Re: [ietf-provreg] DNSSEC EPP Extension (RFC 4310) Usability Question

[Patrick Mevzek <provreg@contact.dotandco.com>]

James Gould <jgould@verisign.com> 2008-12-09 18:29
> In reviewing the DNSSEC EPP Extension (RFC 4310) I noticed one usability
> issue that I would like to get feedback from the existing implementations of
> the extension.  
> 
> The specification allows adding (<secDNS:add>), removing (<secDNS:rem>), and
> changing (<secDNS:chg>) DS data, but according to the XML schema they canšt
> be done at the same time.  Below is from the RFC 4210 XML schema for the
> <secDNS:update>:

As others have said I think the whole "issue" is the same for all
update operations on various objects, not only DNSkey materials.

I think that by allowing more flexibility with all operations
possible at the same time, it only create confusion with no big
benefit at the end.

Specifically, I think the most frequent use case for DNS material
would be to add *OR* remove a key, and not at the same time if we are
after smooth transitions.
Change of a key detail may be useful but should not happen too often
in practice.

So having only either one add or one chg or one rem block in a
domain:update for DNSkey material seem fine to me, and I would not be
in favor of mixing.

I also observe (without hard numbers) that use cases depend on object
types.
I would say that for status values it seems more logical to have
mainly add and rem operations (and again probably very few with add
and rem together in a single call), where for nameservers the chg
operation may be more frequent (even if not possible by core EPP
RFCs, it is done by some registries).
As for contact, I would say that it derives a lot from the fact that
very few registries seem to allow really multiple contacts of the
same type, and if they do I think very few registrars use that
feature. Hence in that case add or rem operations are probably the
more logical one for contacts during domain update.

For me, no mix at all would be the simpler case, both on registry
side and registrar side: that way there is nothing to think about
what will happen if we do add+rem at the same type for the same info
(otherwise it depends on registry policies and in some case it will
be a noop as add+rem will be seen as opposite, where sometimes in
other registries or other cases it will be a removal since it comes
last), and registrars still have all power to do what they want, they
just, if really needed, do multiple domain:update calls one after the
following and each one with either an add, a rem or a chg. And this
can be encapsulated on their side as a global operation in an higher
API.

I also observe that, for the same object types, some registries allow
*only* chg, others allow *only* add and/or rem and some allow all
3 ... which create even more confusion.

-- 
Patrick Mevzek