On 8 November 2009 we will take our registration systems offline to update the nameserver model used within the registry database. Our new nameserver model will only hold a single copy of each nameserver. This will remove duplicated nameserver data and will improve the responsiveness of our systems.

As part of this update, all nameserver identifier fields will be deprecated.  This means it will only be possible to reference nameservers by their hostnames and not by their identifiers.  For Automaton users the following operations, templates, responses, notifications and fields will be changed:

• Modify nameserver operation
• Query nameserver operation
• Bulk replace nameservers
• Bulk attach nameservers
• Automaton templates
• Automaton responses
• Notifications
• Deprecated fields

Modify nameserver operation

This operation will be updated to remove references to deprecated nameserver identifier fields. Nameservers will be referenced by their hostname instead. Since each nameserver will be unique in our database, it will not be possible to modify a nameserver to use a hostname which is used by another nameserver.

It will only be possible to modify a nameserver object if one or both of the following conditions is true:

• You have the super-ordinate domain name registered to your tag
  
• All domain names linked to the nameserver are registered to your tag.

Modify nameserver example:

In this example, the nameserver object 'ns0.example.co.uk' will be modified to use the hostname 'ns2.example.co.uk' and the IP address 121.121.121.121. All domain names linked to this nameserver object will be affected by this modification.

Query nameserver operation

Query nameserver example:

In this example, the nameserver object 'ns0.example.co.uk' is queried.

Bulk replace nameservers

The syntax for the bulk operation will remain the same. However, the bulk replace nameserver function will be updated to link to existing nameserver objects.

Bulk replace nameservers example:

In this example all of the domain names on the tag which link to the 'ns0.example.co.uk' nameserver object will be attached to the 'ns1.example.co.uk' nameserver object instead:

Bulk attach nameservers

The syntax for the bulk operation will remain the same. However, the bulk attach nameserver function will be updated to link to existing nameserver objects.

Bulk attach nameservers example:

In this example, all of the domain names on the tag will be attached to 'ns0.example.co.uk' and 'ns1.example.co.uk'. If these nameservers do not exist in the database, then new objects will be created. Any existing nameserver links for these domain names will be severed:

Automaton templates

The following Automaton templates will be updated to remove references to deprecated nameserver identifier fields.

• Creating a domain name on an existing account
• Creating a domain name on a new account
• Modify domain
• Modify nameserver
• Query nameservers

Automaton responses

The following Automaton responses will be updated to remove references to deprecated nameserver identifier fields.

• Creating a domain name on an existing account
• Creating a domain name on a new account
• Modify domain
• Modify nameserver
• Query domain
• Query nameserver
• List

Notifications

The following notifications will be updated to remove references to deprecated nameserver identifier fields.

• Registrar change notification
• Registrar change authorisation request
• Registrant transfer notification
• Registrant transfer authorisation request
• Referral accepted notification

Deprecated nameserver identifier fields

Since we will only hold a single copy of each nameserver, the following fields will no longer be needed to identify specific nameserver objects. Instead, each nameserver will be identified by its hostname. The following fields will be ignored by the Automaton, with a warning given: