ARIN removed 154 as-set's from it's IRR a week+ ago

Thu Jun 25 01:37:16 UTC 2020

This is a quick note about as-set's.

First some background. For those that followed the ARIN to ARIN &
ARIN-NONAUTH split a few weeks ago, you'll know that ARIN moved around
56% of all their IRR route/route6 objects into the ARIN-NONAUTH source
database. This was based on objects that are not owned within ARIN
managed space. For more on this; review the ARIN mailing lists and the
video from their meeting a few weeks ago.

But what about all those as-set objects within ARIN IRR? This wasn't
really reviewed heavily and so I thought, I'd dump some info
everyone's-way. Yes there are objects and yes, some moved to
ARIN-NONAUTH (and hence maybe aren't being used for route filtering
anymore).

First off - this data is based on the ARIN IRR database dump of
24/June/2020. You can find the current IRR data at
ftp://ftp.arin.net/pub/rr/ - it's easy to download the dataset. Here's
the raw numbers:

$ gunzip < arin-nonauth.db.gz | egrep -i '^as-set:' | wc -l
154
$ gunzip < arin.db.gz | egrep -i '^as-set:' | wc -l
1413
$

Only around 154 as-set objects were placed into ARIN-NONAUTH. Around
9.8% of the total number of objects.

Running a quick script against the RADB combined IRR database shows
that of those 154 as-set objects that ARIN moved; there're 133 as-set
objects that are only in ARIN-NONAUTH. An object with that name
doesn't exist in any other IRR (like ARIN, ALTDB, RADB, etc.)

Of the remaining 21 as-set objects, the object names (but maybe not
the same content???) exist in various other IRR registries. As
follows:

AS-RAWBW                   |    |ALTDB|    |    |
AS-NFCR                    |    |ALTDB|RADB|    |
AS-CTA                     |ARIN|     |    |RIPE|
AS-27299                   |    |     |RADB|    |
AS-33251-TRANSIT-CUSTOMERS |    |     |RADB|    |
AS-46844                   |    |     |RADB|    |
AS-7349-TRANSIT-CUSTOMERS  |    |     |RADB|    |
AS-ELI                     |    |     |RADB|    |
AS-MEEBO                   |    |     |RADB|    |
AS-MFT                     |    |     |RADB|    |
AS-28140                   |    |     |    |RIPE|
AS-FUZENET                 |    |     |    |RIPE|
AS-MM                      |    |     |    |RIPE|
AS-NETLOGIC                |    |     |    |RIPE|
AS-PCNET                   |    |     |    |RIPE|
AS-SVINE                   |    |     |    |RIPE|
AS-BLUENET                 |    |     |RADB|RIPE|
AS-LIUXYON                 |    |ALTDB|    |RIPE|
AS-NITAET                  |    |ALTDB|    |RIPE|
AS-NITAETv6                |    |ALTDB|    |RIPE|
AS-VIATEL                  |    |     |RADB|RIPE|

I didn't try to check the content of these - but then again; comparing
as-set's across IRRs is a thankless task - even in the best of days.

So where does this leave us? We have various networks that own
as-set's that are now potentially unavailable to upstreams or transit
providers for creating customer filters. Keep in mind that
ARIN-NONAUTH exists within RADBs IRR datasets - so it's possible that
some upstream transits may use that data. Some may not. YMMV.

Now onto the next step - answering that question.

Of the 154 as-set objects, only 29 names appear in other as-set
objects. (BTW: Thanks to "irrexplorer" for that information!). It does
not mean that the 125 other entries are unused - they may be used; but
not referenced by their transits (doubly so if the transit is a
tier1).

Focusing on the 29 that are referenced somewhere else; you end up with
this listing showing the as-set object name that they appear in. If
they appear in ARIN-NONAUTH that's kinda zero sum game. If they show
as being referenced in other IRRs then there's hope - but not really,
as they are ARIN-NONAUTH objects. Basically - however, you look at it;
lesser filters are being created and maybe routing is affected.

