[afnog] Best practices and Software for running a ccTLD registry

[Michuki Mwangi]

Joseph,

On Tue, 2004-05-18 at 23:27, Okoegwale Uwagbale Joseph wrote:
> Good day all, anyone got ideas for successfully running a ccTLD
> registry? please include details of appropriate software, best
> practices and relevant URLs,

I will limit my comments to the experiences and learning curves of the
.KE ccTLD. 

The establishment and running of a ccTLD should take into consideration
the interests of the local internet community. While this may take a
considerable amount of time to build consensus in any one community the
process is indeed a bottom up process.

By involving the Internet stakeholders in the process the implementation
phase is simplified as they would have addresses the following Key
issues.

1) Registry operation Model - The Local Internet community should agree
on whether they wish to run a Registry/Registrar model, Open Registry or
both.
There are pros and cons for both systems, however its important to note
that the model of choice affects the Registry Operations size and
consequently the running costs. ccTLD's should be self sustaining while
at the same time encouraging registrations by having competitive domain
registration fees. However this becomes difficult if the registry
operation costs are high.

2) Technical Implementation - To implement the technical operations of
the ccTLD you require Hardware, Software, hosting location and
connectivity. From the .KE experience, the local stakeholders played a
vital role in facilitation of the requirements in some cases at no cost
to the ccTLD. This also had a positive effect on the Registry
implementation costs.

Hardware - Stakeholders
Hosting location - Stakeholders
Connectivity - Stakeholders
Software - There are two approaches to acquiring the Registry software
i) Develop software from scratch based on the regions needs.
ii) Evaluate other ccTLD's software and settle on the one that best
suits your needs.

In the first option, the cost of development in terms of time and money
are high compared to acquiring software in use by existing ccTLDs.
In most cases, ccTLD's will be willing to provide the software at no
cost and you may have to only foot the training and facilitation costs.


Therefore, the ccTLD implementation best practice will be the model that
works best for your region. However ICANN has model recommendations
based on success and case studies available on the ICANN website
www.icann.org/cctlds/

Technical Implementation RFC's are as follows:

RFC 1034/1035 - DNS concepts, implementation and specifications
RFC 2181/2182 - Selection and Operation of Secondary Name Servers
RFC 2870 - Root and Primary server implementations

HTH.


-- 
Michuki Mwangi
KENIC.