such changes in the future. 

Kind regards,

Tim Bruijnzeels

Assistant Manager Software Engineering
RIPE NCC Database Group

[1] "descr:" is currently not editable in the Allocation Object Editor, but will become editable by LIRs in the near future.
[2] https://www.ripe.net/ripe/mail/archives/db-wg/2016-March/005136.html 
[3] https://www.ripe.net/ripe/mail/archives/db-wg/2016-April/005172.html 
[4] https://www.ripe.net/ripe/mail/archives/db-wg/2016-April/005173.html