In message <199903281722.LAA00911@freeside.fc.net>, Jeremy Porter writes:
In message <3.0.6.32.19990327224345.00d4ad00@norfolk.infi.net>, Dean Robb writes:
At 01:22 3/27/99 -0600, Sean Donelan wrote:
pceasy@norfolk.INfi.NET (Dean Robb) writes:
While not a network operator, I think it would be most prudent to consider and discuss (among those who ARE netops) what do to if, say, the root server were suddenly comletely unaccessible for several days/permanently for *whatever* reason.
Duh, isn't that why there is more than one root server in the world?
My concern is with the master server that NSI operates. My hope was that a netop who *didn't* have a contingency plan might start putting one together.
However I feel some people confuse the data in the root servers, with the databases used to generate those zone files. There is a subtle, but important difference. And why simply copying the zone files is not sufficient.
So who has copies of the databases? If NSI's master (the a-root?) is unavailable, new domains obviously wouldn't propagate, but how long can the other root servers go without getting an update? Does the system as currently configured *require* some server somewhere to be the master and is there one that can take over if NSI's are toast?
origin = A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET mail addr = hostmaster.INTERNIC.NET serial = 1999032605 refresh = 1800 (30M) retry = 900 (15M) expire = 604800 (1W) minimum ttl = 86400 (1D)
Well the expire is 1W so by default the zones will be valid in all servers for a week after a.root-servers.net goes away (if that were to happen.)
Sigh, as somone else already pointed out, the root-servers manually zone transfer and will not nessesarily expire the zone. At any rate I can see the problem lasting long enough to impact anything. Some people might even claim DNS is not required for proper functioning, and that DNS isn't in the Nanog charter, although perhaps root-servers are as they have some impact on performance. I don't really beleive that the operational folks at network solutions would actual do delibert things to interfere with root zone operations. Frankly while all the things network solutions has done lately, not one of them seems to be with the scope of this mailing list, as no offically supported operational functions have been broken. (I can see how if you wrote a script that depending on a particulaj output of whois, how it would be annoying, but I can't recall the RFC where that particular output format is specified. I don't believe WWW services were ever required. Ah well, off to do operational related things, I guess I should ignoring nanog more, as it just doesn't seem relevant to anything in particular. (Other than whining.) --- jerry@fc.net Insync Internet, Inc. | Freeside Communications, Inc. 5555 San Felipe, Suite 700 | PO BOX 80315 Austin, Tx 78708 713-407-7000 | 512-458-9810 http://www.insync.net | http://www.fc.net