Supporting Information for the RIPE NCC Delegation Checker
If you are puzzled by any aspect of the robot's output, the information
below may help. As always, if you can't find the answer to your
question below, then please don't hesitate to contact the maintainer...
<inaddr@ripe.net>
The checker is currently in a beta stage. We are very grateful for
all bug reports and suggestions, please direct them to the same address.
Contents
Limitations
The most obvious limitation of the current version is...
- it supports IPv6 AAAA records and the
ip6.int. domain, but cannot make DNS queries to an IPv6
address.
Two deliberate limitations of the web version are...
- it does NOT attempt to do zone transfers.
- it does NOT do RIPE NCC specific checks,
which means that a zone can pass the checks here and still fail the
extra RIPE NCC checks, though chances are much better of course!
Small FAQ
What are the 'delegated nameservers' ?
When the checker talks about the delegated nameservers,
it means one of two things. In the case of an existing zone,
the delegated nameservers are the nameservers which are
listed in the parent zone. In the case of a zone which is not
yet inserted in the DNS tree, it means the nameservers which
it has been given to check at.
What's all this about 'problem points' ?
Each problem which is found during the check has associated a
certain number of points from 0 to 20. This number
is displayed in brackets under the problem header. The number of
points determines the classification of the problem as follows...
Error: | 20 or more points |
Warning: | 1-19 points |
Note: | 0 points |
The final verdict after the check depends solely on the total number
of points associated with the points that were generated. The
classification into errors, warnings and notes is only intended to
allow quick overview of the severity of a problem. It follows
that a note does not affect the final outcome, but it only
intended to be informational.
What are 'set' problems ?
The checker divides problems into two basic types: those that are specific
to a particular nameserver and those that relate to all of the nameservers
as a group. The latter are the set problems.
Example: a problem with the syntax of the serial number at nameserver X is
reported together with all the other problems directly relating to nameserver X.
In contrast, a difference in the serial number between nameserver X
and nameserver Y is a problem with the whole set of nameservers.
References
In rough order of relevance...
- RFC 1912, Common DNS Operational and Configuration Errors, February 1996
HTML -
Original Text
- RFC 2182, Selection and Operation of Secondary DNS Servers, July 1997
HTML -
Original Text
- RFC 2181, Clarifications to the DNS Specification, July 1997
HTML -
Original Text
- RIPE 203, Recommendations for DNS SOA Values, June 1999
HTML -
Text
- RFC 1123, Requirements for Internet Hosts -- Application and Support, October 1989
Original Text
- RFC 2317, Classless IN-ADDR.ARPA delegation, March 1998
HTML -
Original Text
- RFC 2308, Negative Caching of DNS Queries (DNS NCACHE), March 1998
HTML -
Original Text
- Other DNS related RFC's
DNSRD
Help on Specific Answers