CAcert System Admins discussion list

[Ian G <iang AT cacert.org>]

On 27/08/2009 00:04, Mario Lipinski wrote:
> Christopher,
>
> Christopher Hoth [CAcert.org] schrieb:
> > do you heard, that there are not enough IP addresses for all they want
> > ones? ;)
> > When I would like to give my customer a few addresses, I must have a
> > reason for each one.. For details, see RIPE etc.
>
> So this is a RIPE limit?

Yes, they ask for an address plan, this trickles up from customer to ISP 
to "RIR".  See bottom.

> However, since the offer is from US, we must not care about RIPE. Do
> they have similar limits there?


ARIN in america is much the same as RIPE in europe, see below.  Long and 
short of it is this:

We ask for how many we want.  ISP may ask for an address plan.  So we 
might want to prepare an address plan in advance.  That's easy because 
we already know what we want.


> How is a physical host defined? MAC-Address?

I think that's irrelevant to this question, as it is defined at the 
agreement / ISP / address plan level.  But I'm happy to debate it over 
beers :)

iang




On 27 Aug 2009, at 11:54, Ian G wrote:

> PS: can anyone (offlist) summarise the
> current USA practice in ARIN/ISPs
> issuing ip4v numbers?  I ask for
> shameless offlist reasons, we at CAcert
> are negotiating a hosting deal in the
> USA and wondering how to hit the
> sponsor for more IP#s.

Ian, the system for getting IP addresses is broadly the same at each of 
the Regional Internet Registries. An organisation becomes a member of 
the RIR (ARIN in the case of N. America). When they need address space, 
they submit an address plan. ARIN checks this against previous 
allocations and usage made by the member. If the new request is in line 
with ARIN policy, the space is allocated and the RIR member is free to 
use it. Members discuss and determine policy: eg what percentage of an 
existing allocation has to be used before a new allocation is made, how 
big an initial allocation should be, etc, etc.

I presume your sponsor is the company providing the hosting service. 
They should have IPv4 space to assign to customers: ie you. Or can get 
it from their upstream ISP or, if they're an ARIN member, directly from 
ARIN. In both cases, the same general principle applies: you justify how 
much address space you need and they give it to you if the claim is 
reasonable.

If you have a good relationship with your sponsor, they might well just 
give you what you asked for with no further questions. They have enough 
free space available and accept that you do have a genuine need for all 
the IPv4 space you asked for. However if they have to go elsewhere to 
fulfil your request they will probably need an addressing plan from you 
because their provider or ARIN needs that to allocate the space. Some 
ISPs insist on addressing plans from every customer -- even the clueful 
trusted ones -- so that there's a single coherent process for managing 
and provisioning address space.

HTH