Acorn Newsbot
Junior Member
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2006
- Posts
- 22,911
- Reaction score
- 151
As guardians of .UK, we keep the nation’s domain up and running and secure for the millions of individuals and businesses who rely on it every day. It’s a responsibility we’ve had since 1996 – and today we use that experience to help the wider internet community when it needs us.
We’re also proud to be the only registry selected by ICANN to operate a failing top-level domain as an Emergency Backend Registry Operator (EBERO), and to have been selected seven times.
But what does this mean in practice, and how does it help to keep the wider domain landscape running smoothly? Read on to find out.
EBERO stands for Emergency Backend Registry Operator – a responsibility entrusted to just a select few registries chosen by ICANN to step in during an emergency – when a registry is unable to keep operating.
At Nominet, we’re proud to be one of the chosen few Emergency Backend Registry Operators that “meet stringent technical requirements and have demonstrated years or experience in operating domain name services, registration data directory services and extensible provisioning protocol services.”
Put simply, this means we’re able step in to support gTLDs (generic Top-Level Domains – i.e. domain endings) in need of urgent support.
From time to time, a registry operator may require assistance either due to business failure or technical failure to sustain critical registry functions under the ICANN Registry Agreement. This can happen when a critical function reaches one of ICANN’s defined emergency thresholds in a given week, for example:
These scenarios can all activate the Emergency Backend Registry Operator, or EBERO, programme, which is where we come in. Find out more about the emergency thresholds required to trigger the EBERO process.
There are currently seven gTLDs in EBERO: .NOWRUZ, .DESI, .WED, .pars, .shia, .tci and همرا. (.xn--mgbt3dhd). Nominet currently manages all of these to sustain their critical registry functions.
.NOWRUZ was the first EBERO transition to be completed with DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions) intact – thanks to close co-operation with ICANN and the outgoing DNS provider – ensuring optimum security. You can find out more about DNSSEC here, including why it’s such an important piece of the security puzzle from a DNS perspective.
Whilst all the EBERO transitions that have happened to date have been due to the unfortunate reality of business failure, we know from ICANN published data that in the early days of the expansion of gTLDs, several backend providers breached their published thresholds. However, ICANN chose to fix the issues in situ rather than trigger the complexity of an EBERO.
As we approach the next round of new gTLD launches, we’ve had our EBERO agreement extended by ICANN and we stand ready to support the expanding registry market as a Registry Services Provider or Emergency Backend Registry Operator. You can find out more about our Registry Services here.
As a responsible registry with a public benefit remit, we’re proud of the role we play as an EBERO. David Carroll, Chief Customer Officer at Nominet said that “EBERO is a key part of our Registry Services offering, ensuring that even those registry operators who have chosen to utilise competitors for registry services can come to us in their hour of need to secure the operation of the registry under ICANN’s oversight. It’s unfortunate when registry businesses need external support, but we’re here to support the wider internet community.”
The post Emergency Rescue: What’s an EBERO? appeared first on Nominet.
Continue reading...
We’re also proud to be the only registry selected by ICANN to operate a failing top-level domain as an Emergency Backend Registry Operator (EBERO), and to have been selected seven times.
But what does this mean in practice, and how does it help to keep the wider domain landscape running smoothly? Read on to find out.
What’s an EBERO?
EBERO stands for Emergency Backend Registry Operator – a responsibility entrusted to just a select few registries chosen by ICANN to step in during an emergency – when a registry is unable to keep operating.
At Nominet, we’re proud to be one of the chosen few Emergency Backend Registry Operators that “meet stringent technical requirements and have demonstrated years or experience in operating domain name services, registration data directory services and extensible provisioning protocol services.”
Put simply, this means we’re able step in to support gTLDs (generic Top-Level Domains – i.e. domain endings) in need of urgent support.
How does a domain enter the EBERO process?
From time to time, a registry operator may require assistance either due to business failure or technical failure to sustain critical registry functions under the ICANN Registry Agreement. This can happen when a critical function reaches one of ICANN’s defined emergency thresholds in a given week, for example:
- DNS Service – four hours of total downtime
- DNSSEC proper resolution – four hours of total downtime
- EPP – 24 hours of total downtime
- RDAP-RDDS – 24 hours of total downtime
- Data Escrow triggering any of a range of contractual requirements for the data to be released to ICANN
These scenarios can all activate the Emergency Backend Registry Operator, or EBERO, programme, which is where we come in. Find out more about the emergency thresholds required to trigger the EBERO process.
How many registries are currently in EBERO?
There are currently seven gTLDs in EBERO: .NOWRUZ, .DESI, .WED, .pars, .shia, .tci and همرا. (.xn--mgbt3dhd). Nominet currently manages all of these to sustain their critical registry functions.
.NOWRUZ was the first EBERO transition to be completed with DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions) intact – thanks to close co-operation with ICANN and the outgoing DNS provider – ensuring optimum security. You can find out more about DNSSEC here, including why it’s such an important piece of the security puzzle from a DNS perspective.
Whilst all the EBERO transitions that have happened to date have been due to the unfortunate reality of business failure, we know from ICANN published data that in the early days of the expansion of gTLDs, several backend providers breached their published thresholds. However, ICANN chose to fix the issues in situ rather than trigger the complexity of an EBERO.
As we approach the next round of new gTLD launches, we’ve had our EBERO agreement extended by ICANN and we stand ready to support the expanding registry market as a Registry Services Provider or Emergency Backend Registry Operator. You can find out more about our Registry Services here.
Our role as an EBERO
As a responsible registry with a public benefit remit, we’re proud of the role we play as an EBERO. David Carroll, Chief Customer Officer at Nominet said that “EBERO is a key part of our Registry Services offering, ensuring that even those registry operators who have chosen to utilise competitors for registry services can come to us in their hour of need to secure the operation of the registry under ICANN’s oversight. It’s unfortunate when registry businesses need external support, but we’re here to support the wider internet community.”
The post Emergency Rescue: What’s an EBERO? appeared first on Nominet.
Continue reading...
