ACSP Consultation 2024.5: Consultation for the Retirement of FTP Protocol Use at ARIN

Consultation Tracking Information

Requested By: Staff
Status: Closed
Comments Opened: Linked to Discussion Archives: 20 September 2024
Comments Closed: 04 October 2024
Suggestion Number: n/a

Consultation Description

ARIN is seeking feedback from the community on retiring FTP protocol support, which serves data from ftp.arin.net. ARIN has operated an FTP protocol service for various reports and templates since its inception. All the data that is currently provided via FTP is also available over HTTP and HTTPS.

ARIN is working to remove redundant and seldom-used services to allow future efforts to focus on the improvement of core services, reduce residual technical debt, and increase our security posture. Removing the FTP protocol aligns with these objectives.

ARIN will not remove the data or change the existing directory structure. HTTP/HTTPS transport will continue to reference the data as it does today.

ARIN intends to remove FTP protocol support on or after 31 March 2025. We are interested in knowing:

If there are ARIN customers who have a reliance on FTP that cannot be satisfied by obtaining data from ARIN via HTTP/HTTPS?
Does setting the date for 31 March 2025 provide sufficient time for customers who use FTP to move to HTTP/HTTPS?

Please provide comments to arin-consult@arin.net. You can subscribe to this mailing list at https://lists.arin.net/mailman/listinfo/arin-consult.

This consultation will remain open until 5:00 PM ET on 4 October. ARIN seeks clear direction through community input, so your feedback is important. This information will help with our planning and decision making.

Thank you for your continued support to improve ARIN’s services.

Regards,

John Curran
President and CEO
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)

ARIN Actions

09 October 2024

From 20 September to 4 October, ARIN held a consultation seeking feedback from the community on retiring FTP protocol support, which serves data from ftp.arin.net. ARIN has operated an FTP protocol service for various reports and templates since its inception. The projected retirement date is on or after 31 March 2025, and it is noted that all data available via FTP is also available over HTTP and HTTPS.

After reviewing and discussing the comments received during the consultation, ARIN plans to move forward with work required to support the retirement of FTP. This includes coordinating with the other RIRs to ensure that the mirrors of the extended statistics data are migrated to HTTP/HTTPS, as well as determining an appropriate solution and implementing a method that will allow community members to run delta synchronization and mirroring of these data sets.

ARIN thanks those who provided valuable feedback on this consultation. We rely on this input from our members and community to help steer the organization as we continue our mission in support of the operation and growth of the Internet.