SRS Implementation Report to Council 07/06/02
Status: Report submitted for the Council Meeting of 7 June 2002
29 May 2002
InternetNZ Council
SRS - Framework and Business Rules for the Domain Name Shared Registry for .nz
1 At your December meeting, you approved the Framework and Business Rules for the Domain Name Shared Registry for .nz, as the basis for the SRS development. Since that time, the Technical Architecture and Prototyping phases have been completed and the detailed requirements specification is under way. Further work has also been completed on the issue of professional indemnity insurance and the registrar contracts. This paper seeks your approval to some refinements to the business rules.
Proposed Changes
2 None of the changes proposed undermine the SRS principles. Some
are editorial in nature, clarifying statements and incorporating title
changes (Domain Name Commissioner rather than ccTLD Manager). Others
relate to contractual commitments and system functionality.
Contractual Commitments
3 It was originally proposed that an authorisation requirement for registrars would be to have professional indemnity insurance in place. However since 11 September, insurance premiums have escalated and a more effective way of ensuring professional indemnity cover for the .nz market is to purchase it centrally. This will ensure also the maintenance of a low barrier to entry for registrars.
4 Registrars will be required to have a contract with each registrant. It was proposed originally that registrars would use either a standard contract or have their individual contract approved by the DNC. What is now proposed is to provide minimum standard terms that a registrar can either incorporate or attach into their contract with a registrant. The other contract terms cannot be inconsistent with these standard terms.
Unique Domain Authentication ID (UDAI)
5 The UDAI operates as a password to allow a registrant to authorise transfer of the domain name to a new registrar. It was originally envisaged that a registrar would be able to query the register at any time to confirm the UDAI for any domain names they are managing. For security encryption reasons, where both the registrar and registrant have lost their record of the UDAI, a new UDAI will need to be generated by the registrar. Registrars will be provided with a function to check that the UDAI they hold is valid.
Additional Registry Functionality
6 The registry will be able to apply rate limiting to registrar
queries. This would be used if response times to registrars in general
appear to be affected by heavy loading from a few. This was a problem
in 2001 for some of the TLD registries.
Name Servers
7 .nz policy requires a name holder to have two name servers configured and operable prior to submitting a registration. However, there are domain names currently registered with only one name server. It is also apparent from discussions with providers that some providers have occasionally registered names with incomplete name server details to circumvent this requirement.
8 Following discussion with (and by) the Technical Committee and with the intending registrars group, it is proposed under the SRS to enable domain names to be registered with less than two name servers. Names with less than two servers will not be delegated in the DNS, but will be recorded in the DNS as TXT-only entries. A system-generated comment will be assigned to these entries.
9 The advantage of this change is that it separates the “first to register” domain name registration process from the technical/addressing aspects of the DNS and ensures that the DNS remains “clean”. It also recognises that as for the current situation, the registrar and the name service provider may not be the same provider for a domain name.
10 One of the monitoring responsibilities of the registry will be to monitor the incidence of lame name servers.
Communication of Changes
11 An updated business rules and framework document and the Detailed Requirements Specification will be released to providers in the week of 10 June.
Future Refinements
12 It is expected that the .nz Oversight Committee will be operational within the next month. Approval of refinements to the business rules and processes falls within their terms of reference. Any future refinements therefore will be considered and approved by the .nz Committee.
Recommendation
13 It is recommended that you approve the changes outlined above to the business rules and framework for the SRS.
