RSSAC061: Guidelines for Changing IP Addresses

This is an Advisory to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board of Directors and the Internet community more broadly from the ICANN Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC). In this Advisory, the RSSAC provides guidelines and expectations to root server operators (RSOs) and the Internet community regarding changing root server IP addresses.

The root name servers provide service on IP addresses specified as entries in DNS root sources described in RSSAC030. The addresses of the root servers change from time to time at the discretion of the individual root server operator (RSO). 

This publication defines guidelines for, and expectations on, RSOs regarding such address changes. The expectations on RSOs are similar to the expectations found in RSSAC001v2, and the expectations here might be incorporated into a later version of RSSAC001. The audiences of this publication are the RSOs (who are expected to follow its guidance), parties that need to maintain up-to-date root server addresses, and the members of the wider Internet community who are interested in the operation of the root server system (RSS).