AS-23016:AS-BACKBONE
  ARIN-NONAUTH     mentioned-in  AS-23016
AS-23073
  ARIN-NONAUTH     mentioned-in  AS-23073
AS-6653
  RADB             mentioned-in  AS-COMCAST-IBONE
AS-AHS
  LEVEL3           mentioned-in  AS-BANDCON
  LEVEL3           mentioned-in  AS-ISOMEDIA
  RADB             mentioned-in  AS-ISOFUSION
AS-AS36412-CUSTOMERS
  ARIN-NONAUTH     mentioned-in  AS-AS36412-ALL
AS-CBSI
  RIPE             mentioned-in  AS-TELIANETNA
  RIPE             mentioned-in  AS-TELIANETNA-V6
AS-CDSTEPHENS
  RIPE             mentioned-in  AS-4IXP
AS-CRM-AR
  RIPE             mentioned-in  AS-TDATANETSA
AS-FCH-Customers
  ARIN-NONAUTH     mentioned-in  AS-FCH
AS-IMGIX
  NTTCOM           mentioned-in  AS2914:AS-US
AS-IRONP-1
  ALTDB            mentioned-in  AS-NLAYER-CUSTOMERS
AS-LOGIN
  ARIN             mentioned-in  AS-DECIX-DFW
  ARIN             mentioned-in  AS-DECIX-DFW-V6
AS-MCBB-INTERNAL
  ARIN-NONAUTH     mentioned-in  AS-MCBB
AS-MCBB-TRANSIT
  ARIN-NONAUTH     mentioned-in  AS-MCBB
AS-MEDIA-HOSTS
  ALTDB            mentioned-in  AS-NETELLIGENT
AS-MQCUSTOMERS
  ARIN-NONAUTH     mentioned-in  AS-MARQUISNET
  ARIN-NONAUTH     mentioned-in  AS35937:AS-MARQUISNET
AS-PEACHNET
  RADB             mentioned-in  AS-DEFENSE
AS-SAIX
  ARIN-NONAUTH     mentioned-in  AS-SAIX-ALLCUST
  BBOI             mentioned-in  AS-OCCAID6-CUSTOMERS
  RADB             mentioned-in  AS-MZIMA-CUSTOMERS
  RADB             mentioned-in  AS3491:AS-CUSTOMERS-EU
  RADB             mentioned-in  AS37271:AS-PEERS:AS5713
AS-SAIX-PEER
  ARIN-NONAUTH     mentioned-in  AS-SAIX-ALLCUST
AS-SAIX-TRANSIT
  ARIN-NONAUTH     mentioned-in  AS-SAIX
AS-SAIX-TRANSIT-ZA
  ARIN-NONAUTH     mentioned-in  AS-SAIX-ALLCUST
BBOI             mentioned-in  AS-OCCAID6-CUSTOMERS
  AS-SELECTNET-TRANSIT
ARIN-NONAUTH     mentioned-in  AS-SELECTNET
  AS-TELEFONICAMUNDO
LEVEL3           mentioned-in  AS-LEVEL3-POLICY-AS-SETS
  RIPE             mentioned-in  AS-TDATANETSA
AS-TELNETCOMM
  RADB             mentioned-in  AS4470:AS-TORIX-PEERS
AS13773:AS-CUSTOMERS
  ARIN-NONAUTH     mentioned-in  AS-TELNETCOMM
AS19539:AS-IPO-US
  RIPE             mentioned-in  AS-IPO-EU
AS21719:ASCUSTOMERS
  ARIN-NONAUTH     mentioned-in  AS21719:ASORIGIN
AS21719:ASPEERS
  ARIN-NONAUTH     mentioned-in  AS21719:ASORIGIN
AS6140:AS-CUSTOMERS
  BBOI             mentioned-in  AS-OCCAID6-CUSTOMERS

(If I may interject with a commentary: what a mess!)

I would urge anyone that sees their objects listed above to review
their entries and if-possible delete/cleanup/consolidate whatever they
have into just one IRR.

I could continue deep-diving into this area; but it gets very messy
very quickly. It's best to simply list what's going on and see if
folks can help clean-up their own data.

Summary: IRR cleanup is hard. Having *-NONAUTH database feels like a
good thing; but just leaves more of a mess in the global tables.

Happy IRR database hunting!

Martin