Summary

  • Ingrid Wijte's August 2014 RIPE NCC consultation proposed retiring text-based email forms for IPv4, IPv6 and ASN resource requests because each policy change had to be maintained in both email and LIR Portal systems.
  • Member feedback lengthened the transition to May 2015. A Resource Request API preserved programmatic workflows; RIPE NCC stopped accepting regular email resource requests on 1 June 2015 and kept an outage fallback distinct from that channel.

Two doors, two sets of rules

Some registry systems age gracefully. A text form emailed to a robot does not always join them. By August 2014, RIPE NCC members could request number resources through the LIR Portal or send a text-based email form. Each policy change then needed to land in both places. In her consultation note, Registration Services Assistant Manager Ingrid Wijte called out the duplicated work and the engineering time spent keeping the older parser alive. The problem was a second rulebook hiding inside the entrance mechanism.

Wijte brought usage numbers instead of a lecture about modernization. Since November 2013, 909 of 960 IPv6 allocations had followed Portal forms; 1,051 of 1,154 IPv4 allocation requests and 727 of 975 ASN requests used the Portal too. The ASN figure was lower, and half of the remaining email ASN requests required multiple passes through syntax checks. Email still served real habits and internal workflows. Her proposal offered an API for members whose systems could not simply move to a web form, and kept public instructions on the information needed for a request. It also proposed an exception for forms usable by non-members, such as ENUM.

The first calendar was too brisk: archive forms in November 2014, end ordinary email requests in December. Members said the API had to exist long enough for their own systems to adapt. In her October reply, Wijte moved the finish line to the end of May 2015. Four API request types were already available; members got until January to test them. The final API and archive of old forms would follow in February, with three more months of accepted email submissions. She also promised plain-email handling when Portal and API were unavailable because of technical trouble. That is a continuity plan, not a permanent parallel application track.

RIPE NCC's March notice said the forms had been archived, apart from ENUM, while the submission grace period continued. Its 1 June notice closed regular email resource requests. The Portal and API were the remaining normal routes. Wijte retired one door only after making the other two usable, and after hearing how long a customer needed to move its furniture.

RIPE NCC original record