This is a quick note about as-set's. First some background. For those that followed the ARIN to ARIN & ARIN-NONAUTH split a few weeks ago, you'll know that ARIN moved around 56% of all their IRR route/route6 objects into the ARIN-NONAUTH source database. This was based on objects that are not owned within ARIN managed space. For more on this; review the ARIN mailing lists and the video from their meeting a few weeks ago.
But what about all those as-set objects within ARIN IRR? This wasn't really reviewed heavily and so I thought, I'd dump some info everyone's-way. Yes there are objects and yes, some moved to ARIN-NONAUTH (and hence maybe aren't being used for route filtering anymore). First off - this data is based on the ARIN IRR database dump of 24/June/2020. You can find the current IRR data at ftp://ftp.arin.net/pub/rr/ - it's easy to download the dataset. Here's the raw numbers: $ gunzip < arin-nonauth.db.gz | egrep -i '^as-set:' | wc -l 154 $ gunzip < arin.db.gz | egrep -i '^as-set:' | wc -l 1413 $ Only around 154 as-set objects were placed into ARIN-NONAUTH. Around 9.8% of the total number of objects. Running a quick script against the RADB combined IRR database shows that of those 154 as-set objects that ARIN moved; there're 133 as-set objects that are only in ARIN-NONAUTH. An object with that name doesn't exist in any other IRR (like ARIN, ALTDB, RADB, etc.) Of the remaining 21 as-set objects, the object names (but maybe not the same content???) exist in various other IRR registries. As follows: AS-RAWBW | |ALTDB| | | AS-NFCR | |ALTDB|RADB| | AS-CTA |ARIN| | |RIPE| AS-27299 | | |RADB| | AS-33251-TRANSIT-CUSTOMERS | | |RADB| | AS-46844 | | |RADB| | AS-7349-TRANSIT-CUSTOMERS | | |RADB| | AS-ELI | | |RADB| | AS-MEEBO | | |RADB| | AS-MFT | | |RADB| | AS-28140 | | | |RIPE| AS-FUZENET | | | |RIPE| AS-MM | | | |RIPE| AS-NETLOGIC | | | |RIPE| AS-PCNET | | | |RIPE| AS-SVINE | | | |RIPE| AS-BLUENET | | |RADB|RIPE| AS-LIUXYON | |ALTDB| |RIPE| AS-NITAET | |ALTDB| |RIPE| AS-NITAETv6 | |ALTDB| |RIPE| AS-VIATEL | | |RADB|RIPE| I didn't try to check the content of these - but then again; comparing as-set's across IRRs is a thankless task - even in the best of days. So where does this leave us? We have various networks that own as-set's that are now potentially unavailable to upstreams or transit providers for creating customer filters. Keep in mind that ARIN-NONAUTH exists within RADBs IRR datasets - so it's possible that some upstream transits may use that data. Some may not. YMMV. Now onto the next step - answering that question. Of the 154 as-set objects, only 29 names appear in other as-set objects. (BTW: Thanks to "irrexplorer" for that information!). It does not mean that the 125 other entries are unused - they may be used; but not referenced by their transits (doubly so if the transit is a tier1). Focusing on the 29 that are referenced somewhere else; you end up with this listing showing the as-set object name that they appear in. If they appear in ARIN-NONAUTH that's kinda zero sum game. If they show as being referenced in other IRRs then there's hope - but not really, as they are ARIN-NONAUTH objects. Basically - however, you look at it; lesser filters are being created and maybe routing is affected. AS-23016:AS-BACKBONE ARIN-NONAUTH mentioned-in AS-23016 AS-23073 ARIN-NONAUTH mentioned-in AS-23073 AS-6653 RADB mentioned-in AS-COMCAST-IBONE AS-AHS LEVEL3 mentioned-in AS-BANDCON LEVEL3 mentioned-in AS-ISOMEDIA RADB mentioned-in AS-ISOFUSION AS-AS36412-CUSTOMERS ARIN-NONAUTH mentioned-in AS-AS36412-ALL AS-CBSI RIPE mentioned-in AS-TELIANETNA RIPE mentioned-in AS-TELIANETNA-V6 AS-CDSTEPHENS RIPE mentioned-in AS-4IXP AS-CRM-AR RIPE mentioned-in AS-TDATANETSA AS-FCH-Customers ARIN-NONAUTH mentioned-in AS-FCH AS-IMGIX NTTCOM mentioned-in AS2914:AS-US AS-IRONP-1 ALTDB mentioned-in AS-NLAYER-CUSTOMERS AS-LOGIN ARIN mentioned-in AS-DECIX-DFW ARIN mentioned-in AS-DECIX-DFW-V6 AS-MCBB-INTERNAL ARIN-NONAUTH mentioned-in AS-MCBB AS-MCBB-TRANSIT ARIN-NONAUTH mentioned-in AS-MCBB AS-MEDIA-HOSTS ALTDB mentioned-in AS-NETELLIGENT AS-MQCUSTOMERS ARIN-NONAUTH mentioned-in AS-MARQUISNET ARIN-NONAUTH mentioned-in AS35937:AS-MARQUISNET AS-PEACHNET RADB mentioned-in AS-DEFENSE AS-SAIX ARIN-NONAUTH mentioned-in AS-SAIX-ALLCUST BBOI mentioned-in AS-OCCAID6-CUSTOMERS RADB mentioned-in AS-MZIMA-CUSTOMERS RADB mentioned-in AS3491:AS-CUSTOMERS-EU RADB mentioned-in AS37271:AS-PEERS:AS5713 AS-SAIX-PEER ARIN-NONAUTH mentioned-in AS-SAIX-ALLCUST AS-SAIX-TRANSIT ARIN-NONAUTH mentioned-in AS-SAIX AS-SAIX-TRANSIT-ZA ARIN-NONAUTH mentioned-in AS-SAIX-ALLCUST BBOI mentioned-in AS-OCCAID6-CUSTOMERS AS-SELECTNET-TRANSIT ARIN-NONAUTH mentioned-in AS-SELECTNET AS-TELEFONICAMUNDO LEVEL3 mentioned-in AS-LEVEL3-POLICY-AS-SETS RIPE mentioned-in AS-TDATANETSA AS-TELNETCOMM RADB mentioned-in AS4470:AS-TORIX-PEERS AS13773:AS-CUSTOMERS ARIN-NONAUTH mentioned-in AS-TELNETCOMM AS19539:AS-IPO-US RIPE mentioned-in AS-IPO-EU AS21719:ASCUSTOMERS ARIN-NONAUTH mentioned-in AS21719:ASORIGIN AS21719:ASPEERS ARIN-NONAUTH mentioned-in AS21719:ASORIGIN AS6140:AS-CUSTOMERS BBOI mentioned-in AS-OCCAID6-CUSTOMERS (If I may interject with a commentary: what a mess!) I would urge anyone that sees their objects listed above to review their entries and if-possible delete/cleanup/consolidate whatever they have into just one IRR. I could continue deep-diving into this area; but it gets very messy very quickly. It's best to simply list what's going on and see if folks can help clean-up their own data. Summary: IRR cleanup is hard. Having *-NONAUTH database feels like a good thing; but just leaves more of a mess in the global tables. Happy IRR database hunting! Martin