DNS root name servers drop in-addr.arpa

Today, Thursday 2011-02-24, starting at 1200 UTC, work will commence to decommission i.root-servers.net as one of the authoritative servers for in-addr.arpa, the international entry point for the part of the DNS database that translates IPv4 addresses to host names.

The in-addr.arpa zone was re-delegated by the IANA on 2011-02-18 in an effort to relieve the root name servers of some traffic load, and to make the design of important infrastructure DNS service cleaner and better adapted to the current Internet environment. The zone was moved from all root name servers (including i.root-servers.net) to a new set of servers, operated by the 5 regional Internet registries that handle the distribution of the IP address space. The new servers are already in full operation, servicing DNS requests regarding the same data. The logical following step is to remove the zone from all root name servers.

This event is orchestrated in close cooperation between the IANA, Verisign, the regional Internet registries, and the root name server operators.

I.root-servers.net was inaugurated on July 28, 1991, and has served the in-addr.arpa zone ever since. It will continue to operate as server for the absolute top of the DNS tree, i.e., the root zone ("."), as well as the arpa and the root-servers.net zones.