Subject: Re: [regext] I-D Action: draft-ietf-regext-reseller-ext-01.txt

From: Antoin Verschuren <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2017 19:55:49 +0100

Hi Linlin and others,

I’ve taken the holiday season to make a more extensive review of the reseller drafts.
While we are still waiting on the suggestion and discussion of the reseller object itself, I already have some remarks/questions in advance:

First:
-I keep having issues identifying which document describes what when just looking at the name or title of the documents.
As far as I understand it:

Name: draft-ietf-regext-reseller-01
Title: Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) Reseller Mapping
Describes the definition of the reseller object in EPP

and

Name: draft-ietf-regext-reseller-ext-01
Title: Reseller Extension for the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP)
Describes how to map other objects to a reseller, how to include a reseller in a domain object etc.

Am I correct in this?

This is confusing.
I keep having to forward to paragraph 4 before I understand which document I’m reading.
I suggest we take another good look at the names, titles and abstract text to make this more clear.
Suggestions (still a bit depending on the outcome of the object discussion):

Name: draft-ietf-regext-reseller
Title: Reseller Object for the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP)
Describes the definition of the reseller object in EPP

Name: draft-ietf-regext-reseller-mapping
Title: Mapping to a Reseller Object in the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP)
Describes how to link other objects to a reseller, how to include a reseller in a domain object etc.

Both of the abstracts need to be rewritten as I believe they are mixed up.

-I also have an issue with the introductions of both drafts.
They don’t clearly describe what a reseller is, don’t follow previous definitions, and in one document it is described differently that in the other.
For one, I would like the word „ICANN accredited” removed. Resellers are not specific ICANN.
My suggested text for the first paragraph in the introduction of both documents:

"A registrar is an an entity that provides front-end domain name registration services to registrants, providing a public interface to registry services [RFC 3375].
A registrar has a contractual relationship with a registry and represents the sponsoring client to the server in [RFC5730].
While registrars are responsible for the registrants administrative registration data with a registry, they don't always have a direct relationship with the registrant.
Registrars often sell their administrative registration services through a network of resellers.
Resellers may or may not provide additional services to a registrant, like in-house or outsourced DNS operation or hosting services in one stop shop packages.
While registrants are bound to the rules and regulations of the registry and registrar through the resellers, they often don’t know of the existence of the registrar or the registry as they have no direct relationship which them. They only have a direct relationship with their reseller.
For a registrant and registrar to identify who the reseller is for a given registration at the registry, there is a desire to have reseller information represented in WHOIS and RDAP."

These are suggestions to continue, depending on the object discussion (Please forgive me if I forget the words "extension” or "mapping” or "command” somewhere, the current text confuses me):

For draft-ietf-regext-reseller:

„This document specifies a reseller object for version 1.0 of the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) [RFC5730] in order to facilitate provisioning and management of reseller information in a shared central repository"

For draft-ietf-regext-reseller-mapping:

"[ID.draft-ietf-regext-reseller] defines a reseller object to include reseller information in a shared central repository.
This document proposes an extension of [RFC5731], [RFC5732] and [RFC5733] to map an object to such reseller information.
The examples provided in this document are used for the domain object for illustration purposes. The host and contact object could be extended in the same way with the domain object.

A reseller object defined in [ID.draft-ietf-regext-reseller] SHOULD be created first.
The reseller information specified in this document SHOULD reference the existing reseller identifier and reseller name.”

-Par 3.1: "Reseller identifier provides the ID of the reseller of a sponsoring registrar…. All reseller objects are identified by a server-unique identifier"
This still confuses me a bit. I think it mixes up client/server with sponsoring registrar/registry.
It reads like a reseller can only be a reseller to one sponsoring registrar,
What if he is reseller for 2 or more registrars?
Would it mean a new ID?
Is it server or client, registry or registrar that assigns? Sponsoring registrar or client? Registry or server? Should there be a syntax definition?
I think it should read:

"All reseller objects are identified by a server-unique identifier called a "Reseller ID”.
The syntax of its corresponding element <reseller:id> is defined in this document/[ID.draft-ietf-regext-reseller]."

And then add the syntax definition in [ID.draft-ietf-regext-reseller], and words on who assigns the ID according to what rules (first-come-first-serve/registry defined/registrarid preceded?)

I leave the rest of my questions and remarks till we have a suggestion for the reseller object, as I think that may change the current text quite a bit..

Regards,

- --
Antoin Verschuren

Tweevoren 6, 5672 SB Nuenen, NL
M: +31 6 37682392

Op 7 dec. 2016, om 09:35 heeft Linlin Zhou <[email-masked]> het volgende geschreven:

> This is a very minor update, mostly just to keep the document alive to discuss on path of reseller object or entity object with multiple roles.
> 
> Regards,
> Linlin Zhou
> 
> From: internet-drafts
> Date: 2016-12-07 16:30
> To: [email-masked]
> CC: regext
> Subject: [regext] I-D Action: draft-ietf-regext-reseller-ext-01.txt
> 
> A New Internet-Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts directories.
> This draft is a work item of the Registration Protocols Extensions of the IETF.
> 
>         Title           : Reseller Extension for the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP)
>         Authors         : Linlin Zhou
>                           Ning Kong
>                           Junkai Wei
>                           Xiaodong Lee
>                           James Gould
> Filename        : draft-ietf-regext-reseller-ext-01.txt
> Pages           : 18
> Date            : 2016-12-07
> 
> Abstract:
>    This mapping, an extension to EPP object mappings like the EPP domain
>    name mapping [RFC5731], to support assigning a reseller to any
>    existing object (domain, host, contact) as well as any future
>    objects.  Specified in Extensible Markup Language (XML), this
>    extended mapping is applied to provide additional features required
>    for the provisioning of resellers.
> 
> 
> The IETF datatracker status page for this draft is:
> https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-regext-reseller-ext/
> 
> There's also a htmlized version available at:
> https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-regext-reseller-ext-01
> 
> A diff from the previous version is available at:
> https://www.ietf.org/rfcdiff?url2=draft-ietf-regext-reseller-ext-01
> 
> 
> Please note that it may take a couple of minutes from the time of submission
> until the htmlized version and diff are available at tools.ietf.org.
> 
> Internet-Drafts are also available by anonymous FTP at:
> ftp://ftp.ietf.org/internet-drafts/
> 
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