Creating a role object

What is a role object?

A role object contains information about technical or administrative contacts, but instead of describing a single person, it describes a role performed by one or more people within an organisation.

The role object can represent a help desk, a network operations centre, or a contact point for help or information on network operations. A role object is particularly useful because while certain roles within an organisation may remain stable, the people performing those roles may change. Using a role object means that when people in the organisation change, only the role object needs to be updated instead of all relevant inetnum and aut-num objects.

Why use role objects?

Role objects have three main advantages:

While certain roles within an organisation may remain stable, the people performing those roles may change. Using a role object means that when people in the organisation change, only the role object needs to be updated instead of all associated inetnum and aut-num objects.

You can specify a generic email address for the role object, for example, noc@example.com., so network queries are sent to a mailbox that may be accessed by many people, instead of to an individual staff member's mail box.

Role objects have a trouble field, which describe an additional email box you use for spam and network abuse reports. This can take the burden off a single person and allow abuse reports to be handled by your abuse team.

What does a role object look like?

Here is an example of a completed role object. To see the full description of a specific field, click on the field name:

role:        SPARKYNET NOC
address:     2 Pandora St Boxville
address:     Wallis and Futuna Islands
country:     WF                 
phone:       +681 368 0844
fax-no:      +681 367 1797
e-mail:      noc@sparkynet.com.wf
trouble:     send spam reports to spam@sparkynet.com.wf 
trouble:     and abuse reports to abuse@sparkynet.com.wf
trouble:     Please include detailed information and 
trouble:     times in UTC                     
admin-c:     KX9-AP           
tech-c:      ZU42-AP           
nic-hdl:     SN199-AP    
remarks:     http://www.sparkynet.com.wf
notify:      hostmaster@sparkynet.com.wf     
mnt-by:      MAINT-SPARKY-WF            
changed:     hostmaster@sparkynet.com.wf 20010921                     
source:      APNIC

role

The full name of a role entity.

The role field consists of two components, each consisting of characters from the alphabet only. Please note that there is no "-" character between the two components of the name.

Example:

APNIC DBM

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address

The full postal address of a person or the organisation.

Please use any combination of alphanumeric characters. More than one line can be used.

Example:

address:     2 Pandora St Boxville
address:     Wallis and Futuna Islands

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country

The two letter ISO3166 code that represents the country or economy where the admin-c is based.

Please use uppercase letters.

Example:

country:	   WF

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phone

The contact telephone number using one of the following formats:

+ <international code>  <area code> <phone number>
+ <international code>  <area code> <phone number> ext. <number>

You may use spaces split up the phone number into its constituent components. Alternately, you can use "." to separate the digits.

Example:

phone:       +681 368 0844 ext. 32

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fax-no

The fax number associated with the role. Please use the format:

+ <international code> <area code> <fax number>

Example:

fax-no:      +681 367 1797

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e-mail

The e-mail address associated with the role.

Please use the address format specified in RFC-822.

Example:

e-mail:      noc@sparkynet.com.wf

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trouble

Information on who to contact when there are problems.

<Free text>

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admin-c (NIC handles)

An administrative contact (admin-c) must be someone who is physically located at the site of the network. You may specify more than one admin-c for the network.

You should enter these contacts in the NIC handle (person object) format.

Example:

KX9-AP

If these contacts do not yet have valid NIC handles, please create them before submitting this form.

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tech-c (NIC handles)

A technical contact (tech-c) must be a person responsible for the day-to-day operation of the network, but does not need to be physically located at the site of the network. You may specify more than one tech-c for the network.

You should enter these contacts in the NIC handle (person object) format.

Example:

KX9-AP

If these contacts do not yet have valid NIC handles, please create them before submitting this form.

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nic-hdl

The NIC-handle of the role or person object.

The APNIC NIC-handle takes the format:

<Initials><0-999>-AP

Example:

SN199-AP

If you are creating a new role object, please use the following text in the nic-hdl attribute which allows the database software to assign you a new NIC-handle:

AUTO-1

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remarks

General remarks related to the role object. Remarks can include a URL or RFC822 address (if preceded by mailto:).

Example:

remarks:     http://www.sparkynet.com.wf

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notify

When changes are made to the role object, the email address specified in this field is notified of the changes.

Please use the address format specified in RFC-822.

Example:

notify:      hostmaster@sparkynet.com.wf

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mnt-by

The identifier of a registered mntner object used for authorisation and authentication.

A maintainer object is a database object used to authorise updates to the APNIC database. When your database details are protected by a maintainer object, then only persons with access to the security information of that maintainer object will be able to change details.

You must create a maintainer object for all APNIC database objects.

Example:

mnt-by:      MAINT-SPARKY-WF

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changed

This field displays who previously changed this object and when this change was made. This takes the format:

<E-mail address of person updating the object> <DATE>

Please use the address format specified in RFC-822 and provide the date format using one of the following two formats: YYYYMMDD or YYMMDD.

You must create a maintainer object for all APNIC database objects.

Example:

changed:     hostmaster@sparkynet.com.wf 20010921

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source

Identifier of the database containing authoritative data for this object. Use APNIC for objects in the APNIC Database.

Entry must use uppercase text only.

Example:

source:      APNIC

Creating a role object

Contents

What is a role object?

Why use role objects?

How do I create a role object?

What does a role object look like?

role

address

country

phone

fax-no

e-mail

trouble

admin-c (NIC handles)

tech-c (NIC handles)

nic-hdl

remarks

notify

mnt-by

changed

source

More information